Philippine population is over 110 million. About 600,000 Filipino women get abortions every year, and many turn to unlicensed doctors, use folk medicine, or attempt to self-induce.
Abortion in China and most countries is legal and done by medical professionals. In contrast, there are twenty-four countries where abortion is illegal, including the Philippines.
We will review the arguments for abortion and against abortion.
We will cover the "pro choice" info first:
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Filipino women have a difficult choice: either give birth to a child they may not be able to care for, try to find someone to raise the child for them, or obtain an abortion illegally.
There are medical conditions where you have to abort the baby to save the life of the mother. Example: Ectopic pregnancies --these make up about 2.7% of all pregnancy-related deaths.
Sometimes the woman is raped and does not want to raise the child. Sometimes there is incest.
Also perhaps she doesn't want anyone to know she is pregnant --so she wants an early abortion to hide her pregnancy.
Sometimes the woman or her family has no money for raising a child or the father leaves the pregnant mother and doesn't want to be responsible financially or emotionally.
In countries where abortion is illegal, a desperate pregnant woman might have instruments into their cervix and uterus to cause an abortion, or take unregulated medications. This could lead to health complications including the death of the mother.
And lastly the pro-choice movement asks, "Is pregnancy from rape or incest truly a Gift from God?"
If abortions are illegal, it means the government, not the parents, are the boss of the decision. But a boss that is often ignored.
Here are the pro-life points.
Life begins at conception, making abortion murder. Legal abortion says to the world that "Life is disposable, not sacred."
Each and every human life has inherent dignity, and thus must be treated with the respect due to a human person.
I know we are not going to get rid of abortion. There are some things we can do to lower the rates, however. We should reform the adoption and foster care system. We should make childbirth free.
If we can increase sexual education, access to birth control, health insurance for all mothers, and improve our adoption systems we can decrease both legal and illegal abortions internationally.
Adoption
What are the requirements to adopt a child in the Philippines?
Who may adopt? A Filipino citizen who is at least 21 years of age and is at least 16 years older than the child to be adopted; in possession of full civil capacity and legal rights and in a position to support and care for his/her children (legitimate or illegitimate) in keeping with the means of the family.
Currently, families in our Philippines Adoption Program wait an average of 9.4 months to be matched with their child upon submitting their contract.
About 1.8 million children in the country, more than 1% of its entire population, are “abandoned or neglected”, according to the United Nations' Children's Rights & Emergency Relief Organization.
Moreover, there was an average of only 139 Filipino orphan children adopted per year from 2014 to 2018.
According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, around 2,191 children have been placed for domestic adoption between the years of 2010 to 2018. The Philippines Orphanage Foundation stated are at least 2 million orphaned children.
Obviously, we have an extremely serious problem here that needs remedies immediately.
Money
If the Catholic Church would work with the government financially to provide for the children when the mother is not in a financially-stable situation, this will dramatically reduce the need for an abortion. After all, the church is greatly responsible for the high birth rate in this country.
The father
Lastly the father, if absent from the relationship, needs to be considered and contacted about the intended abortion. Perhaps he can take charge of the baby either physically or financially.