CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Therapeutic abortion, or the medical
procedure that ends pregnancy to be able to spare the life of a woman, is
permitted in the Philippines, according to a women's health group.
The group put forth the statement in response to the anti-abortion
posture President Duterte conveying his State of the Nation Address.
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| Senator Pimentel (left), President Duterte (center), House of Representatives (Alvarez) |
“In Philippine jurisprudence, it is recognized that
therapeutic abortion is allowed to save the life of the woman,” lawyer Clara
Rita Padilla, EnGendeRights executive director, said.
“Even Fr. Joaquin Bernas, a constitutionalist and a priest,
has opined that abortion is allowed under the 1987 Constitution to save the
life of the woman. Legal medicine books by Filipino medico-legal writers
recognize the right to therapeutic abortions to preserve the life of the woman
and to preserve her health,” Padilla said in a statement.
“In law, practice and policy, therapeutic abortions are
allowed,” she asserted.
Among the female diseases or medical conditions for which
abortion might led to dwarfism, hypertensive disorders, tuberculosis, diabetes,
bronchial asthma, goiter, HIV, malaria, extreme iron deficiency and
malnutrition. These are illnesses that are harder to prevent among poor, rural
and young women, Padilla said.
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“Pregnant women who are less than 18 [years old] or [older]
than 35 years of age, have a fourth or more children, are battered by their
husbands or partners, and have spinal metal plates, may die from complications
from pregnancy and childbirth and may need access to safe abortion to save
their lives and prevent life-long disability,” she said.
Women who endured rape and incest frequently depend to
unsafe abortion, as indicated by Padilla.
“Abortion is common in the Philippines with about 70 women
inducing abortion every hour. Due to lack of access to safe and legal abortion,
three women die every day from unsafe abortion complications and 11 women are
hospitalized every hour,” Padilla said.
EnGendeRights has campaigned for safe and legal abortion to
spare the lives of women.
Padilla said one of the first judicial rulings on abortion
was the Supreme Court choice in the 1961 instance of Geluz v. CA. The court
handled this controversial topic when the doctor who performed an abortion on a
woman was sued for damages by her husband.
As per Padilla, several nations where Catholicism is
widespread have changed laws on abortion, leaving the Philippines as “one of a
handful countries worldwide which continue to penalize their women and
adolescent girls for having abortions.”
