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POSITION PAPER

IN SUPPORT OF THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE BILL

Reproductive health is a basic human right and it is the

obligation of the government to protect and facilitate the enjoyment of

this right.

Under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination against Women, to which the Philippines is a state-

party, the government should:

o Ensure access to specific educational information to help ensure

the health and well-being of families, including information and

advice on family planning (Article 10 (h));

o Take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against

women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis

of equality of men and women, access to health care services,

including those related to family planning (Article 12(1));

o Ensure, on the basis of equality of men and women, the same

rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and

spacing of their children and to have access to information,

education and means to enable them to exercise these rights

(Article 16 (1) e).

The Philippine government is not only remiss in promoting the

reproductive health and rights, particularly of women, but also places

barriers to the full attainment of this entitlement with the lack of an

integrated national policy on reproductive health.

SALIGAN calls for the enactment of a law on reproductive

health. It supports the Reproductive Health Care Bill.

The Reproductive Health Care Bill upholds the principle that

individuals and couples have the right to be fully in charge of

their reproductive decisions.

It guarantees the freedom of choice of every person over their

own bodies – whether or not they want to have children, how many

children they will have and the space between their births.

It promotes the right of women to reproductive self-

determination by ensuring that there is an enabling environment

where she can make informed decisions on how she...