Likhaan and the Struggle for Reproductive Rights in the Philippines

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Organizing

Likhaan has always nurtured women’s organizations and youth groups from the communities where they are active. These groups have been involved in both national and local advocacy work as well as addressing the social determinants of health such as housing and non-discrimination. Youth groups are active in areas such as peer sex education and LGBTQ rights—radical in a predominantly Catholic country. A major success story has been the establishment of PiLaKK, a growing federation of 20 of these community-based organizations with over 4,000 members. PiLaKK gives communities a stronger voice and the opportunity to pool resources and learn from each other. Members have been active in initiatives such as the “reproductive health sentinels” where they are trained to look for and identify obstetric and other medical emergencies in the community and provide appropriate assistance. Likhaan’s organizing work has helped women and youth from extremely impoverished communities have an important voice in debates and take part in activities that can profoundly affect the quality of their lives.

Research-based Advocacy

In a 2009 brief written in conjunction with the University of the Philippines Population Institute and the US-based Guttmacher Institute, Likhaan issued the following statement:

Currently, more than half of all pregnancies in the Philippines are unintended—that is, they occur too soon, too close together or after a couple already has as many children as they want. Consequently, many women give birth to more children than they want or can care for, and others turn to unsafe abortion. Maternal and infant mortality are unacceptably high, especially among disadvantaged women—those who are poor, live in rural areas or have little education.

Perhaps the most important development in the Philippines today in the area of reproductive health and rights is the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. For many advocates its enactment will be the culmination of decades of struggle. Providing healthcare is a shared responsibility in the Philippines between the national government and municipalities called local government units (LGUs). The LGUs determine budget allocations, including to contraception, creating a very poor national patchwork of delivery and support for family planning services.

Since 2000, as a consequence of the Catholic Church’s influence, there has effectively been a ban on the provision of contraceptives in Manila—in contravention of both the Filipino Constitution and obligations under international treaties. With a population of just under two million, the results have been devastating, particularly for poor women. The impacts are documented in a 2007 report Imposing Misery: The Impact of Manila’s Ban on Contraception co-authored by Likhaan in collaboration with two other organizations.

In 2004, these impacts were compounded by wide-ranging public sector cuts to the provision of contraception, due in part to USAID’s withdrawal of support for family planning as well as the then President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s fundamentalist views. The national budget supported only Catholic Church-approved natural family planning methods, not “artificial” contraceptives. Private sector procurement of contraceptives by women surged almost three fold and surveys indicated that cost was a significant barrier to contraceptive use.  Likhaan’s research found that “three in 10 Filipino women at risk for unintended pregnancy do not practise contraception. These women account for nearly seven in 10 unintended pregnancies.” Though the policy context has changed, the damage has been done.

The RH Bill

Enter the Reproductive Health Bill. Provisions in the RH Bill would mandate national and local support for safe and legal modern methods of family planning, access to emergency obstetric care for women as well as pre- and post-natal care, access to non-judgmental care for post-abortion complications (despite the illegality of abortion in the Philippines), and health and sexuality education for youth. Proponents believe that these reforms would promote equity for women, significantly reduce maternal and child mortality and decrease unintended pregnancies. The RH Bill could reduce an astonishing 2,000 maternal deaths annually.