Angel is a month shy of turning eighteen years old. Due to extreme poverty and their family size, (she is the second in a brood of six), she and her mother decided to seek employment as “kasambahay.” Angel was a business administration sophomore student in a state university. She is pretty, articulate, and indeed, seemed smart.
Angel told her would-be employer that she wanted to work for one year to save money so she could continue her education. They were accepted into the household with the employer feeling sorry for Angel because of her potential. She was told that if she performed well in six months, she would be helped to go back to school.
However, Angel’s work proved severely wanting. Barely a month after, her mother found out she was pregnant. It turned out that Angel had a boyfriend, another student younger than she was, and they were having unprotected sex. Her mother was grief-stricken and scared because her husband had no idea about the problem. Angel said her pregnancy is unplanned. However, her firm decision was to go live with her boyfriend’s equally-poor family. The boyfriend’s mother said Angel could go to them but even as they had yet to tell the boy’s father. Angel’s mother could not do anything about how the girl wanted to handle the situation.
Certainly, this girl’s life will drastically turn for the worse. There is little chance that she would finish her schooling. She will not be able to find a good job not only because of lack of education but also because she will need to take care of her baby. If she is not careful, she could get pregnant, again and again.
Angel is just one of the hundreds of thousands of Filipino girls who become pregnant yearly. Early pregnancies are quite common in the country particularly among the poor and those with less education. Our teenage pregnancy rates continue to be on the upswing and among the highest in the world even as the numbers are going down, internationally. Our girls’ lives are put in peril.
The problem of adolescent pregnancy is supposed to be significantly addressed with the passage of the reproductive health law almost five years ago. This is one of the law’s big promises. However, given the challenges the law faces, such promise cannot be fulfilled. The truth is, the RH law could not be fully implemented because of all the legal impediments it faced, and still face because of the Supreme Court’s seeming inclination to side with anti-RH groups as shown by most of its decisions.
To date, the SC Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against contraceptive implants and the August 2016 decision that even expanded the TRO coverage made the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) decisions appealable to the Court of Appeals which will surely result in a complicated and very long contraceptive registration process. They prevented the FDA from issuing new contraceptive registrations (if FDA will not accede to its conditions that are significantly detrimental to the carrying out of a modern family planning program) and, openly favored the protection of the life of the unborn over the mother’s life. These are still in effect.
Sadly, it seems that few among the staunch RH supporters among the Filipino people fully understand the catastrophic implications of these SC promulgations. This is evidenced by the absence of a strong public clamor demanding the lifting of the TRO and reversal of the August 2016 decision.
It appears that many RH advocates think that since the law is already there, it can now be fully implemented. At the heart of the RH law is the implementation of a comprehensive family planning program. This important program cannot be done with the existing SC decisions. In fact, because of these SC issuances, we might totally lose access to contraceptives, something that has never happened in the country from the time that family planning began more than half a century ago.
The Commission on Population (PopCom) has issued strong warnings about this. In a few years, if the SC does not reverse its decisions, there will be a total stock-out of contraceptives since government and private corporations will not be able to procure supplies without certification from the FDA. As of this year 62 percent of all registrations would have expired. Another 29 percent will expire in 2018 for a total of 91 percent, and by 2020, only 2 percent of present registrations will remain valid.
Even those who can buy contraceptives will not have access to these life-saving drugs.
The PopCom paper entitled, “Modified Philippine Demographic Scenario 2016-2022: The Impact of the Supreme Court TRO on Implanon and Implanon NXT Withdrawal” paints a bleak picture in terms of Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR), or the percentage of married women using family planning (both modern and traditional methods); Total Fertility Rate (TFR) which refers to the number of children a woman will have during her reproductive years; and total population.
According to this paper, the CPR if implants are available will be flat at 64.1 percent for the period 2016 to 2022 from 55.1 percent as of NDHS 2013. Without implants (because of the TRO), the CPR will be 55.97 percent for this year, and will be a flat 55.1 percent from 2018 to 2022. This means that without implants, the country will not have any improvement in terms of contraceptive use.
In terms of TFR, the study says that when implants are available, the TFR in 2019 to 2022 will be 2.3, down from the 2.8 data in 2015. Without implants, TFR will be 2.98 for the period 2020 to 2022. Note that studies point to the need to achieve a replacement level fertility of 2.1 to be able to reduce poverty levels to around 14 percent by 2022. This is achievable with implants as an option provided to women.
As far as total population is concerned, the projections are as follows: with implants, population in 2018 will be nearly 104.6 million, and 110.14 million in 2022. Without implants, the projections are 105.95M and 113.80M. Clearly, our population will significantly balloon because of the SC TRO.
It should be emphasized that this study is only on the withdrawal of implants. We can only imagine the scenario if ALL contraceptives will not be available. The PopCom estimates that as of now, an additional 500,000 unintended pregnancies have already occurred since the SC TRO. Moreover, the economic impact of teen-age pregnancy pegged at 33 billion pesos as well as the health impact since teenage pregnancy is high risk, should be cause for worry.
Angel, because of her early pregnancy is one of those whose lives are in danger. Millions of Filipino women’s lives may actually be more difficult without their intent but because of the Supreme Court decisions that subvert women’s rights.
We must clamor for the SC to reverse it. One way to easily support this call is by signing this online petition: bit.ly/lifttro one more, RH advocates need to act for the law to truly benefit women and our rights, upheld.
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