For decades, the public discourse around abortion in the Philippines has been trapped in a false and divisive dichotomy: the mother’s rights pitted against the rights of the unborn.
This framing is both morally manipulative and intellectually dishonest. It reduces a complex public health and social reality into an adversarial courtroom drama, while ignoring the systemic forces that truly endanger both women and potential life.
To frame decriminalization as an attack on the unborn misrepresents what the women’s health and human rights movements have stood for. The fight to decriminalize abortion is not a rejection of the value of life; rather, it is an insistence that life—in all its stages—must be protected through compassionate healthcare, environmental justice, and economic security, not through state-sponsored punishment and criminalization.
Beyond legal statements: How women’s movements protect life
Philippine law explicitly recognizes the rights of the unborn. The 1987 Constitution mandates that the state “shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.” The Civil Code recognizes conditional legal rights for the conceived child regarding support and inheritance, while the Revised Penal Code criminalizes abortion under all circumstances.
Yet, formal legal statements on paper do not automatically translate into real-world protection. Long before lawmakers passed symbolic pronouncements, women’s movements, community health workers, and grassroots advocates were doing the actual, concrete work of safeguarding maternal and child health.
It was grassroots advocacy that pushed for and secured landmark pro-mother and pro-child legislation, including:
- The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (RA 10354): Guaranteeing access to maternal care, birth control, and reproductive health education.
- The Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2010 (RA 10028): Protecting infant nutrition and working mothers.
- The Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act (RA 11148 / First 1,000 Days Law): Mandating comprehensive health and nutrition interventions from early pregnancy through a child’s second birthday.
- The Expanded Maternity Leave Law (RA 11210): Ensuring paid leave so mothers can recover and care for their newborns without losing their economic livelihoods.
- The Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act (RA 7610) and the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act (RA 9262): Protecting pregnant women and young children from physical, emotional, and economic abuse.
While criminal statutes sit passively on books, it is women’s organizations and community health programs that actively preserve lives on the ground through health education, antenatal clinics, and community support systems. (davaotoday.com)
(To be continued in Part 2: The Structural Threats to Potential Life and the Case for Decriminalization)
