Letter to President Noynoy Aquino on RH

From the Women, Men, and Youth of the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN)

30 September 2010

Dear President Noy,

I write to you in behalf of RHAN, a coalition of over 40 national and MetroManila-based organizations, counting over 10,000 members throughout the country including community-based mass organizations whose members are poor. Many of us are part of the over 10 million Filipinos using different methods of Family Planning at this point in our reproductive lives. We use FP not because we want to avoid the serious responsibility of having children, but because we love our children very much that we wish to give them the dedicated attention that they need and deserve.

We use Family Planning methods not to thwart the wishes of God, who in the perspective of those of us who are ardent believers, is a loving and nonjudgmental God, a God who appreciates us for the good that we do to others, not for the loud and empty proclamations of moral purity and superiority.

RHAN lauds you for your intuition and heart for the poor. It is the poor who continue to have at least 2 children more than they want to have; the poor who use as much FP as the rich except for surgical sterilization, which they cannot afford; the poor who die from the complications of pregnancy and delivery, including abortion – which is the tragic consequence of women being unable to control their fertility. Denying poor women and men the Family Planning supplies and services that they so badly want and need condemns them to greater poverty, hardship, poor health and sometimes death. It spells the same fate for their children.

Family Planning is among the cheapest and most effective health interventions ever designed, comparable to mosquito nets for malaria and anti-TB drugs. It is also a life-saving intervention estimated to prevent at least 30 per cent of maternal deaths and an equally significant number of neonatal deaths through the prevention of unplanned pregnancies and deliveries. It is a basic component of primary health care in almost all countries of the world, the exceptions being war-ravaged countries where the health system – like other government institutions – are in shambles; and in religious fundamentalist countries where women and children’s safety are sacrificed in the name of religious ideology. Family Planning use is high in Catholic countries in Latin America (Mexico, Colombia and Brazil) and among the Philippines’ Southeast Asian neighbors (Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia). The Philippines’ low rate of FP use, especially of effective FP methods, is one reason why we have difficulty attaining the Millennium Development Goals.

As a presidential candidate, you displayed strength of character when you professed support for Family Planning and condoms while your other competitors kept quiet, vacillated or turned around when the bishops applied pressure. We need you to display that firmness once more in the face of the moralism, the tantrums, threats and blackmail by the bishops.

Please, Mr. President, assure us that our government will have a strong reproductive health program that supports and keeps safe women who want to be pregnant, but also assists and provides FP to those who want to plan their every pregnancy. Please ensure that Congress funds these measures and that DOH effectively and responsively implements the FP program.

We, in RHAN, are behind you every inch of the way.

Junice L. Demeterio-Melgar, M.D.
Executive Director, Likhaan Center for Women’s Health
Secretary-General of RHAN