Prolonging misery: Manila's contraceptives ban

by David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com

MANILA  - It has been described as one of the most oppressive city orders to discriminate against women. Reproductive health advocates say it violates not just the Philippine Constitution but various international conventions that the Philippines is party to -- including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the non-binding Beijing Platform for Action.

While other less affluent Philippine cities have passed their own reproductive health policies, the country's capital of Manila has effectively banned artificial contraception in public health centers and hospitals, depriving many women, especially the poor, of their main source of affordable family planning supplies.

Former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza passed Executive Order (EO) 003 in 2000 while he was still mayor. The order, while not an outright ban on artificial contraceptives, was interpreted as such -- with many government-sponsored hospitals and health centers removing condoms, birth control pills and sterilizations from their list of services.

Nine years later, the controversial EO remains in effect despite a legal challenge mounted by a group of 20 Manila residents before local courts.

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Junice Melgar, executive director of Linangan ng mga Kababaihan (Likhaan), said the SWS survey results are an indictment of EO 003, and shows a "dissonance between the pulse of the people and the policymakers."

She said poor women in Manila interviewed by Likhaan related how the lack of information on other methods of family planning resulted in poverty, poor health of children, and even strained relationships of couples.

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