Where have all the free pills gone? — Manila tries to undo suppression

By CLAIRE DELFIN, GMA News

Ten children, and finally, housewife Edna Morado got contraceptive pills.

In what seemed to be a sigh of relief, Morado took a deep breath as she showed off the contraceptive pills she got for free at the Family Planning Fair held last month in Manila. At 41, she knows she can still get pregnant, something that she’s no longer willing to do.

“Saan ba napunta ang libreng pills na ito (Where have all these free pills gone)?" Morado asked, saying that she was affected by the nine straight years of contraception ban in the city of Manila. Without the benefit of a public hearing, then-mayor Lito Atienza, who believes that artificial methods of family planning are immoral, implemented the ban during his entire term of office.

Access to contraceptive pills is simply a luxury for Morado whose family income could barely provide food on the table.

Like Morado, Agnes Solamo rushed to the Fair too and had an intrauterine device or IUD for free. She is 38 and has seven children. “Tama na ang pito. Namamasura lang ang asawa ko (Seven is enough. My husband only makes a living by scavenging through garbage)."

Under the new leadership, the local government of Manila now embarks on a strong campaign for population management, effectively lifting the contraception ban in the city.

Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno says part of its campaign is the reproductive health bill earlier filed before the City Council. “We are really hoping it will be passed soon. The people need it. Our resources always come in wanting, given a huge population."

Manila has a population of more than 1.66 million and counting, the second largest in the National Capital Region, next to Quezon City.

Lifting Misery

After having been put out of action during the years of the contraception ban, the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) says the Fair it organized along with the Manila City Health Department was a sweet victory.

The Fair coincides with this year’s World Population Day theme, “Family Planning is a Right: Let’s Make It Real." It gathered volunteer doctors and health workers who provided family planning information and free services and supplies to at least two hundred mothers who came.

“It was also a concrete step in lifting misery in the city," says Dr. Junice Melgar, head of RHAN's Legislative and Policy Committee, alluding to a fact-finding report entitled, Imposing Misery.

The report, published by non-government organizations Likhaan, ReproCen and the New-York based Center for Reproductive Rights, provides a comprehensive study on how the prohibition of family services and supplies in all of the city’s health centers and public hospitals impacted the lives of Manila’s poor.

It reveals cases of physical, emotional and financial suffering especially among poor women. One of them is a 35-year old mother of 10 from Vitas, Tondo. She had nine children during the incumbency of Mayor Atienza. When she almost died in childbirth, she told herself: Ten children are too many and too much. She then painstakingly saved 60 pesos so she could travel from Manila to Malabon where she received a free service for an IUD.

RHAN is an umbrella organization of some 40 groups lobbying for reproductive health and rights in the Philippines. One of its main objectives is the passage of a national legislation on reproductive health that has been sitting in Congress for the last 15 years amid strong opposition from conservative groups, particularly the Catholic Church.

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