Zero budget for birth control exposes young women to unsafe pregnancies —Oxfam

The struggle has not ended for reproductive health advocates after Congress moved to reappropriate the P1 billion allocation for contraceptives from the Department of Health's (DOH) budget.

In response, the DOH lamented the difficulty of implementing the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act (RPRH Law) and said that they would once again be dependent on donors. Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, a vocal supporter of the law, called the axing of the budget "immoral."

Her thoughts are echoed and expanded by Nina Somera, gender adviser of Oxfam Philippines. Oxfam is an international confederation of organizations dedicated to empowering women to help end poverty.

Somera says that the zero budget for contraceptives exposes women and even young girls to unwanted and unsafe pregnancies.

The RPRH Law could have been instrumental in saving the lives of women who live in areas that are mountains or islands away from hospitals, but as it stands, they are now once again at the mercy of limited public health services.

According to Somera, the budget cut won't help address the distressing statistics across the Philippines such as one out of 10 young women aged 15 to 19 becamce a mother in 2014.

Data from the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) show that 53 out of 1,000 births in 2011 were from that age group, too.

"In fact, we have seen an alarming 70% increase of teenage pregnancy in just one decade, which also covered the period when the Reproductive Health Bill was repeatedly rejected by Congress," Somera said in a letter shared with GMA News Online.

"By the time the RH Bill was enacted in 2012, UNFPA raised the estimate of the number of women who are dying every day due to unsafe pregnancy from 11 deaths to 14 deaths per day," she added.

Like many women's rights advocates, Somera welcomed the government's earlier support for responsible parenthood, but lambasted this recent move to withdraw funding from the reproductive health programs.

"About half of the rising number of the poor consists of women and girls who still encounter more forms of discrimination and require more resources to address the needs of their bodies," Somera said, before continuing with her criticism of the budget cut.

"The manner of slashing this resource — which caught advocates even within the government by surprise — smacks of betrayal," she added.

‘Disservice to the poor’

Meanwhile, former president Fidel V. Ramos said that the huge budget cut is a "disservice to the poor."

"If indeed, no allocation was provided for family planning services, the government will be in violation of the reproductive health rights of Filipinos under the RPRH Law which clearly indicates that the government must provide free family planning services to those who want it. We all know that it is the poor who need and demand F(amily) P(lanning) services," the former president added. Ramos is also an Eminent Person in the Forum for Family Planning and Development, Inc.

In defense of their decision, Senate Finance Committee chair Loren Legarda stated that the budget cut does not equate to a withdrawal of support for the program.

"A cut in the budget does not mean less support for a program. We also see the need to increase funds of other agencies for equally important programs," said Senator Loren Legarda said in a statement released on her website Saturday.

Legarda is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance.

"We reduce the budget of some programs to allow for the improvement of other programs," Legarda said.

Legarda, who is also an RH advocate, said that part of the money that would have gone towards the contraceptives fund will now be used to bolster the air assets of the Department of National Defense. —NB/KG, GMA News