Marcos Jr. favors legal abortion for rape, incest victims

Presidential aspirant and former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Tuesday said he is in favor of passing a law that would legalize abortion for women who are victims of rape and incest.

In an interview with Boy Abunda, Marcos said legal abortion should be allowed for "very severe cases."

"I think that if they can show that they were raped and it's not consensual sex that got them pregnant then they should have the choice to abort or not," he said.

"The other is incest, perhaps. If the mother, who is usually quite young, is not capable, has mental deficiencies or is just not capable emotionally to have a child, maybe those are the cases that we can say that abortion can be justified," he added.

"The bottom line, when it comes to the subject of abortion, it is a woman's decision because it is her body," he also said.

Marcos explained it was important to distinguish the conditions when women can resort to legal abortion as an option "so that we don't get stuck in the moral issue of playing god on when life begins."

"To avoid that, we can make it very distinct — rape victim, if the mother's life is in danger.  Incest, maybe that is another possibility, but beyond, that I don’t think we can do more," he said.

Abortion is still prohibited in the Philippines.

Individuals proven involved in inducing an abortion may be punished with up to six years of imprisonment.—LDF, GMA News