Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law

(Republic Act No. 10354)

The spirit of the Republic Act No. 10354 was to allow women to choose freely whichever
method of family planning they see fit. As countries become richer, females bear fewer and
fewer children while it was common for our grand-grandparents to have 6 to 7 children, most
couples today settle for just 2 to 3 kids. The reason for this global phenomenon is simple: as
women enjoy greater economic opportunities, larger incomes, and empowerment (in a broad
sense), rearing children becomes more and more costly – both in terms of money and time. (JC
PUNONGBAYAN October18.2018) “The fewer the children the easier to invest in all of them
and give them good education,” he said (Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia)

Many women today still find it difficult to achieve their desired fertility, especially poor women
because of lack of knowledge. This much is true in the Philippines, as reported by the 2017
National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). The latest data of (NDHS) shows that the
poorest fifth of Filipino women not only have the most number of children on average, but they
also have the highest level of “unwanted fertility,” or the gap between actual and desired number
of children. And that shows of how much we need the contraceptives. But the percentage of
women who want to space or limit childbearing are not using any contraceptive method –
otherwise referred to as “unmet demand” for RH goods and services – is also highest among the
poorest (unmet need for family planning is highest from the poorest income group)
Because of lack of access: not only are RH goods and services unaffordable to many poor
women, but supplies may also be dearer near where they live. Information about the use and
effectiveness of such products also does not reach many of the poor. The government must be
aggressive in implementing the RPRH law by providing better access to family planning services
and contraceptives. (https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/09/09/1849870/neda-chief-urges-
full-implementation-rh-law#KUCBEvZWzpW3mvtd.99)
Most of those in the relationship are not ready to have a child and make an abortion. Abortion is
common in the Philippines with about 70 women inducing abortion every hour and about 11
women hospitalized every hour from unsafe abortion complications in 2012. Unsafe abortion is
the third leading cause of maternal death and is a leading cause of hospitalizations, says (Atty.
Clara Rita Padilla Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network on June.19,2018)

The main reason of this research is to bring awareness towards Responsible Parenthood and
Reproductive health Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10354) that contraceptives are made to be
available for free and that information about family planning can be made easily accessible at
public hospitals. It will not affect their decision on choosing the size of their family. And it is not
only for sake of the health of our young women and mother but also for the future of their
children.
Reproductive Health as a Law

Four years after when the reproductive health law was passed in the debate, but this is not
being implemented across the country because of the anti-pro of local officials. There is an
investigation of human rights which started in march and found out that some local government
“disregard and disrespect” the women’s choice of family planning methods even if supplies are
available. In manila they continue to give fund for the artificial contraceptives although it does
not ensure access their distribution. The responsible parenthood and reproductive health Act of
2012 offers reproductive health care services for family planning like maternal, infant and child
health services to help mother or parents. The commissioner Karen Gomez and Gwen Pimentel-
Gana says that there is a direct campaign in Sorsogon City saying that the artificial
contraceptives can cause cancer and abortion. In this campaign, some see the disinformation or
misinformation about artificial contraceptives. Base on the study of commission on Human
Rights (CHR), they found that the low income of women, rural women, indigenous women
disabilities, lesbian, bisexual, transwomen and even Muslim women continue to suffer
discrimination, disinformation and misinformation about use of contraceptives. When women are
deprived of correct information on reproductive health and rights, there is also violation of
women’s right, said by CHR commissioner. There is excess on Reproductive Health (RH)
commodities on the facilities that was visited by CHR except in Sorsogon City. Gana says that
despite of RH Law harrowing the reality is that the Philippines continue to have one of the
highest maternal mortality rates in Asia-pacific region. Because of misconception of the people,
the reproductive health matters must not be allowed to continue and the much influence of
government and policies must be lessened (Pazzibugan, 2016).
KUHA KO LANG TO YANG NASA TAAS YUNG SYNTHESIS PINASA KAY DOC VIC

In Republic act 10354, or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012. The
key objectives included in the act were public access to relevant information and education on
medically safe legal, ethical, affordable, effective and quality reproductive health services,
methods, devices and supplies. It is also tells that the government would provide sex education to
public schools students ages 10 to 19 on the awareness of reproductive health. I n the Roman
Catholic Churches hierarchy, surveys said that they were 70 percent of its own adherents agreed
to the use of contraceptives by public and sex education for the youth. The law continued to
criminalize abortion, does not provide free access to contraception and it allows sex education on
religious grounds. RH bill limits its access of contraception to just 5 million household that were
identified poor. In official 2012 economic growth it estimate that 6.6 percent of the population
suffering in poverty and continues to rise over 50 percent and unemployed remains at 11 percent.
The country has more than103 million people or the 12th largest population in the world. Because
of the contradiction of the church to the state about contraceptive, the perception of the people to
contraception is different. The reproductive rights reported that an estimated 560,000 abortion
every year are being performed in the back part of the clinic and an estimating1, 000 dying due
to the crude method and painful use. Because of the economic crisis the RH bill are formed. This
solution is created by the senate to reduce the case of abortion and to control the population, but
the church disagrees with the RH law. (Pastran, 2013) This article showed the rights on the
people on free access to contraceptives to control the economic crisis here in the Philippines. In
now present year the Department of Health plans the distribution of condoms in school as part of
its business unusual strategy to reduce the sharp rise in the number of HIV and AIDS among the
young people in the Philippines. And also, DOH wants to teach parent to have safe sex at home
as part of the strategy. The Department of Education will counsel the students first before the
distribution of contraceptives. Because the rising of the HIV and AIDS cases the head of the
Episcopal Commissions on health care of the Catholic Bishop Conference urged the youth to do
their part in educating in the public on the occasion of the world AIDS day. The DOH considered
the distribution of condoms in school as a call for the attention of the world health organization
(WHO) to make HIV self-testing kits available to the public. (Enano, Aurelio & Santos)
The following challenges appear to cut across the different KRAs: (a) limited government
capacity to manage programs at scale asshown by itsinability to fully absorb budgets and
accelerate service provision at required level; (b) weak research and development that leads to
poor design of and implementation of programs, as shown by gaps in the understanding of
specific drivers of diseases like HIV; (c) uneven LGU(Local Government Unit ) support that
leads to variation in local performance on ASRH(Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health),
MNCHN(Maternal, Neonatal, Child Health and Nutrition), FP (Family Planning)and other RH
services; (d) weak monitoring and evaluation system which impedes the regular collection and
use of a standard set of reliable data needed to accurately monitor and evaluate performance
across different KRAs, and (d) legal barriers such as the SC(supreme court) TRO that threatens
the future supply of contraceptives, and prevents effective delivery of FP programs.
A possible explanation isthat health strategies, programs and projects have relatively long
gestation period, hence, it takes time before these are implemented at scale and their effects on
RPRH outcomes are realized. It is also likely that poor health outcomes are indicative of bigger
underlying problems like poverty and the fragmentation of service delivery and financing owing
to devolution. In this case, a more comprehensive multispectral approach may be necessary to
see significant improvements in RPRH outcomes. Meanwhile, the high rates of maternal and
neonatal mortality, adolescent pregnancy, increasing HIV prevalence and growing number of
VAWC (Violence Against Women and Children) cases, among others, 3rd Annual Report on the
Implementation on the RPRH Act of 2012 10 underscore the need to revisit the direction and
strategies being used in the last three KRAs (Key Results Area)

Recently, the President issued Executive Order (EO) No. 12 mandating the attainment of
couples’ desired family size through the strengthening of the FP program and the empowerment
of families against poverty. The DOH and POPCOM (Commission on Population)may use this
as opportunity to exact stronger multisectoral commitments to aggressively scale up
MNCHN(Maternal, Neonatal, Child Health and Nutrition), FP, ASRH, HIV and VAWC service
delivery, with corresponding multi-year budgets to ensure uninterrupted service delivery in the
short to medium term. While collaboration mechanisms among various government agencies,
private sector, CSOs (Civil Society Organization )and development partners have been forged,
agency or institutional accountabilities have to be regularly monitored by an oversight agency to
enforce and speed up compliance to their respective mandates in the RPRH Law.