Abortion is a reality for Filipino women.

The illegality of abortion has not deterred Filipino women

from inducing unsafe abortion. It has only made it dangerous for them where estimates in 2012
show that 610,000 women resorted to abortion, over 100,000 women were hospitalized and 3
women die every day due to unsafe abortion complications.
Just this August, Maria (not her real name), a 21-year old rape victim who became pregnant as
a result of the rape with a child with dwarfism condition, died a day after giving birth due to
childbirth complications. Her mother lamented that her daughter might be alive today had her
daughter been able access to safe and legal abortion.
I have interviewed many poor women who divulged risking their health and lives by self-
inducing abortion using catheters or dispensing drugs without proper dosage and supervision
eventually suffering complications.
Such cases are common in our country where over half of the pregnancies are unintended, and
about 17% and one-third of the unintended pregnancies end in abortion nationwide and in the
National Capital Region, respectively, and where two-thirds of those who induce abortion are
poor.
Views, religion, and abortion
The 2004 national survey on abortion showed that nearly 90% of those who induce abortion are
Catholic. Regardless of Church teachings, Filipino women still resort to abortion with the poor,
rural and young women being the most vulnerable to self-induced unsafe abortion.
Although the Reproductive Health (RH) Law provides humane, non-judgmental, compassionate
post-abortion care and, a law known as RA 8344 provides for stabilizing patients in serious
cases such as when a woman is bleeding due to complications from self-induced
unsafe abortion, making abortion safe and legal is the best means for women who resort
to abortion to be assured that their health and lives are not at risk.
Even with RA 8344, the problem, in the past years and until now, is that some medical health
care providers erroneously deny life-saving procedures even in cases of intrauterine fetal death
where therapeutic abortion is needed to save the life of the woman.
In cases of ectopic pregnancy where the pregnancy occurs outside the uterine cavity, surgery is
necessary to save a woman’s life. Within a few hours from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, the
abdomen becomes rigid and the woman goes into shock. Ectopic pregnancy is a life-
threatening, emergency condition requiring immediate surgery.
Expressing negative views on abortion is dangerous because it maintains the status quo where
many medical providers threaten women with prosecution in cases of intrauterine fetal death,
spontaneous abortion, abortion due to trauma from intimate partner violence and self-
induced abortion.
As a consequence of these threats of prosecution, women end up dying because they delay
going to hospitals or do not seek emergency medical care at all.
Judgmental views about known abortifacients such as Cytotec must be eliminated because
these are lifesaving medications necessary for the evacuation of the uterus for
incomplete abortion, missed abortion, intrauterine fetal death, severe eclampsia, labor induction,
post-partum hemorrhage, and cervical ripening prior to obstetrical/gynecological procedures
such as therapeutic curettage and insertion of intrauterine devices.
Abortion and law
The current criminal law on abortion is an outdated colonial law that violates the rights to health
and life of Filipino women.
It was a direct translation of the old Spanish Penal Code of 1870s that used to
criminalize abortion—in the time of the Spanish friars and conquistadores. Without knowing the
full consequences of such a harsh and restrictive law, our Congress enacted the criminal
provision in our Revised Penal Code of 1930.
At the time the law was adopted, Filipino women did not even have the right to vote, there was no
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and no international human rights treaties such as the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1976), the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1976), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1981), Convention Against Torture (CAT, 1987), and
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1990). These came much later.
Denying women access to safe and legal abortion is a means to control women’s bodies, propagating
subordination of women where women’s decisions including personal decisions related to pregnancy and
childbirth are totally disregarded.

https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispeak/105680-reality-abortion-philippines
Published 12:13 PM, September 13, 2015
Updated 12:13 PM, September 13, 2015
Suicide snatches one life every 40 seconds
By
 Henrylito D. Tacio
 -
October 11, 2018
TEACHERS are supposed to be pillars of education but some of them were making headlines recently for
committing suicide. There was Emylou Malate, a 21-year-old grade-school teacher of Bagacay West
Primary School in La Paz, Leyte.  She reportedly committed suicide by hanging herself.
Another one was Jay Rubina, a public-school teacher, who also committed suicide but gave some hint a
few weeks before his death.
“We don’t have a good data on suicide in the Philippines but in 2012, there were 2,550 recorded
suicides,” Undersecretary Herminigildo Valle of the Department of Health was quoted as saying   in one
of the daily newspapers in the country last June.
If that’s frightening, the statistics worldwide is even more scary.  Every 40 seconds, someone dies by
suicide, according to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO).
“Every year, close to 800,000 people take their own life and there are many more people who attempt
suicide,” the United Nations health agency reported. “Every suicide is a tragedy that affects families,
communities and entire countries, and has long-lasting effects on the people left behind.”
Most of these suicides occur in industrialized countries like the United States and Japan, as these are
oftentimes reported in the media.  Suicides in developing countries are low because they are not always
reported.
“Suicide does not just occur in high-income countries, but is a global phenomenon in all regions of the
world,” the WHO pointed out.  “In fact, over 79 percent of global suicides occurred in low- and middle-
income countries in 2016.”
An earlier WHO report said the Philippines has suicide rates (per 100,000) of 2.5 for men and 1.7 for
women. This fact may be appalling for Filipinos, but the numbers are way too small compared to those in
Western countries.
In fact, the Philippines has one of the world’s lowest suicide rates.  The 2000 Philippine Health Statistics
from the health department showed only 1.8 per 100,000 people to have inflicted harm on themselves.   In
comparison, European countries had the highest figures, which ranged from 30 to 42 per 100,000.
According to the WHO, approximately 32 percent of the world’s suicides occur in the Western Pacific
region, of which the Philippines is a part of. “While acknowledged as an important and neglected health
issue, it remains a low priority in most Western Pacific countries due to competing health problems,
stigma and poor understanding of the condition,” wrote Maria Theresa Redaniel, May Antonnette
Lebanan-Dalida and David Gunnell, authors of Suicide in the Philippines: Time Trend Analysis (1974-
2005) and Literature Review.
Dr. Dinah Nadera, a psychologist at the University of the Philippines Open University, told the Philippine
Daily Inquirer that suicides happened between 8:01 in the morning and noon on weekdays, “when other
people were not around in their homes.”  The information was based from studies made on 300 cases
from hospitals and police reports in 2008 and 2009.  
Least suicides occurred between 12:01 and 4 a.m., the studies found.
All in all, there may be more Filipinos who committed suicide than what was being recorded. “Certainly,
the actual rate in the Philippines is probably higher, with many doctors agreeing not to report deaths as
suicides because of the stigma. But even if we could get the true figure, it would probably still be
relatively low,” Dr. Michael Tan wrote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Suicide, the process of purposely ending one’s own life, has always been viewed negatively in most
culture. But not in Asia, where 60 percent of all the suicide deaths in the world are reported from. In fact,
two of the countries with relatively huge suicide rates are Japan and South Korea, which have a very high
level of competition that starts right from childhood.
“Although some attempted or completed suicides come as a shock even to family and friends, clear
warnings are given in most cases,” points out The Merck Manual of Medical Information.
“Any suicide threat or suicide attempt is a plea for help and must be taken seriously. If the threat or
attempt is ignored, a life may be lost.” 
Suicides come in various forms. “It is estimated that around 20 percent of global suicides are due to
pesticide self-poisoning, most of which occur in rural agricultural areas in low- and middle-income
countries,” the WHO said. “Other common methods of suicide are hanging and firearms.” 
In the Philippines, a study showed that the methods of committing suicide included shooting oneself, 40
percent; hanging, 30 percent; poisoning, 16.7 percent; and jumping from high places, 13.3 percent.  In 73
percent of the reported cases, suicide was committed in their own homes.
Sen. Joel Villanueva pointed out during a Senate hearing last year that 46 percent of the total suicide
cases recorded since 2010 were from the youth. Filipino children as young as 10 years old resort to
suicide because of depression, he said. 
Suicide is generally equated with mental health. “While the link between suicide and mental disorders [in
particular, depression and alcohol use disorders] is well established in high-income countries, many
suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life
stresses, such as financial problems, relationship breakup or chronic pain and illness,” the WHO said.
In addition, experiencing conflict, disaster, violence, abuse, or loss and a sense of isolation are strongly
associated with suicidal behavior, it added.
Studies have also shown that suicide rates are also high among the vulnerable groups who experience
discrimination, such as refugees and migrants; indigenous peoples; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
intersex persons; and prisoners.
“By far the strongest risk factor for suicide is a previous suicide attempt,” the WHO affirmed. 
But deaths could be avoided if only the person who wants to end his or her life could have someone to
lean on. “When a person is positive to having suicide thoughts and killing himself or herself, people
around should take action by never leaving someone suicidal on their own and removing the means
of suicide available to the person if it is safe to do so,” the WHO said.
“It’s important to realize that suicide is preventable,” the UN health agency said.  “And that having access
to the means of suicide is both an important risk factor and determinant of suicide.”
In a press statement, the WHO talked about some protective factors, which include high self-esteem and
social “connectedness,” especially with family and friends, having social support, being in a stable
relationship, and religious or spiritual commitment.
The WHO believes that with proper support, a suicidal person can be saved. In the Philippines there are
support group institutions that one can turn to with issues on love, relationships, gender issue (including
gender confusion), family matters, and bullying in the workplace, school and social media.
“Early identification and appropriate treatment of mental disorders is an important preventive strategy,”
the WHO said. 
There is also evidence that educating primary health-care personnel in the identification and treatment of
people with mood disorders may result in a reduction of suicides among those at risk.
Media—print, television, radio and social—have a significant role to play, too. “Evidence also suggests
that media reporting can encourage imitation suicides and we would urge that the media show sensitivity
in their reporting on these tragic and frequently avoidable deaths,” the WHO pleaded. 
“The media can also play a major role in reducing stigma and discrimination associated
with suicidal behaviors and mental disorders,” the UN agency concluded.
 
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2018/10/11/suicide-snatches-one-life-every-40-seconds/