Legalization of Abortion here in the Philippines

By: Althea Cloi B. De Los Reyes

I. Introduction

Legalization of Abortion here in the Philippines has always been the debate over the
years. Abortion is also known as termination of pregnancy. The pregnancy is ended
either by taking medicines or having a surgical procedure. For over a century
abortion has been criminalized here in the Philippines through the Penal code of 1870
under the Spanish colonial rule and it has been incorporated into the revised Penal
code of 1930. Abortion should be legalize here in the Philippines because it has lots
of advantages when legalized. But on selective means, reasons and motives. We can
legalize abortion depending on the women’s situation.

II. Body

The government should authorize abortion if the causes of pregnancy is rape and
incest. If the woman is mentally and cognitively disabled which considers no
apparent and visible ability to raise a child. According to Philippine Institute for
Development Studies, out of 56,428 birth from teenage parents, 51 were from girls
aged from 10-12 cases which could have resulted from statutory rape. Some pregnant
women resulting from rape tend to abort their child resulting for an unsafe abortions
that sometimes lead them to death . This is the reason why we should legalize
abortion and the government should give safety abortion to women especially in this
circumstances. It is to save the women if the pregnancy risk significant effect on the
physical health of a woman including the mental and emotional state. Abortion is
permissible if the fetus is scientifically and medically known to have disabilities
Or physical malformations which will resulted on different conditions including down
syndrome.

Since the Philippines is suffering through poverty how can we ensure that those
people who are unprivileged can even be enough to support a child. One thing that is
good about abortion is that we can prevent the child from suffering child neglect,
child abuse and child labor which is really common here in the Philippines.
According to PRB.org, that the population growth here in Philippines is very fast and
rampant that’s why abortion is a great help in preventing overpopulation in our
country. We can limit the number of children suffering in the streets, we can also
prevent children going through criminality because of the poverty stricken life.
III.Conclusion

Legalizing abortion doesn’t mean we should promote abortion. It is legalize for

women who have no choice and save their lives first. We should legalize abortion but
not normalize it. Legalizing abortion is a great help in minimizing women who is not
ready for parenthood and suffering from poverty. Women have the rights in their own
body and we have a human rights law also. But there should be qualifications in
legalizing abortions that government should authorize abortions if the pregnancy of
the women doesn’t exceed from 24 weeks because if passed 24 weeks the fetus in the
womb is already formed and can be called a baby. And if the pregnancy is a result of
rape and sexual harassment/abuse.

Government should focus on solving the poverty problems here in our country and
provide programs and resources that would help single parents because if these
problems are minimize or better solved abortion is not necessary for unprivileged
people. Legalizing abortion or not people are still going to do it. So why not legalize
it on selective means and valid reasons.