RH Bill on Women's Rights

As we all know, in a society such as ours, men "dominate" more. Of course, women don't like that idea since we all have equal rights. Also in RH Bill, they too are included in the debate.

Probably the biggest women group in our country is Gabriela.

Gabriela Women's Party

History: (Or should I say, Her Story)

In 1984, fuelled by the resistance against the Marcos dictatorship and an overwhelming need for significant economic and political change in the archipelago, women from all walks of life – worker, peasant, urban poor, indigenous, middle class, artist, religious – banded together to set up a national women’s coalition. They took the name of the 18th century woman general. They called their coalition GABRIELA.



Founded on October 28,2000, Gabriela Women’s Party is an offshoot of the biggest alliance of women’s organizations in the Philippines, GABRIELA. Rich with experiences and lessons of having been at the forefront of the Philippine women’s movement in its over 20 years of existence, GABRIELA first joined the electoral arena in 2001 when it fielded then Secretary General, Liza Largoza Maza to run as partylist representative under Bayan Muna (People First) Party.
Following its successful foray in parliament with the passage of pro-women legislation including the anti-Trafficking in Persons Act and the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act in the 12th Congress, Gabriela Women’s Party fielded its nominees in the 2004 national partylist elections for the first time. Gabriela Women’s Party emerged 7th of 66 parties, garnering enough votes to have Hon. Liza Maza serve as the sole women’s sectoral representative in the 13th Congress.
Proof of its exemplary performance it its continuing success in the electoral arena. Gabriela Women’s Party rose to 4th place in the 2007 partylist elections, reaping votes for not just one but for a second representative in the 14th Congress, Hon. Luzviminda Ilagan.

Today, with over 100,000 members in 15 regions in the Philippines and Filipino communities abroad, Gabriela Women’s Party through grassroots organizing, education, services, various campaigns and legislative efforts continues to advance the rights of women, children and country.

Their Role on RH Bill

They are supporters of the RH Bill. They want to alleviate the population crises our country is facing. Not only that, they also want the idea of women on the said bill. Here is their press statement last May 31, 2011 regarding the bill.

With uplifting the reproductive health situation of Filipino women, especially the poor, in mind, GABRIELA National Alliance of Women deeply appreciates the continuing efforts of legislators and advocates to push for the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill.

We, however, would like to express our concern at how the ongoing debates inside and outside of Congress on the Reproductive Health Bill appears to highlight the crafting of a national policy with a population control agenda. We are concerned that such framing of the debate overshadows the bill’s positive provisions, specifically its commitment to ensure as a matter of state policy and responsibility women’s access to healthcare and women’s right to informed choice.

GABRIELA remains firm in its stand that population growth is never the culprit for our nation's poverty and thus population control is never a solution.

A population control agenda that pins the burden of our nation's development on women's bodies poses a grave threat to the health, rights and welfare of Filipino women. Masquerading as a poverty alleviation measure, this agenda toes a misguided proposition that a way to end poverty is to control family size. We fear that this myopic and guilt-flogging view will give undue pressure on women to control their reproductive functions and may lead to further violation and sacrifice of women’s health, rights and welfare.

Because we have a stunted pharmaceutical industry, a reproductive health policy anchored on a population control agenda will legitimize the exploits of huge pharmaceuticals and multinationals raring to make super profits without regard to the quality of contraceptives, reproductive health medication and services that will be made available, or worse, imposed to Filipino women.

This runs contrary to our vision that no Filipino dies of complications of pregnancy and childbirth and other reproductive system related illnesses and that children are born healthy to mothers who are also healthy enough to care for them. We also believe that profit-driven delivery of reproductive health medication, supplies and services is an alarming deviation from ensuring that the government, as primary duty bearer in guaranteeing the people’s welfare, takes to task its responsibility to promote women’s health.

Lastly, we strongly believe that pinning the burden of our people’s poverty on population growth is hinged on a misguided analysis of the root causes of widespread poverty and inequitable wealth distribution in the country. To rest on population control as a framework for solving poverty eschews from the path of addressing the true causes of our nation’s poverty by working towards social justice and equitable distribution of wealth and resources.

GABRIELA has already called the attention of our legislators, especially the authors of House Bill 4244, on these concerns. We have urged them to take the population control agenda out of the RH Bill, specifically the framework and provisions of HB 4244 that buffer a population control agenda, including the following: Section 3, Letter (L) of the Guiding Principles; Section 12, Integration of Responsible Parenthood and Family Planning Component in Anti-Poverty Programs; and Section 25, Letter (I) of the Implementing Mechanisms.

Source: Here

Population control is a sham of an anti-poverty measure. Even the RH Bill’s leading proponents cannot convince themselves that the country’s growing population is a leading or main cause of poverty and destitution. It may worsen those problems but the root causes cannot find its way in the lack of population control. Institutional and long-festering land ownership monopoly, bureaucrat capitalism and foreign domination (or CORRUPTION) could and would get a free pass if we swallow the “population control” ruse, hook, line and sinker

I think majority of our people, both proponents and critics of the RH Bill, and a majority in Congress could unite on the broad issue reproductive health in favor of women and children.

We should bring this discussion forward. Baka 2030 pa ito matatapos. Patay na tayong lahat.