MANILA, Philippines - The enactment of the Reproductive Health (RH) law is the “best essential gift” President Aquino and Congress have given to Filipinos “this Christmas and many more Christmases to come,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said yesterday.
“The RH statute will enable millions of couples and women to be true to their desire of having smaller families as they are empowered to freely and responsibly determine the number and spacing of their children,” he said.
“Also gifted are mothers and infants since maternal and infant mortality rates will be considerably reduced because high-risk, unwanted and unintended pregnancies, which are most prone to maternal death, abortion and unhealthy offspring, are prevented,” he added.
Lagman, the principal author of the RH bill in the House of Representatives, added that there are currently 14 to 15 mothers who die daily due to complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth.
“The harrowing experience of women who suffer forced abortion because they could not afford another child will be diminished by as much as 85 percent since they are given access to legal, medically-safe and effective voluntary contraception,” he said.
The lawmaker pointed out that the poor would have access to free family planning methods and contraception by choice so they could have fewer children and ease their poverty.
“Mass poverty is inextricably linked to high fertility rates, which result in high population growth rates and the stunting of human development,” he said.