PhilHealth distributes condoms, pills

MANILA, Philippines – In what could be a defiance of a Supreme Court order, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) started distributing condoms and other contraceptives to women in Barangay Tatalon, Quezon City yesterday.

PhilHealth director Risa Hontiveros said she and members of various women’s groups provided birth control pills, injectibles and condoms to the women to fill the gap for reproductive health service delivery.

The gap, she added, was created by the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court against the government’s procurement and distribution of Implanon. 

The anti-RH law groups previously asked the high court to issue a TRO on certain contraceptives because of their abortifacient features.

“As a health and women’s rights advocate, I join the different women’s groups and families in standing up against those who want to undermine the RH Law and limit the options of the people in planning and managing their families,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“Whatever gaps the Supreme Court’s TRO has created in providing comprehensive reproductive health services, the different women’s organizations, civil society groups and social movements will fill in,” she added. 

Hontiveros believes that the TRO is a step backwards in making healthcare universal in the country. 

“With the TRO, the government’s universality concept of healthcare is weakened as it limits the available choices the people can use in planning their families and providing themselves quality reproductive health services,” she explained.