In 2000, the Department of Health (DOH) approved the use of Postinor (generic name: levonorgestrel) and made it available on a limited scale to Women and Child Protection Units (WCPU) in DOH-run hospitals for rape or sexual abuse survivors.
A year later, on May 8, 2001, anti-choice groups, led by Abay Pamilya Foundation, filed a letter-complaint seeking the recall of the registration issued to the pharmaceutical company Euro Generics for Postinor on the ground that it is an abortifacient.
The delisting prompted pro-choice health groups to request the health secretary to remove the ban. These were the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) through WomenLEAD, and the Reproductive Rights Resource Group (RRRG). A media campaign was launched, and a signature campaign initiated protesting the delisting of Postinor. Secretary Dayrit rejected the groups’ petition on national television.
So far, three hearings sponsored by a committee formed by DOH specifically to look at the matter, have been held, the last one being last Friday, from 7 to 11 p.m., with representatives of anti-choice and pro-choice stating their positions. No decision on the delisting was made.
In effect, women have been deprived of emergency contraception when they need it.
EC, otherwise known as postcoital contraception, consists of the same hormones found in ordinary birth control pills. According to experts, when taken in a concentrated dose shortly after unprotected intercourse, these hormones can prevent pregnancy from taking place. As such, postcoital contraception is considered a "back-up" birth control option – for occasional use.
Hormonal postcoital contraception was started in the 1960s by a Dutch family planning physician, who provided high-dose estrogens to a 13-year-old victim of rape. The treatment became standard during the 1960s and early 1970s. In the 1970s, the high-dose estrogen therapy gave way to a combined estrogen-progestin method called the Yuzpe method. At around the same time, researchers developed a regimen consisting of A progestin (levonorgestrel) alone, and found that it could be as effective as the Yuzpe regime.
Both the Yuzpe and the levonorgestrel-only emergency contraceptive regimes consist of two doses of pills to be taken within 72 hours after unprotected intercourse. They have been found effective in preventing pregnancy.
The pro-life groups have raised a howl, calling Postinor, the levonorgestrel-only EC which was registered and delisted by the BFAD, as an abortifacient.
(More on this controversy on Tuesday.)
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Very exclusive to Heaven Sent: The Lifestyle Bazaar, are indigenous and exotic bamboo from Carolina’s Bamboo Garden. Different varieties of the elegant bamboo will be for sale, such as the golden painted bamboo, Buddha belly, royal, hedges, Oldham, and black bamboo. These make beautiful outdoor and indoor potted ornamentals. Look for this stall at the bazaar.