Statement - Denying information, care to vulnerable women unlawful says new bill

If passed, HB 3744, an Act Eliminating Discrimination, Ensuring Welfare Services and Empowering Women in Vulnerable Situations, and Prescribing Penalties in Violation Thereof will make it a crime for government or private institutions of care that provide regular and organized welfare and health services to deny women information, services and care especially if they are in vulnerable situations. Such institutions will include among others, social welfare offices, orphanages, homes for the aged, women and children protection units, workplace clinics, NGO clinics, freestanding clinics and similar institutions.

In a statement during the public hearing for the bill on March 29 at the House of Representative, the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP) described the bill as a laudable piece of legislation that will help remove barriers to the enjoyment of women's fundamental rights to swift, competent and humane care if and when such is sought from said institutions.

HB 3744, more popularly known as the Women Empowerment Bill, is authored by Congresswoman Nerissa Soon-Ruiz from the 6th District of Cebu, a staunch advocate of women's rights. The bill was filed on February 14, 2005 amid observations that a growing number of health care institutions fail to respond to women's gender-specific needs and a common tendency to treat patients and clients seeking care in a discriminatory manner.

Vulnerable situations is defined in the bill as circumstances that threaten the physical, mental, social and economic well being of women, magnify the inherent hardships rooted in gender inequalities such as but not limited to, being indigent, being in an informal or marginalized work, being sick and/or in need of health care, being in hazardous or violent situation and being under arrest or detention, which press women to seek health and welfare services.

Elderly women, women with critical needs (e.g. victims of abortion, pregnant women), women victims of violence, abuse and war, women living in poverty, destitute women, and women working in exploitative work conditions stand to benefit from this law. FPOP asserts that it is the poor and powerless women, already severely disadvantaged by their age, condition and status in society that are most likely to experience discrimination in various forms.

One of the important features of the bill is making mandatory the adoption of the Gender Responsive Standards of Care, a set of standards that health care institutions must adhere to in order to ensure that people seeking their services are treated with respect and dignity and their right to privacy and confidentiality and informed decision-making are protected.

FPOP, an NGO with 36 chapters and clinics all over the country, has manifested its unequivocal support for HB 3744. In the words of FPOP Executive Director Atty. Rhodora M. Roy-Raterta, "The march towards development can never be complete if we leave behind those who are least able to care for themselves because they are poor, sick, old, abused, caught in war, displaced from their homelands, or are working in exploitative conditions. Every society has a duty to ensure that women in these situations get priority attention."

Evan L. Epe
Documentation and Advocacy Officer
Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP)