EDITORIAL - Humane treatment

MANILA, Philippines - If the Reproductive Health Bill is struggling to hurdle the legislative mill, any proposal to legalize abortion has a snowball’s chance in hell of congressional approval. But there is one thing a humane society can do, and that is to make sure no woman is ever turned away or harassed or discriminated against if she seeks urgent medical attention for complications arising from abortion.

While abortion is a criminal offense in this country for both abortionist and patient, its criminal aspect has not stopped Filipino women from undergoing the illegal and often dangerous procedure. Over the years, various women’s rights organizations have placed the number of induced abortions in the Philippines at hundreds of thousands.

The latest estimate was given by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which works with Philippine groups that conduct field studies on the problem. In 2008 alone, according to the center, 560,000 induced abortions took place in the Philippines, with 1,000 fatalities. Some 90,000 women sought treatment for complications arising from the surgical procedure, which is often done under unsafe and unhygienic circumstances by midwives and herbalists especially in the countryside. The center documented cases wherein women who sought post-abortion treatment in hospitals were humiliated or turned away.

The biggest victims of this human rights violation are women from poor communities. The abortion problem cuts through income classes in this country, but affluent women who suffer post-abortion complications can usually find friends in the medical profession who can help them get proper treatment in a private hospital. The rich can also afford to undergo induced abortion abroad, in one of several countries where the procedure is legal. Women who are affluent and educated are also generally aware of their reproductive rights and their options for contraception, reducing chances that they might need to resort to abortion as many poor women have been forced to do.

Even President Aquino, who endorsed the RH Bill in the 14th Congress, is unlikely to be a vocal defender of abortion. But his government can affirm its commitment to the basic constitutional right to life by seeing to it that no woman needing medical treatment for post-abortion problems is rejected by hospitals or oppressed in any way by health care providers. Doctors must also be reminded of their Hippocratic oath. Even murderers and prisoners of war have a right to humane medical treatment. Why should a woman bleeding to death from a botched abortion suffer from discrimination in health care? It is un-Christian, and it is downright criminal.