EDITORIAL - A basic women's right

It is ironic that while medieval male senators, trying to score brownie points with the male leaders of the Catholic Church, prevent the passage of the Reproductive Health bill not through intelligent arguments but by sitting on it, the Philippines has just hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ human rights conference on promoting maternal health.

Held last week, the conference discussed ASEAN member states’ progress on the achievement of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, particularly Goal No. 5, which aims to promote universal access to reproductive health services by 2015. The Philippines has committed to achieving the MDG. As in many other aspects of human development, the Philippines is lagging behind its ASEAN neighbors in achieving MDG No. 5, and is even going in the opposite direction, according to health and human rights officials.

The ones who need the RH bill in this country are impoverished women. Those with sufficient education and means have access to reproductive healthcare and enjoy the luxury of choosing whether or not to practice contraception. These women include the wives of several of the legislators who are against the idea that all women, regardless of income level, have the basic right to reproductive health.

While millions of impoverished Filipino women wait for access to reproductive healthcare, a Filipino-American midwife has been chosen as one of the Top 10 “CNN Heroes” for providing free maternal healthcare to poor women in Indonesia. Robin Lim is being honored for setting up “birthing sanctuaries” for Indonesians who need maternal and general healthcare.

Lim follows in the footsteps of Efren Peñaflorida, who was named CNN “Hero of the Year” in 2009 for bringing education to the poor while pushing a kariton or cart. Peñaflorida, who grew up in the slums, addressed a need that he knew was acute among the impoverished communities in the Philippines. There is another acute need waiting to be addressed, and which lawmakers living in Forbes Park and other posh villages cannot be expected to understand: poor Filipino women need reproductive healthcare. The RH bill has to be passed. Reproductive health is a basic women’s right, and a basic need.