Among the Philippines' contingent at the Abortion in Focus conference in Coolum, Queensland, in November were SYLVIA ESTRADA CLAUDIO and ALEXANDRINA MARCELO from the newly formed Reproductive Rights Resource Group. Green Left Weekly's KAMALA EMANUEL caught up with them during the conference.
In the Philippines, women are denied the right to abortion under all circumstances. The 1987 constitution, promulgated after the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship, provided for many reforms in other areas. But, Marcelo explained, the power of the Catholic Church left its mark — in the form of a constitutional obligation to "protect the life of the unborn", from conception onwards.
No official statistics are kept, so it is difficult to obtain precise information, but Marcelo and Estrada estimate that 300,000 to 500,000 women undergo induced abortions each year in the Philippines, in the unsafe conditions of illegality.
Medical complications from abortion rank among the 10 most common causes for hospital admission. Those admitted are often castigated by health care professionals, treated without respect and offered little counselling. By contrast, local traditional healers are seen as a more sympathetic source of help.
The women's health movement in the Philippines emerged in the second half of the 1980s. According to Estrada, many of the activists now in the movement were active in the anti-dictatorship struggle. In the 1990s, they attempted to promote women's access to abortion as a public health issue.
In 1998 the Department of Health issued an administrative order directed at the prevention and management of abortion complications. However, following the election of President Erap Estrada, this order hasn't been implemented.
Sylvia Estrada and Marcelo now believe that the public health approach has failed. Instead, they advocate a framework of women's rights, arguing that reproductive decision-making power is an individual's inherent, inalienable right.
In 1998, Likhaan, a women's health and reproductive rights group, initiated an alliance of women's health activists and advocates, and other professionals called the Reproductive Rights Resource Group. The RRRG is seeking to build a political movement to enable women to access safe abortion and other reproductive health services.
According to Estrada, the situation in the Philippines is "a massive violation of women's rights, from all directions: [both] the law and the lack of services. Health workers are not given proper training, and bad attitudes towards women seeking abortion are widespread."
Women's right to abortion "is tied up with the bigger struggle of women", she said. "Poor women don't have adequate health services. Not only that, they have no rights: to land, to good jobs, or to support of their reproductive needs."
She described the current approach of the movement, of both advocacy and clandestine provision of safe services, as a "two-track system". There are still barriers to the RRRG's work, however.
Estrada said, "The women's movement in the Philippines has not had a focus on abortion. The labour unions are still run by men. So [the degree of support ranges] from hostility to paying lip-service, to genuine concern about these issues ... broadly speaking, there is minimal understanding of the importance of this issue among the progressive and trade union movements."
Estrada emphasised the need for international support, both in terms of the provision of safe services and on the legal front. A veteran of the anti-dictatorship struggle, which in the 1980s received a lot of international solidarity, Estrada was critical of the lack of support on the issue of abortion. Asking, "Why the gender bias in the human rights community?", she emphasised that women's reproductive rights are human rights and that "a threat to one right anywhere in the world is a threat to all rights everywhere".