As a result of continuing interventions, the Supreme Court of the Philippines has rescheduled a hearing into the controversial Reproductive Health law from June 18 to 9 July, 2013. The operation of the law has been suspended pending a review by the Supreme Court. [Sun Star]
Tag: RH Bill (Philippines)
Philippines Supreme Court suspends controversial Reproductive Health Law
The Philippines RH Act, which was to go into effect on 31 May, has been temporarily suspended by a 10-5 ruling of the Philippines Supreme Court. The court will hear arguments for and against the law on 18 June, 2013. The ruling is a result of nine petitions against the law filed in the court. The petitioners are
- Francisco “Kit” Tatad and his wife, Ma. Fenny
- James Imbong, his wife and minor children.
- Doctors for Life
- Filipinos for Life (F4L),
- Serve Life Cagayan de Oro City,
- Task Force for Family and Life Visayas, Inc.,
- Valeriano Avila,
- Expedito Bugarin and Eduardo Olaguer,
- Catholic Xyberspace Apostolate of the Philippines.
Freedom of conscience in Philippines impacted by Reproductive Health Act
The Philippines Department of Health has signed the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10354, otherwise known as the “Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law of 2012” (RPRH Act of 2012). The regulations have not yet been posted on the Department’s website. [DOH News Release]
The regulations will have an immediate impact on the exercise of freedom of conscience by health care workers. According to news reports, those who are privately employed must complete an affidavit setting out what they object to and why, and must post a prominent notice of what “reproductive health services” they will not provide. Government health care workers will apparently be forced to use some kind of civil service process to obtain approval for the exercise of freedom of conscience.
DOH Assistant Secretary Dr. Madeleine Valera stated that the law would be applied “liberally,” by which she appears to have meant that freedom of conscience will be restricted as much as possible so that purported “human rights” would be protected. [Sun Star]
Reproductive Health bill passes Philippines congress
The Philippines Senate and House of Representatives have passed a Reproductive Health Bill by signficant margins. Bills of this kind have been proposed repeatedly over the past 13 years and have always been highly controversial because of oppostiion from those opposed to contraception and other contentious aspects of the bills. However, it is unclear exactly what the new law will say, as the houses passed it in two different versions, and will have to compile an agreed-upon text before it can be signed into law by the president. [Modern Medicine]
RH bill founders in Philippines
Although it is claimed that a majority of members of the Phiilippines House of Represesntatives support the controversial Reproductive Health bill, the bill failed to come to a vote in the house because there were not enough legislators present to form a quorum. There are now doubts that the bill will pass during this legislative session. [Vancouver Sun]