SOME groups asked the Supreme Court (SC) to restore the penal provisions of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) law to make compliance with the measure more effective.
"If the penalties are there, all healthcare service providers and government officials have to do is to comply and they would not be criminally liable," stated the motion for reconsideration filed on Monday by the Filipino Catholic Voices for Reproductive Health (C4RH), Inc., and Interfaith Partnership for the Promotion of Responsible Parenthood (IPPRP), among others.
Declared unconstitutional were eight provisions under Sections 7, 17 and 23 and section 3 of the law's implementing rules and regulations for violating religious freedom and the integrity of marriage.
Among others, the provisions guarantee the availment of services of minors and women of reproductive health services and supplies – minor parents or minors who have suffered a miscarriage and married women not in emergency situations even without the consent of parents and spouses, respectively.
But the groups said permitting husband's consent is discriminating to women and "inequality of women in law is clear violation of women's right to equal protection of the law and women's right to privacy."
"Allowing healthcare service providers to conscientiously object, refuse to refer and refuse to perform certain procedures without spousal and parental consent in non-emergency and non-life-threatening situations is dangerous because it grants a license to a group of people to blatantly violate women's human rights in the name of freedom of religion," they said.
Requiring parental consents for adolescents will not allegedly stop the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the Philippines, which rose from only 200 reported cases in 2004 to 17,450 as of February this year.
"Such provision of requiring parental consent restricts adolescents their access to contraceptives and violates the reproductive rights of adolescents. In reality, adolescents are already engaging in sex, many engage in risky sexual behavior by not using any contraceptive method leading to unintended pregnancies and STIs, RTIS, and HIV transmission," the motion stated.
The SC declared the law, whose implementation was stalled for more than a year from March 2013, as constitutional in a session in Baguio City on April 8.
The government views the law as an important policy tool against poverty and stimulus for progress as it emphasizes the need to provide Filipinos, especially the poor and marginalized, with access to information on the full range of modern family products and methods. (Sunnex)