REPRODUCTIVE health advocates asked the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday, November 14, to let its en banc decide on the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) directed against the contraceptives and devices being distributed by Department of Health (DOH).
The case is currently handled by the SC's second division.
In a 20-page motion for intervention with a prayer to admit intervenor's omnibus motion, four non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also asked the SC's second division to reverse its order that halted the sales and distribution of all the "administered contraceptive drugs and devices," including the two controversial contraceptives alleged to have abortifacient effects, Implanon and Implanon NXT.
The petitioners are Filipino Catholic Voices for Reproductive Health (C4RH), Philippine NGO Council on Population Health and Welfare (PNGOC), Philippine Center for Population and Development (PCPD), and Philippine Legislator's Committee and Population and Development Foundation Inc. (PLCPD). They were joined by former DOH Secretary Dr. Esperanza Cabral, and the former Presidential Assistant for Social Development Ben de Leon.
According to the petitioners, the TRO violates the women's reproductive health rights, including the 1987 Philippine Constitutional provision on equal protection of the mother and the unborn and the RA 9701 or the Magna Carta for women.
The groups expressed alarm that the SC's decision to stop the distribution of the contraceptives will lead to a total stock-out from the market.
They also said that if the TRO is not lifted, and the order not reversed, the RH law that advocates and Congress worked for fifteen years "would be reduced from being a strong political commitment to mere lip service."
In the decision dated August 24, the Court denied the petition for TRO filed by the Office of the Solicitor General.
The second division said it cannot lift the TRO because the Food and Drug Administration has yet to conduct a hearing on the concerns of pro-life group Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines (ALFI) in connection with some contraceptives with abortifacient character.
With its findings, the second division has directed the FDA to formulate the rules of procedure in the screening and approval of all contraceptive drugs and devices that will be used under Republic Act 10354.
RA 10354, signed by President Aquino in December 2012, allows the state to use public funds to educate the youth on reproductive health and provide couples with contraceptives.
"The rules of procedure shall contain the standard laid down in the constitution as adopted under RA 10354 as to what constitutes allowable contraceptives shall be strictly followed, that is those which do no harm or destroy the life of the unborn," the SC said.
The DOH was also ordered to make a complete list of the government's reproductive health programs and services which will serve as a template to be distributed to the health care providers.
The petitioners in the case who questioned the DOH's decision to allow the distribution of the said contraceptives are Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines Inc. and Maria Concepcion Noche. Named respondent in the case is former DOH Secretary Janette Garin. (Sunnex)