Giving Life to the Right to Not Conceive: What the Law and Society in the Philippines Must Do for Its Women

Johanna Aleria P. Lorenzo, University of the Philippines

25 August 2008, 1330, Moot Court

The Competition heats up with Johanna presenting the first of a set of essays focusing on Women and Children. The Philippines have always presented a unique paradigm of women in Asia - they have for example enjoyed two female Presidents. But as the only country in South East Asia with a predominantly Christian population, conception or rather contraception presents thorny legal issues. Watch Johanna tackle these tensions in the Symposium!

Abstract

This paper views discrimination as the restraint on women from making meaningful decisions with regard to their fertility which exposes them to several health risks, prevents them from maximizing their potential, and adversely affects the quality of their participation in and contribution to society and the economy. There exists an “unequal protection of the laws” where the fundamental needs of women are not given proper attention and they are prevented from exercising vital rights. Such restriction, in turn, contributes in causing, or oftentimes aggravates, poverty — a condition that also causes a number of people to be vulnerable to discrimination. In the Philippines there is presently no statute concerning reproductive health and rights, and that void is detrimental to and discriminatory against women. A “reproductive health care act,” it is suggested, would not only eliminate discrimination but could also form part of a solution to the current global food crisis.

Johanna is a second year law student studying in the University of Philippines. In her free time, she enjoys crossword puzzles, reading, watching DVDs of TV series like Lost and Heroes and taking her pet dog out for a walk.