A Liberal Party (LP) lawmaker has asked the incoming administration of President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to prioritize the issue of reproductive health.
This, after the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that 51 percent of pregnancies in the Philippines from 2015 to 2019 were unintended.
According to Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman, the reproductive health or RH law is "a rights-based, health-oriented and development-driven legislation which affords women and couples to freely exercise their inherent right to determine the number and spacing of their children".
Lagman insists that the least expensive mode of helping attain sustainable human development is the full and expeditious implementation of the law, whose full title is the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act or Republic Act (RA) No. 10354.
The 2012 RH law, which the Bicol solon helped author, mandates the State to provide reproductive health services and supplies for free to marginalized acceptors.
Lagman asserted that the budget for RH in its first year of implementation in 2013 of P2.5 billion has dwindled to P842 million in 2022, while the budget for mega infrastructure projects, with lesser beneficiaries and longer periods for return of investment, have soared to multi-billion pesos levels.
To realize the goals of the RH law, it is urgent to provide adequate and consistent funding for its speedy and efficient implementation, he said.
A study by the New York-based Guttmacher Institute in partnership with Likhaan Center for Women’s Health, a Philippine non-government organization, showed that “for every peso spent on family planning, around P3 to P100 will be saved for maternal care costs for unintended pregnancies.”
The joint study also concluded that the cost of meeting the need for modern contraception considerably reduces the incidence of unintended and unplanned pregnancies, and saves the government and the economy tremendous amounts otherwise allocated to and spent for pregnancy-related and newborn healthcare services.
The Department of Health (DOH) is aware of the cost efficiency of investing in reproductive health and family planning, Lagman noted.
In its National Objectives for Health way back in 2005, the DOH affirmed that “a reduction in the actual number of births reduces the need for obstetrical care, immunization and other maternal and child health interventions".