Implement RH law, EU urges Phl

European Union (EU) is calling for the full implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RH) Act of 2012, which is only possible if the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) on the law is lifted.

While he welcomed President Duterte’s commitment to fully implement the law, EU Ambassador Franz Jessen pointed out that the TRO would lead to the

government’s inability to procure and distribute 70 percent of modern contraceptives by 2019, thus leading to major stock-outs of contraceptives in most government and rural health clinics.

The Philippines failed to meet its RH-related Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016 targets.

The EU said that the rise in teenage pregnancy cases is specifically worrisome in the Philippines, the only AsiaPacific country where the rate of teen pregnancies rose to 13.6 percent in 2013 from 6.3 percent in 2002. The country has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the Southeast Asian region.

Jessen said the EU remains fully committed to supporting the Philippine government and civil society organizations on reproductive health matters. Access to family planning, according to the official, is an important element in its fight for gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment.

The EU provides significant financial support for health and gender programs around the world.

“Ensuring women’s access to quality reproductive health and family planning services are critically important to prevent women’s vulnerability and to achieve sustainable development, poverty alleviation and human development,” Jessen said in his message for the “Annual Dialogue on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights” held recently at the Sulo Riviera Hotel in Quezon City.

The event was among the major activities of National Women’s Month this March. It gathered stakeholders nationwide, including those from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), to call on duty-bearers and decisionmakers to remove barriers to the full implementation of the RH Law towards the respect, promotion and fulfillment of all Filipinos’ sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The EU’s support for this event, which amounts to 4.46 million euros (P243 million), is part of its “Improving the Availability of Reproductive Health Services in the ARMM (ARCHES)” project.

Aimed at improving the availability of and access to basic sexual and reproductive health services for underserved women and young people in the ARMM, ARCHES is implemented by Oxfam, the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development, the Philippine Business for Social Progress and four community-based civil society organizations, with Al-Mujadilah Development Foundation in Lanao del Sur, United Youth of the Philippines-Women in Maguindanao, Tarbilang Foundation in Tawi-Tawi and Pinay Kilos in Basilan and Sulu.