Groups criticize Senate bills for 'pitting' mothers vs unborn children

At least two non-government organizations on Monday criticized three Senate bills for allegedly pitting pregnant mothers with their unborn children. The Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) and Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP) said Sen. Ralph Recto’s Senate Bill 2584, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s SB 2497 and Sen. Ramon Bong Revilla’s SB 2635 seem to disregard the needs of the unborn child's mother. "My reading of the bills makes me wonder, are we trying to pit the mother against the unborn?" DSWP executive director Elizabeth Angsioco said during Monday's hearing on the bills seeking to protect the unborn child. Senate bills 2584, 2497, and 2635 seek stiffer penalties for abortion and the use of abortifacient contraceptives. Angsioco, however, said the bills only take into consideration the life of the unborn child and not the mother's. "I am not against that," Angsioco said, referring to the objective of the bill. “What I am against is the outright disregard or the needs of the mother herself." She said mothers should be equally protected by the bills. RHAN secretary general Dr. Junice Melgar said that the mother should be allowed to make decisions that might affect her body or even lead to her death. "The unborn is a part of the fetal maternal unit... the moment you disregard the women’s concern, you also disregard the fetus," she said during the same hearing. Article 2 Section 12 of the Philippine Constitution says that the state shall "equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception." Melgar, meanwhile, said that there is a need to specify what contraceptives are abortifacient because the proposed measures might ban the use of medicine which just have possible side effects on pregnant women. Earlier in the hearing, Senator Ralph Recto and two other former senators also sought the identification of the contraceptives which are abortifacient and should be declared illegal. - KBK, GMA News