Miriam: Unborn child bill 'unconstitutional'

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago on Monday opposed a Senate bill seeking to protect the lives of unborn children, describing the proposed measure as unconstitutional. Santiago said the bill is unconstitutional because it violates Article 2 Section 12 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution which says that the state shall "equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception." "The unborn child cannot be protected separately from its mother, otherwise the word 'equally' loses all its sense and purpose, and the phrase becomes fractured and meaningless," she said after the Senate committee on youth, women, and family relations conducted its first hearing on the Protection of the Unborn Child Act on Monday. The Protection of the Unborn Child Act — as proposed under Sen. Ralph Recto's Senate Bill 2584, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile's SB 2497 and Sen. Ramon Bong Revilla's SB 2635 — seeks stiffer penalties for abortion and the use of abortifacients. Santiago, however, said that legislators who want to pass the protection of the unborn bill are just trying to enact legislation that "establishes" the views of the Catholic Church, which opposes the use of artificial modes of contraception. "Such restriction of access to modern contraceptives is an imposition of one's religious morality on the whole Filipino populace," said the feisty senator, who is also the author of the Senate's version of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill. More risky? Aside from violating the Constitution and imposing religious beliefs, Santiago said the proposed measure will only make pregnancies more risky for expecting mothers. "If the Protection of the Unborn Child Act is approved, risk-taking by mothers becomes mandatory and expectant management — until danger becomes imminent or the ectopic pregnancy resolves spontaneously — may become the norm preferred by physicians to avoid criminal prosecution," she said. She likewise said that the bill will take away the power of decision-making from the mother, even if she is the one in danger from pregnancy complications. "It will transfer difficult choices to a distant, cold, and inflexible law. In effect, the proposed law will treat women as mere incubating machines to ensure the life of the unborn," she added. Two groups had also earlier criticized the bill because it is allegedly "pitting" mothers against their unborn children. Another bill In a separate interview on Monday, Senate youth, women, and family relations committee chairman Sen. Pia Cayetano said that she will file a separate bill that would protect the rights of expectant mothers. "One option I have is to have a bill, a separate bill, which will probably be the rights of the mother and the unborn child which I will repeat will, if it occur will, happen independently of the RH bill," she said. Santiago, however, said that a comprehensive reproductive health care is the program that will protect the interests of both the mother and her child. Cayetano, for her part, said the Unborn Child Act will be an independent measure from the RH bill, which seeks to provide universal access to reproductive health services to the public. But she admitted that the RH bill was still her priority because she and her staff have been working on the measure for so long. "I have the report and it is almost final," she said. Cayetano said she will probably present the committee report on the RH bill before Congress adjourns session next week. — RSJ, GMA News