Skip to content
Center for Reproductive Rights
Center for Reproductive Rights

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • The Center’s Impact
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Annual Reports
    • Corporate Engagement
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • Cases Archive
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Global Advocacy
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Stories
    • Events
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Press Releases
    • Statements
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • U.S. Abortion Rights: Resources
    • Maps
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
    • Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Make a Donor Advised Fund Gift
    • Leave a Legacy Gift
    • Donate Gifts of Stock
    • Give a Gift in Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Employee Matching Gifts
    • Mail a Check
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
Donate
icon-hamburger icon-magnifying-glass Donate
icon-magnifying-glass-teal

Submission to the UN Assesses the Philippines’ Progress on SRHR Issues

Center for Reproductive Rights - Center for Reproductive Rights - search logo
search Close Close icon
Center for Reproductive Rights -
Menu Close Menu Close icon
Donate

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • The Center’s Impact
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Annual Reports
    • Corporate Engagement
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • Cases Archive
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Global Advocacy
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Stories
    • Events
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Press Releases
    • Statements
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • U.S. Abortion Rights: Resources
    • Maps
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
    • Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Make a Donor Advised Fund Gift
    • Leave a Legacy Gift
    • Donate Gifts of Stock
    • Give a Gift in Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Employee Matching Gifts
    • Mail a Check
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Related Content

Issues:

Abortion, Adolescent SRHR, Maternal Health, SRHR General

Regions:

Asia, Philippines

Work:

At the United Nations

Type:

News, Story

Follow the Center

Donate Now

Join Now

06.02.2022

At the United Nations SRHR General Philippines News

Submission to the UN Assesses the Philippines’ Progress on SRHR Issues

Megan Diamondstein
Report to the UPR Working Group by the Center and its partners cites barriers and recommends improvements in access to services including contraception, maternal health, abortion, and adolescent sex education.

Share

  • facebook
  • Twitter
  • linkedin
  • Email id
©Basilio Sepe/ZUMA Press/Alamy

The government of the Philippines has fallen short of its obligations to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services, according to a submission made by the Center for Reproductive Rights and its partners to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group of the U.N. Human Rights Council. 

The report, titled “Report on Philippines’ Compliance with its Human Rights Obligations in the Area of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights,” was submitted on March 29 for the 41st session of the UPR Working Group scheduled for October 2022.

What is a Universal Periodic Review?

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a comprehensive human rights review that takes place for each country before the UN Human Rights Council, usually every four years.

In assessing the Philippines’ compliance with the recommendations that the government accepted and took note of during the third Universal Periodic Review cycle in 2017, the report found that the government has failed to provide adequate access to sexual and reproductive health services. The report offers recommendations to improve access to family planning and contraceptive services, maternal health care, and safe and legal abortion care, and to remove existing barriers to sexual and reproductive healthcare, particularly for adolescents.

In particular, the UPR report analyzed the implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, 2012 (“RPRHA”) and the significant legal, policy and practical barriers to the following issues:

  1. Access to the complete range of contraceptive services and information.
  2. Adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health rights.
  3. Access to maternal health care.
  4. Access to safe and legal abortion and quality post-abortion care.

The report states that the government of the Philippines has infringed a series of human rights as a result of its failure to protect and affirm Filipinos’ SRHR, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the severity of the infringements. 

The report outlines findings in these areas:

Contraceptive Services and Information, Including Modern and Emergency Contraception

Family planning and contraceptive access was severely affected worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, WHO found that family planning and contraception were among the most disrupted services. Similarly, the Philippine Department of Health found that a significant number of hospitals in the country had to prioritize COVID-19 services, and, as a result, delayed the provision of other essential health services such as family planning.

Access to emergency contraceptives has been a huge issue in the Philippines. The problem is twofold: First, the lack of access to emergency contraceptive services threatens the lives of girls and women and discriminates against those who suffered sexual violence; and second, there is a lack of awareness about emergency contraceptive options among Filipinos. 

In consideration of these factors, the report suggests that universal access to contraceptives—including emergency contraceptives—must be achieved and barriers that prevent access to sexual and reproductive health care must be removed.

Adolescents’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights

The adolescent birth rate in the Philippines exceeds the Asia Pacific average and is among the highest in the world. Access to sexual and reproductive health services and information among adolescents, however, is strikingly restrictive. To address the issue of teenage pregnancies, in 2021 the Government passed Executive Order No. 141 (EO 141), which enforced comprehensive sex education programs and other reproductive health services. However, the passage of the proposed law, titled “Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act of 2020”—which calls for a comprehensive, age-appropriate sexuality education for adolescents including out-of-school youth; social protection programs for adolescent mothers, such as accessible maternal health services, workshops, and livelihood programs; as well as medical, legal and other services for those who have been subjected to sexual abuse or violence—has been stalled due to the national elections and opposition by religious and other conservative groups.

Read more.

The Center’s Work in the Philippines

The Imbong v. Ochoa case, a petition filed before the Supreme Court of the Philippines challenging the constitutionality of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, makes access to contraceptives for minors contingent upon the consent of the parents, thereby imposing huge access barriers. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic increased unintended pregnancies, live births, and unmet family planning needs among adolescents. 

The report recommends that age-appropriate sex education be provided—including for out-of-school youth—and laws and policies that impact adolescents’ sexual and reproductive rights be mindful of their evolving capabilities.

Access to Maternal Health Services

The Government passed a progressive law in 2019, the Republic Act No. 11210, increasing maternity leave from 60 to 105 days. This law covers female workers in both public and private sectors and considers situations including miscarriage or emergency termination.

Despite the law, the problem of maternal mortality and morbidity remains a serious one–especially for pregnant women who already have several children, live on low household incomes, or perform heavy household chores. Most maternal deaths are preventable with access to quality health care, but rates of maternal mortality have not improved from the last UPR. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation by reducing access to maternal health care services, which has led to an increase in home births and greater barriers to accessing pre-and post-natal care. 

The report recommends that accessible and quality maternal health care must be a priority—even during the pandemic—including access to misoprostol, an essential drug that prevents postpartum hemorrhage.

Access to Safe and Legal Abortion and Quality Post-Abortion Care

Severe legal restrictions to accessing abortion care have a devastating impact on the health and rights of pregnant people, including an increase in maternal deaths and hospitalization due to complications arising from unsafe abortions. Rather than remedying these issues, the government, most recently, has made abortion access more restrictive by increasing the fine for pharmacists found guilty of dispensing abortifacients without prescription, as well as by declaring “abortion paraphernalia” banned customs items. 

The existing legal, policy and cultural barriers to abortion access have also prejudiced access to post-abortion care. This manifests in poor post-abortion health care infrastructure, discriminatory treatment by health services providers, and fear of being arrested for seeking and providing abortions. 

The report urges that abortion must be completely decriminalized and must be reframed as an essential health intervention. Further, timely and quality access to abortion care must be ensured.

Read the complete UPR submission here:

  • “Report on Philippines’ Compliance with its Human Rights Obligations in the Area of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights”

Tags: UPR, Universal Periodic Review, Philippines, UN Human Rights Council

Related Posts

Accountability for Discrimination Against Women in the Philippines: Key Findings and Recommendations from the CEDAW Committee’s Special Inquiry on Reproductive Rights

A 2007 report by the Center documenting human rights violations associated with Executive Order 003 became the basis for a...

Legal Restrictions, Contraception, Legal Restrictions,Asia, Philippines, Accountability Bodies, United Nations,At the United Nations
Accountability for Discrimination Against Women in the Philippines: Key Findings and Recommendations from the CEDAW Committee’s Special Inquiry on Reproductive Rights

Joint Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Nepal

The joint submission made by the Center and its local partners in July 2020 for Nepal's Universal Periodic Review (UPR)...

Abortion,Asia, Nepal,At the United Nations

Nepal Agrees to Decriminalize Abortion and Protect SRHR

Nepal accepts recommendations from its Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human Rights Council to protect the sexual and reproductive...

Abortion,Asia, Nepal,At the United Nations
Nepal Agrees to Decriminalize Abortion and Protect SRHR

Sign up for email updates.

The most up-to-date news on reproductive rights, delivered straight to you.

Footer Menu

  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Gift Acceptance Policy
  • Contact Us

Center for Reproductive Rights
© (1992-2024)

Use of this site signifies agreement with our disclaimer and privacy policy.

Better Business Bureau Charity Watch Top Rated Center for Reproductive Rights
This site uses necessary, analytics and social media cookies to improve your experience and deliver targeted advertising. Click "Options" or click here to learn more and customize your cookie settings, otherwise please click "Accept" to proceed.
OPTIONSACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_UA-6619340-11 minuteNo description
_gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
_parsely_session30 minutesThis cookie is used to track the behavior of a user within the current session.
HotJar: _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjFirstSeen30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjid1 yearThis cookie is set by Hotjar. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
HotJar: _hjIncludedInPageviewSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjIncludedInSessionSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjTLDTestsessionNo description
SSCVER1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for online advertising by creating user profile based on their preferences.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
_fbp3 monthsThis cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website.
fr3 monthsThe cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.
IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
IMRID1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for storing the start and end of the user session for nielsen statistics. It helps in consumer profiling for online advertising.
personalization_id2 yearsThis cookie is set by twitter.com. It is used integrate the sharing features of this social media. It also stores information about how the user uses the website for tracking and targeting.
TDID1 yearThe cookie is set by CloudFare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising.
test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
adEdition1 dayNo description
akaas_MSNBC10 daysNo description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional1 yearThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others1 yearNo description
geoEdition1 dayNo description
next-i18next1 yearNo description
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo
Scroll Up