The Philippines legislature's decision to eliminate funding for contraception will fuel HIV infections, maternal deaths and teen pregnancies, particularly among poor girls and women, reproductive rights advocates said on Friday.
MANILA: The Philippines legislature's decision to eliminate funding
for contraception will fuel HIV infections, maternal deaths and teen
pregnancies, particularly among poor girls and women, reproductive
rights advocates said on Friday.
The decision to cut the US$21
million contraceptive budget surprised and infuriated legislators and
advocacy groups who had struggled more than a decade to pass the
Reproductive Health Law that guaranteed funds to provide contraceptives
to the poor.
"We are so insulted by this. It is a violation of the
very essence of a law that Congress itself enacted," said Rom Dongeto,
executive director of the Philippine Legislators' Committee on
Population and Development Foundation (PLCPD) comprised of lawmakers and
members of civil society.
"Women are dying from maternal
complications, teens are getting pregnant and people are dying from
HIV-related causes. Lives of Filipino citizens are at stake," he told
the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.
The Philippines, a
largely Catholic archipelago nation of about 100 million people, has
struggled to manage its burgeoning population and seen skyrocketing
HIV
infection rates in recent years.
Source: Channel Asia...More...
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