NEVER A THING. The lack of access to abortion in the country, contextualized as a safety mechanism to protect life, was never a thing for the purpose of it being life preservation; it only serves to stand as a pretense that further puts peril to the life of the women in outright infraction to their rights and autonomy.

The nonattendance of abortion in the Philippines can be traced back to the dominant presence of a combination of legal, religious, and cultural factors.

The codified legal mechanism for acts that fall under the contemplation of abortion attaches criminal liability to the person who induces their own abortion or to anyone who facilitates the act.

”The current system involving abortion forces the lives of Filipina women into situations they never really wanted but would profoundly alter their lives—risking their dreams and ambitions to a halt—with no other course of action”

The religious and cultural controlling influence surrounding the discourse of abortion classifies the act as absolutely immoral, even equating it to murder.

The opposition to the far-from-realization idea of legalized abortion stems from its claim to uphold the protection of life, as abortion would be an arbitrary violation of the sanctity of life.

However, all should collectively acknowledge that the existence of these chains of ingrained rationalizations prohibiting abortion revitalizes disproportionate harm that only burdens women of all kinds, especially the poor.

The existence of religious, cultural, and legal bars does not put an end to abortion or the prevalence of prejudice to life.

These bars only serve to create a lived reality where unsafe abortion practices are passively endured, widening the disparity in the long-standing fight for gender equality.

Distinctly, in the great number of abortions performed in secrecy, women are the only ones who carry the burden. Women are the ones who bear all the scrutiny and all the fear that come with the act’s entailed consequences, dispersed in subtle to severe forms of legal and cultural backlash, along with serious health risks that may lead to death.

They are the ones subject to emotional, psychological, and physical burden, both in the consummation of the act and in its contemplation, as they are the ones directly affected by the weight of an unwanted pregnancy.

Be that as it may, they should also be the ones to control their bodily autonomy, as they are the ones who solely pay for the high physical, psychological, emotional, and social cost that comes with it.

The current system involving abortion forces the lives of Filipina women into situations they never really wanted but would profoundly alter their lives—risking their dreams and ambitions to a halt—with no other course of action.

The current system crushes women who have the utmost right to decide on their bodies, their breath, and their bones. Their right to bodily autonomy ought not to have any exemptions; they should not be violated first or be in a precarious situation before being normatively allowed to decide what their body will bear.

Women do not exist for the sole reason of bringing a child into the world. They exist just as they are, with their own thoughts, pulse, ambitions, identity, and countless heights to conquer. Reproduction is an aspect of life that is a matter of choice. Reproductive rights should be embedded in the system.

Decriminalizing and destigmatizing abortion will uphold the sanctity of life, as it will save the lives of women endangered by the current status of abortion in the Philippines.

In the unceasing weakness of sufficient measures and societal acceptance toward even proper sex education and access to contraceptives, the decriminalization of abortion does not in any way materialize the fear of encouraging immorality within society, but only affirms what autonomy and choice are for women in essence—life, dignity, and freedom.

All things considered, may an environment be synthesized where women’s voices are heard in their entirety, not overpowered by those who do not concern themselves with understanding even the slightest touch of the sufferings that our women carry. And when that comes to pass, perhaps the fate of us women would not be steered by nothing but by our true selves, in the story written exactly how we want and need it to be. 

As women of all kinds are honored across the month, I, as a fraction of the lived experiences of women in this modern day, can only hope that every woman would be championed, celebrated, and heard today and always.