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The significant reduction in maternal and infant mortality in the Philippines...

Press Statements

The significant reduction in maternal and infant mortality in the Philippines as reported by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is partly attributable to the passage and implementation of the Reproductive Health Act since December 2012 according to Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, the principal author of the RH Law or RA 10354. 

The UNICEF-led United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation report showed that infant mortality in the country decreased by almost half in 2018 or 40 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 22 deaths in 2018. More Filipino children have also survived past five years old, with deaths dropping to 63,000 in 2018 from 113,000 in 1990.

The report also disclosed that 24% less Filipino mothers died from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications. This translates to 121 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2017 down from 160 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000.

Lagman said that there will be more positive outcomes if the law is fully implemented with adequate funding and stronger political will by the implementors. 

The RH Law has the following principal objectives:

  1. Help give parents the opportunity to exercise their right to freely and responsibly plan the number and spacing of their children through family planning information and services. 

  2. Improve maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition and reduce maternal, infant and child mortality. 

  3. Give women more opportunities to finish their education and secure productive work. Access to family planning information and services ensures maternal health and frees women to pursue opportunities in education and employment. 

  4. Help reduce poverty and achieve sustainable human development. Reproductive health, family planning and mitigation of our population growth rate must be a component of the development agenda.

  5. Lower the incidence of abortion by preventing unplanned, mistimed and unwanted pregnancies.

Secretary Ernesto Pernia of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) lamented during the proposed 2020 budget briefings that the country’s family planning and population program is underfunded.

In a letter to the Committee on Appropriations, Pernia and Executive Director Juan Antonio A. Perez of the Population Commission (POPCOM) requested augmentation for the funding on family planning in the amount of P1,100,000,000 under POPCOM alone.

To complement the RH Law, President Rodrigo Duterte issued Executive Order No. 12 on January 9, 2017 to achieve zero unmet need for modern contraceptives. 

There is intensified focus on the sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls as the world celebrates this year the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), of which the Philippines is a signatory to ICPD’s Program of Action.

 

 

EDCEL C. LAGMAN