women denied access to basic reproductive health service

Why women denied access to basic reproductive health services? According to Atty. Claire Padilla, Executive Director of EnGendeRights, Inc.., The blame falls on Mayor Atienza’s EO.003 Series of 2000. The EO promotes the use of natural family planning and “discourages the use of artificial methods of contraceptives, like condoms, pills, intrauterine devices, surgical sterilization.”

This policy of promoting NFP alone has cost many poor women in Manila significantly, “As a consequence, some of them ended up many as eight more children than they actually desired, While the national average would only show that women usually have one child more than they desired , the disparity between desired and actual number of children is greater for poor women,’ In addition, according to Atty. Padilla, poor women are further impacted by EO 003 because they ´do not have the money to pay for their own contraceptives supplies and counseling from private doctors,” unlike the wealthier in Manila.