The crowd of 4,000 was silenced but strong reactions of disbelief reverberated in the room.
This was the atmosphere when a video showing images and stories of Filipino women’s struggles for the passage of the reproductive health law was shown during a plenary session in the recently-concluded Women Deliver 2013 conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The audience gasped as two mothers – one with 22 children, and the other with 16 – told their stories. The three-minute video portrayed the triumph of reproductive health advocates against the odds, showing the global audience how political will and the resilience of pro-reproductive health civil society groups, activists, and legislators won against a formidable foe – the Catholic hierarchy.
The crowd cheered on the Filipino delegates and the Philippines’ experience became a much talked about topic during the conference.
The figures are hard to ignore. The statistics on maternal health is overwhelming. Everyday, approximately 800 women die while pregnant and during childbirth. That’s more than 280,000 women dying across the globe, and 99 per cent of these maternal deaths occur in developing countries like the Philippines. Here, 14 to 15 Filipino mothers die everyday due to pregnancy and childbirth complications because of lack of support by previous governments for interventions that would increase access of women, especially the poor, to reproductive health services and information
The 1,000-day countdown leading to the deadline set to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in 2015 has begun. While there are countries who have achieved their targets, there are still many nations lagging behind.
The Philippines is one of the countries not likely to achieve Goal 5 – reducing maternal mortality from 162 to 52 per 100,000 live births. While the country has made strides in achieving the other targets, the commitment to universal access to reproductive health and addressing the high maternal mortality rate remain the biggest challenge.
Jill Sheffield, Founder of Women Deliver said in the opening and closing program that each delegate should take away at least one thought, learning, good idea or practice from the conference that could be implemented in their countries.
These thoughts and lessons could be used to start conversations, discussions or actions. But what lies ahead for all Filipinos who attended the conference is the final hurdle for the RH Law – overcoming the many petitions filed in the Supreme Court against its implementation.
Advocates never expected it to be easy. In fact, they never expected the signing of the bill into a law. But the evidences – statistics, images and stories of women and girls – are the driving forces that kept them going.
Are they being overly optimistic with the battle ahead in the Supreme Court? For the millions of women, men and girls denied of quality reproductive health services, the thousands of women who put their lives on the line with every birth, and with majority of Filipinos behind them, there is no reason not to.
(Text and photo by Chi Laigo Vallido, Advocacy Specialist from The Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc.)
