Groups supportive of the controversial Reproductive Health law picketed outside the Supreme Court Tuesday to call on justices to declare the law, meant to address unwanted pregnancies and maternal deaths, constitutional.
The law, which had to go through months of debate before being passed in December, was supposed to be implemented by March 31. Petitions by religious organizations saying the law violates the constitution prompted the high court to issue a status quo ante order until the issue is resolved. Because of the order, the law cannot yet be implemented.
Oral arguments have been set for June 18, when petitioners and government lawyers present their sides of the debate.
“The Constitution speaks of equality, justice and the rights to life and health. Surely these principles pertain to mothers who are living and breathing beings, on whom many other lives depend; more than they do to non-existent fertilized eggs that religious groups claim to perceive,” Dr. Junice Melgar, executive director of Likhaan, said in a Sun Star Online report.
The letter said it was cruel that medicine and technology that has already proven to not induce abortions cannot be used by mothers because of the religious beliefs of the petitioners.
Likhaan and other members of the Purple Ribbon movement read out a letter called “Mothers’ Letter to the Justices of the Supreme Court.” Copies of the letter were also were sent to each of the 15 justices.
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Photo: File photo from Philippine Commission on Women
