28 March 2014
Women workers from Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) joined women from different
sectors - government officials, civil society partners, young people,
and celebrity supporters - in the march to urge the Supreme Court Justices
to uphold the Reproductive Health Law.
The march will start at Anda Circle at 2pm, pass by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ office in Intramuros, and proceed to the Supreme Court in Padre Faura, and hold a program at Plaza Salamanca, Taft Avenue. Attendees will march in purple shirts and accessories.
“More pregnant women are dying with the delay in the implementation of the RH Law. Teen pregnancies are increasing and girls getting pregnant are younger and younger with the delay in the implementation of the RH Law. HIV/AIDS rates are likewise increasing, young men and women are denied of necessary services with the delay in the implementation of the RH Law,” claimed PM Secretary General Judy Ann Miranda.
PM also
noted that a Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) study (Labstat
Vol. 17, No. 8, May 2013) showed that most of the women inactive in the labor
force are 20-39 year-olds, poor, and either elementary or high school
levels/graduates. They are inactive
because besides spending most of their time in childrearing and domestic work,
they are also those women with the most number of children born in fairly close
succession.
Hence, these
women are poor because right from the beginning, they have been denied by the
government, with the Catholic Church’s influence, their right to reproductive
health.
“Too many lives and futures have been
sacrificed. We urge the Supreme Court to
end the silent carnage and uphold the RH Law,” Miranda ended.
