Position Paper on

Legalization
of Abortion

Georcel Janine V. Yu
 I. Introduction

Identification of the Issue:

Resolved, that abortion in the Philippines should be legalized.

Statement of the Position:

Abortion in the Philippines should be legalized.
II. Body

We know for a fact that people is the most important resource of any country. The
more people a country has, the greater is its workforce, and the richer it is when it comes
to manpower resources. However, too much of it is not very ideal, especially for
developing countries like ours, the Philippines.
It is also needless to mention that the population of our country is rapidly
increasing. Abortion should be legalized because it is a means of controlling the
population of our country. Is this not the ground why Reproductive Health Law was
passed? However, this law is slightly given importance. Given the economic condition of
our country, and the financial capability of poor women who can hardly raise a child,
abortion could be a feasible solution. Raising a child without any financial capability will
contribute to unemployment, malnutrition, starvation, and poverty (Ehrlich, 1968). Any
probable parent would necessarily want their would-be child to be raised in an ideal
environment. Now, if abortion is prohibited and illegal, this aim will just be a dream.
Many of our countrys birth could be attributed to improper family planning,
unwanted pregnancy, premarital sex, and the likes. Because of this, many women resort
to abortion; many of which is unsafe, causing them different health problems. This is why
abortion in our country should be legalized.
Abortion should be legalized for the ground that abortion will still continue to happen and
put womens health at risk even after it is banned. According to statistics by Guttmacher
Institute, a leading research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and
reproductive health and rights, 37% of births in the Philippines from 2003-2008 is
unplanned, 20% is mistimed, and 16% is unwanted. The World Health Organization
estimated in 2004 that unsafe abortions cause 68,000 maternal deaths worldwide each
year, many of those in developing countries where safe and legal abortion services are
difficult to access. Because legal methods of abortion is difficult to access in our country
for the mere fact that it is banned, women resort to unsafe methods instead.
Also, because of the economic condition of women in the lower bracket of our society,
these poor women are more likely to experience and seek abortion under unsafe
conditions. About 1,000 Filipino women die each year from abortion complications, and
this contributes to the high mortality ratio of our country (Guttmacher.org).

III. Conclusion:

Because of the above-mentioned situations, abortion should be legalized in the country.

Sources:
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/gender-issues/92590-abortion-philippines-
legalization
http://www.prb.org/pdf05/unsafeabortion.pdf
https://www.guttmacher.org/report/unintended-pregnancy-and-unsafe-abortion-
philippines-context-and-consequences
Paul R. Ehrlich, PhD, The Population Bomb, 1968
Elisabeth Ahman and Iqbal Shah, World Health Organization, Unsafe Abortion: Global
and Regional Estimates of the Incidence of Unsafe Abortion and Associated Mortality in
2000, Fourth Edition, 2004