Legal Primer on Reproductive Health

In the midst of the noise and onslaught of information (and disinformation) on the reproductive health bill pending in both Houses of Congress, this primer endeavors to shape the legal framework for reproductive health. It looks at the debated and recurrent issues concerning said bills and aims to clarify the legal issues besetting its passage.

The primer tackes RH as four distinct but interrelated topics, to wit: (1) Constitutional Law issues; (2) Family Law issues including women’s and children’s rights; (3) International Law issues; and (4) The internationally protected right to health. The Primer does underscore that reproductive rights are human rights already recognized by the Philippines in the various international human rights instruments it signed and on the basis of our own Constitution and extant statute laws.