In Progress

In 2005, the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) completed a global policy research project on Health Sector Reforms, Maternal Mortality and Abortion across many countries representing various regions of the economic South. Lalaine Viado wrote the Philippine report covering the period 1964-2004.

This exhaustive undertaking retraced the history of population and reproductive health and rights issues in the country, and the dynamics of the political and ideological forces that held stake, then and now, on the state of the nation in these issues. Besides attending to the original objectives of the project, this wide coverage also meant to provide an avenue to review and refresh energies for reproductive rights advocacies in the country, guide new advocates, and determine how else to move forward.

This article draws mainly from the 50-page DAWN Philippine research report written by the author and discusses some of the findings, specifically on the issue of unsafe abortion.