Group backing bill empowering women

The Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, a non-government organization with 36 chapters and clinics nationwide is supporting the Women Empowerment Bill authored by Cebu 6th district Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz.

If passed, House Bill 3744 or An Act Eliminating Discrimination, Ensuring Welfare Services and Empowering Women in Vulnerable Situations and Prescribing Penalties in Violation Thereof will make it a crime for government or private institutions of care that provide regular and organized welfare and health services to deny women information, services and care especially if they are in vulnerable situations.

Such institutions will include among others, social welfare offices, orphanages, homes for the aged, women and children protection units, workplace clinics, NGO clinics, freestanding clinics and similar institutions.

In a statement during the public hearing for the bill on March 29 at the House of Representatives, the FPOP described the bill as a laudable piece of legislation that will help remove barriers to the enjoyment of women's fundamental rights to swift, competent and humane care if and when such is sought from said institutions.

The bill was filed amidst observations that a growing number of health care institutions fail to respond to women's gender-specific needs and a common tendency to treat patients and clients seeking care in a discriminatory manner.

"The march towards development can never be complete if we leave behind those who are least able to care for themselves because they are poor, sick, old, abused, caught in war, displaced from their homelands, or are working in exploitative conditions," said FPOP executive director Rhodora Roy.

She added that every society has a duty to ensure that women in these situations get priority.

One of the important features of the bill is making mandatory the adoption of the Gender Responsive Standards of Care, a set of standards that health care institutions must adhere to in order to ensure that people seeking their services are treated with respect and dignity and their right to privacy and confidentiality and informed decision-making are protected. - Gregg M. Rubio