A Position Paper on the Illegalization of Abortion in the Philippines

Introduction

The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child,
what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/abortion-quotes

Abortion is the ending of pregnancy by removing a fetus or embryo before it can survive outside
the uterus. Historically, abortions have been attempted using herbal medicines, sharp took, with
force or through other traditional methods. In many places there is much debate over moral,
ethical and legal issues of abortion. Those who oppose abortion often maintain that an embryo or
fetus is a human with a right to life and may compare abortion to murder.

Counter Argument

If ever abortion will be legalized, it could provide safety because women can receive the
proper health care required to make sure they are safe and don’t sustain any life threatening
injuries from an unprofessional.

However, abortion is not the option, thus pregnant women need support and help. PPFI
advocated more education programs, maternal and child care services and economic and social
development programs that would help stop “rape, incest, sex outside of marriage and other
causes of unwanted pregnancies”.

Another one is, the legalization of abortion would give a peace of mind to the woman,
especially when the pregnancy was a result of rape. She could become depressed, resent the
child, be reminded of her experience every time she sets eyes on her pregnant belly or her child,
and she needs to undergo abortion because of the certain condition.

But as Josephine Imbong, a CBCP Legal Counsel said, abortion should not be allowed
under any circumstances, including rape or incest. It will not give peace of mind to the mother,
hence, her conscience will be chasing her for taking the life of the unborn child, well in fact, it is
not the baby’s fault. The mother should accuse not the baby but the person who was the reason
of her suffering.

My Argument
 Abortion is not safe to women’s health. It is dangerous because it maintains the status who
where many medical providers threaten women with prosecution in cases of intrauterine fetal
death, spontaneous abortion due to trauma from intimate partner violence and self-induced
abortion. In year 2012, it shows that 610,000 women resorted to abortion, over 100,000 women
were hospitalized and 3 women die every day due to unsafe abortion complications. According
also to methodology, estimates of deaths vary and it have ranged from 37,000 to 70,000 in the
past decade, deaths from unsafe abortion account for around 13% of all maternal death.

Abortion is a crime. Individual human life begins at fertilization, and therefore abortion is
the immoral killing of an innocent human being. It inflicts suffering on the unborn child, and
that, it is unfair to allow abortion when couples who cannot biologically conceive are waiting to
adopt. A push to legalize abortion in the Philippines is “unacceptable” because the country

“Should be saving lives, not taking them.” The act is criminalized by Philippine law. Articles
256,258 AND 259 0f the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines mandate imprisonment for
women who undergo abortion, as well as for any person who assist in the procedure. According
to CPCP New, the Pro- Life Philippines Foundation, Inc. (PPFI) has countered that induced
abortion is “ the deliberate termination of the life of an innocent human being and therefore, it is
a crime.”

Life begins at conception, so unborn babies are human being with a right to life. Upon
fertilization, human individual is created with a unique genetic identity that remains unchanged
throughout his or her life. This individual has a fundamental right to life, which must be
protected. Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who discovered the chromosome abnormality
that causes Down syndrome, stated that “To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place
a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion. The human nature of
human being from conception to old age is not a metaphysical contention, it is plain
experimental evidence.

Conclusion

Abortion is not safe to women’s health because there are complications due to unsafe
abortion. There are also providers threaten women with prosecution in cases of intrauterine fetal
dental and spontaneous abortion due to trauma from self induced abortion.

Abortion is also considered as a crime because the human life begins at fertilization, and
killing the innocent human being is immoral.

Life begins at conception so unborn babies are human being with a right to life. This individual
has a fundamental right to life, which must be protected.
1. The facts in this section are taken from the following: F. Beck, D. B. Moffat, and D. P.
Davies, Human Embryology, Second edition (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985); Keith L.
Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, Second edition
(Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1977); Andre E. Hellegers, “Fetal Development,”
in Biomedical Ethics, editor, Thomas A. Mappes and Jane S. Zembaty (New York:
Macmillan, 1981), pp. 405-409; and Stephen M. Krason, Abortion: Politics, Morality, and
the Constitution(Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984), pp. 337-349.
2. Subcommittee on Separation of Powers, report to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97th
Congress, 1st Session, 1981, as quoted in Norman L. Geisler, Christian Ethics: Options and
Issues (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989), 149.
3. James J. Diamond, M.D., "Abortion, Animation and Biological Hominization," Theological
Studies 36 (June 1975): 305-42.
4. Stephen M. Krason, Abortion: Politics, Morality, and the Constitution(Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 1984), p. 341.
5. John T. Noonan, “The Experience of Pain by the Unborn,” in The Zero People, Jeff Lane
Hensley, editor (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Servant, 1983), pp. 141-56.
6. Ibid., pp. 151-52.
7. See Mortimer Rosen, "The Secret Brain: Learning Before Birth," Harper's, April 1978, pp.
46-47.
8. See Michael Tooley, Abortion and Infanticide (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983); and Peter
Singer and Helga Kuhse, “On Letting Handicapped Infants Die,” in The Right Thing to Do,
James Rachels, editor (New York: Random House, 1989).
9. John Warwick Montgomery, Slaughter of the Innocents(Westchester, IL: Crossway, 1981),
p. 37. For more on quickening,see ibid., pp. 103-119; and David W. Louisell and John T.
Noonan,“Constitutional Balance,” in The Morality of Abortion, pp. 223-26.
10. Robert Wennberg, Life in the Balance: Exploring the Abortion Controversy (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985), p. 77.
11. Peter Singer and Helga Kuhse, “On Letting Handicapped Infants Die,” in The Right Thing to
Do, James Rachels, editor (New York: Random House, 1989), p. 146.
12. Robert Wennberg, Life in the Balance: Exploring the Abortion Controversy (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985), pp. 77-78.
13. Baruch Brody, Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: A Philosophical View(Cambridge,
MA: M.I.T. Press, 1975).
14. Ibid., p. 102.
15. Andrew Varga, The Main Issues in Bioethics, Second edition (New York: Paulist Press,
1984), pp. 61-62.
16. Ibid., 62.
17. Baruch Brody, Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: A Philosophical View(Cambridge,
MA: M.I.T. Press, 1975), pp. 113-114.
18. A. Chadwick Ray, "Humanity, Personhood, and Abortion," International Philosophical
Quarterly 25 (1985), p. 238.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Andrew Varga, The Main Issues in Bioethics, Second edition (New York: Paulist Press,
1984), pp. 62-63.
22. Ibid., p. 63.
23. Jane English, “Abortion and the Concept of a Person,” in Biomedical Ethics, Thomas A.
Mappes and Jane S. Zembatty, editors (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), p. 430.
24. Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989) in United States Law Week 57 (July 1989):
p. 5040.
25. For a defense of this view, see Richard Werner, "Abortion: The Ontological and Moral Status
of the Unborn," Social Policy and Practice 3 (1974): pp. 201-202.
26. See Joel Feinberg, “Grounds For Coercion,” in Ethical Theory and Social Issues, David Theo
Goldberg, editor (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1989), pp. 307-315.
27. A. Chadwick Ray, "Humanity, Personhood, and Abortion," International Philosophical
Quarterly 25 (1985), p. 240.
28. Peter Kreeft, “Human Personhood Begins at Conception,” in Journal of Biblical Ethics in
Medicine 4 (Winter 1990), p. 11.
29. Michael Tooley, Abortion and Infanticide (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983).
30. Mary Anne Warren, “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion,” in Biomedical Ethics, pp.
417-423.

PRESENTED BY: PRESENTED TO:

BRYAN JOCSON RJ T. NORBE