Gabriela’s research on abortion chose five provinces and one metropolitan city, which they deliberately selected from the country’s three major islands. These provinces are Negros Occidental and Cebu for the Visayas, Davao and Cagayan de Oro for Mindanao, and Metro Manila and Benguet for Luzon. They chose to search women from these areas who had abortion because of these areas’ relatively “high level of urbanization and pertinent demographic characteristics.”
In choosing their respondents, the researchers focused on women who had abortion in the past seven years, to ensure the memories they would recall for the survey are more “reliable.”
Majority of the participants are in their reproductive years (20-39 years), with the average at age 29. For every 10, there are four married and three single, while the rest are in a live-in relationship or are single mother. Almost nine in 10 are Roman Catholic. A significant number either reached college or graduated from it. Only a few stopped schooling at the elementary level.
When asked whether their monthly household incomes are sufficient or not, seven out 10 respondents said it is not.
Almost eight out of 10 participants had one abortion experience, the rest had multiple abortions. Across provinces, the incidence of multiple abortions was relatively high in Davao (at 46%) and relatively low in Cagayan de Oro (at 14%).
On the nature of abortion, the researchers noted that all participants had induced the abortion of their pregnancies. The average number of months of pregnancy when participants had their abortions is 2.52 months. Almost nine out of 10 said the abortion took place within their town or city, implying that despite the criminalization of abortion, access to it — within their locality — has promoted the decision for abortion.
But the research also noted that only a few of them had their abortions done in places considered as clinically safe, such as in clinics (only one in 10), meaning nine out of 10 had abortions in places considered clinically unsafe and in the process had thus exposed themselves to greater health risks.
The decision to undergo abortion was a personal decision made by more than eight out of 10 participants to the survey. More than nine out of 10 said they are aware that abortion is “illegal” and a “sin.”
The researchers also noted that it is “quite significant that four out of every five participants to the survey do not wish to have another abortion.”
State of Abortion
One and a half years in the making, the Gabriela study aimed to capture the state of abortion in the Philippines with a view of coming up with policy and program recommendations and interventions to address the problem of unsafe abortion in particular and the promotion of women’s reproductive health and rights in general.
In conclusion, the research finds that abortion in the Philippines cuts across age, socio-economic status, educational background, marital status and religion, but it becomes more of a burden for poor women who mostly live in rural and poor urban communities. The researchers reported that although abortion is regarded as a moral issue, women are compelled to resort to it because “unwanted pregnancies are defined by economic considerations.”
Given their findings and conclusions, the researchers listed some recommendations. These include strengthening women’s organizations toward improving access to health services and prevention of unsafe abortion; training and education for primary health care providers; provisions on pre-during-post abortion intervention services that focus more on preventive measures; comprehensive review and assessment of laws and policies toward a more humane legislations respectful of human and sexual and reproductive health and rights; and conducting in-depth research studies relating to the male participation in the abortion experience of women, among others. (Bulatlat.com)
