A few years ago, this column tackled the issue of “Rape and the hook-up culture” (May 17, 2014). Sadly, the rape numbers for the Philippines essentially remain disturbing.
According to the Philippine Commission on Women, 4% of women age 15-49 experienced forced first sexual intercourse and 10% of women age 15-49 experienced sexual violence.
The Center for Women’s Resource reported that cases of rape “have reached an alarming level. For the year 2010, a total of 4,572 cases of rape were documented by the Women and Children Protection Center of the Philippine National Police (WCPC-PNP), 19 of which were incestuous or perpetrated by a victim’s blood relative. This was equivalent to a 13% increase in reported cases of rape and incest from 4,048 in 2009.”
Philippine National Police data do indicate an 11.65% drop in rape, from 4,301 in 2015 to 3,800 in 2016. The true figures, however, could be much higher. Of course, there’s also the reported alleged rape committed by elements within the PNP itself.
It is partly due to the tragic reality of women impregnated due to rape that moves to legalize abortion in the Philippines became foreseeable. The argument has a strong emotional pull. Whether it is the right thing to do is another matter.
One statistic brought up was the Alan Guttmacher Institute’s finding that around 50% of Philippine pregnancies were unintended. This, however, should be distinguished from pregnancies arising from rape. To put a not too fine point: unintended pregnancies do not necessarily mean the sexual act was also unintended and non-consensual.
The Philippines is not alone with regard to banning abortions. From the World Economic Forum, “26 countries still ban abortion altogether, with no explicit legal reason for exception” and a “further 37 countries ban abortion unless it is necessary to save the life of the woman. These include major economies such as Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia and the UAE.”
In the Philippines (although our laws don’t expressly say so), if doctors fully intending to save a mother’s life effected fetal abortion as an unfortunate happenstance such should arguably not lead to criminal prosecution.
Nevertheless, whether the Philippines is alone or not isn’t important. The one question that truly matters is: can a deliberately intended abortion be ever considered right?
Sandra Mahkorn, (MD, MPH, MS and former counselor for sexual assault victims) puts that issue in perspective: “The number and percent of pregnancies resulting from rape is frequently overstated. There are two main reasons why relatively few rapes result in pregnancy. The average rate of pregnancy from a single act of unprotected sexual intercourse ranges from 2 to 4 percent. In addition, 10.9 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age are infertile and over 41 percent have undergone surgical sterilization or are using a continuous form of contraception, reducing (though not eliminating) the likelihood of pregnancy. A survey of U.S. women’s reasons for choosing abortion found that only one percent reported ‘rape’ as a reason and less than one half of one percent reported that rape was the main reason.”
“The abortion rate among rape victims (50 percent) is not substantially higher than among all women who report an ‘unintended pregnancy’ (40 percent). The majority of those who decided against abortion chose to raise their child, while a small percentage opted for adoption. A study of 164 such women found that the majority of those who had abortions regretted having done so and said the abortion caused them additional problems.”
Ultimately, however, as Dr. Mahkorn points out: “we are dealing not with a statistical issue, but a human one.”
So, setting aside what’s basically a tautological argument that abortion is “a choice”: what exactly is being aborted?
Princeton’s Robert George’s remarks before the American Political Science Association Convention is relevant: “A human being is conceived when a human sperm containing twenty-three chromosomes fuses with a human egg also containing twenty-three chromosomes (albeit of a different kind) producing a single-cell human zygote containing, in the normal case, forty-six chromosomes that are mixed differently from the forty-six chromosomes as found in the mother or father. Unlike the gametes (that is, the sperm and egg), the zygote is genetically unique and distinct from its parents. Biologically, it is a separate organism.”
Thusly, anybody can now logically conclude, as George does, that: “The scientific evidence establishes the fact that each of us was, from conception, a human being. Science, not religion, vindicates this crucial premise of the pro-life claim. From it, there is no avoiding the conclusion that deliberate feticide is a form of homicide.”
This is why abortion, intended or in negligence, is considered criminal under the Revised Penal Code.
This is why rights are granted to the unborn under the Civil Code
This is why the unborn is protected under the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
This is why we call pregnant women “nagdadalang tao.”
A good society knows this.
Jemy Gatdula is a senior fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence.
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