By Chryssa Celestino. Image courtesy of Preen.ph
Dear Supreme Court,
How are you? I know the past years had been rough dealing with Sen. Leila de Lima, China, and the election tantrums of former senator Bongbong Marcos. In case you need someone to talk to, there’s a long line of impoverished mothers and female minors who have plenty to say to you. (Please be patient with their crying children. They don’t know what to do with them yet.)
It has been years since you issued a temporary restraining order that keeps the government from doing what they need to do: the full, constitutional implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012. You’ve kept them from releasing and distributing contraceptive implants to poor communities, which could’ve offered three years of contraceptive protection to women seeking free and proper family planning services.
And—because you enjoy being a buzzkill—you’ve expanded the TRO to “cover the certification and re-certification of all contraceptives under the RH Law.” You’ve discredited the hard, scientific work of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) that has already determined the safety of their use.
Now by next year, if you don’t get your shit together, 90 percent of contraceptive brands will be off the market—all because you succumbed to peer pressure.
Naturally, my polycystic ovaries are mad. They’ve only recently made friends with Diane-35 (my birth control pill) and the miracle that is a regular menstrual cycle—something I’ve asked for since I was 13. Many other women have also relied on contraceptives like mine, either to treat misbehaving hormones or prevent unwanted pregnancies.
I’m sorry, which part of this medication is—as the anti-RH groups claim—anti-life and immoral again? Because if my vocabulary serves me right, “anti-life” means going against our personal purpose of existing while “immoral” is defined as defying conventional morality. If living, for us, means being able to focus on our studies and careers, rearing children when we’re mentally, emotionally, and financially ready, and having the best sex of our lives, why keep us from it? If immorality also applies to denying us of our basic right to choose and live, why are you letting this happen?
You don’t have to reply now. But please address this soon. Unless you’re taking care of the unplanned kids of unprepared women or feeling our PCOS-related cramps for us, then by all means.
Hate to pressure you. We’re all just scared to see our population balloon to 105.7 million, where lots of women of reproductive age are projected to give birth to babies they’re not ready for.
Oh, wait. That’s the reality already. Damn it.
Lift the TRO soon,
All the women here