CEDAW/C/SR.748 (A) all workers. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration had special pre-departure orientation seminars that focused in particular on women in more vulnerable employment situations, such as domestic workers. The seminars provided detailed information on what the employment contracts involved, as well as an introduction to the culture of the country of destination. 15. Ms. Cabral (Philippines) said that while there were adequate mechanisms for those who sought work abroad through formal channels, the Department of Labour and Employment was less able to assist women who left on tourist visas and then looked for work while abroad. The Department tried to find and monitor those women too, so as to be able to help them if they found themselves in difficulties. 16. Ms. Nieto (Philippines), on the subject of reproductive health, pointed out that the Philippines was a signatory to the Convention, international instruments on population and development, and the Millennium Declaration, and that the Department of Health had clearly articulated the country’s reproductive health programme. By 2015 all citizens would enjoy appropriate, accessible, high-quality, gender-responsive reproductive health services. The relevant administrative orders were already in place, including the policies governing safe motherhood and the prevention and management of abortion and its complications. The national family planning policy included a strategic plan for 2002-2006, with guidelines for the management of donated contraceptive commodities and for cooperation between the public and private sectors in the delivery of health services. Reproductive health policy focused on the couple’s right to decide on matters of fertility, and the need to match population growth to economic growth and thus contribute to sustainable development. The four pillars of reproductive health were responsible parenthood, birth spacing, informed choice, and respect for life, and the Government’s responsibility was to provide information on those methods of contraception that were safe and legal. Although some cities had banned artificial contraceptives, the Government would always provide them through the public health service, because informed choice was the right of every couple. 17. As for the high rate of maternal deaths, the Department of Health had a project to promote safe 4 motherhood, which included improving the delivery of women’s health services, strengthening the capacity of local authorities, establishing partnerships with NGOs and communities, and establishing research programmes. The measures to improve service delivery included a campaign for safe pregnancy with family planning services for men and women, provided under a public-private partnership where the private sector supplied the contraceptives and the public sector, the services. The Government promoted both natural and artificial family planning methods. While it was true that some local administrations banned artificial contraceptives, government hospitals supplied them with the help of NGOs and other civil-society or religious organizations. There were even volunteer health workers, trained to take the family planning campaign from door to door. 18. As for abortion, in 2000 there had been 473,408 induced abortions in the Philippines. Induced abortions accounted for 76 per cent of abortion-related hospital admissions and 12 per cent of maternal deaths, with unsafe abortion being the fourth most important cause of maternal deaths in the country. The maternal mortality ratio was 107 deaths per 100,000 live births. Of the 2.6 million pregnancies in 2000, 55 per cent had been unintended. Abortion was a crime under article 259 of the revised Penal Code, and there were no plans to change the commitment to protect the life of the unborn child and its mother, enshrined in the country’s Constitution. There had, however, been no prosecutions for criminal abortion. Women had access to quality services for the prevention and management of abortion complications, with health practitioners trained in counselling, infection prevention and clinical management of such complications. As for the issue of what was included in the concept of natural family planning, there was the rhythm method, and also the Billings method. 19. Ms. Cabral (Philippines) added, with respect to the prosecution of minors, that the new Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act had raised the age of criminal responsibility from 9 to 15, and that even a minor over 15 could not be prosecuted unless her ability to discern her criminal responsibility had been established by the court. 20. Ms. Zou wondered why, if no one had ever been prosecuted for abortion, the Philippines should not modify the Penal Code and decriminalize abortion. 06-46703