6. Restrictions on Abortion Disproportionately Harm Poor Women and Perpetuate Poverty Restrictive laws on abortion disproportionately impact poor women who are more often forced to resort to riskier methods of abortion49 without access to safer options. Unlike women from higher economic backgrounds who can afford skilled providers or travel abroad to undergo legal and safe abortions, most poor women rely on herbal concoctions, painful abdominal massages, or the insertion of a catheter or other object into the uterus to terminate a pregnancy, treatments which most often result in complications and life-threatening injuries.50 Poverty and socio-economic status are also significant factors for women when deciding whether or not to undergo an abortion. Poor women face disproportionate barriers in accessing contraceptive information and services that would help prevent unintended pregnancies.51 In addition to lack of access to contraceptives, cost also factors into many women’s decisionmaking. An estimated three out of four women who have had an abortion identified their inability to shoulder the costs of raising a child as a reason for their decision.52 The CEDAW Committee, in recognizing the link between violating a woman’s right to control her fertility and poverty in the Philippines, stated that by “limiting women’s rights to freely choose the number and spacing of their children, women and girls [are] effectively undermined in accessing and pursuing the same education and employment opportunities as men, thereby [driving them] further into or maintained in poverty.”53 In another report, the CEDAW Committee noted that there is a “direct correlation between the adverse effects of the criminalization of abortion and worsening socio-economic status” and that the “criminalization of abortion has a particularly adverse impact on women in situations of poverty.”54 HAYDEE’S STORY: FEARING FOR HER LIFE Haydee, a married mother of one living in a poor, urban, and informal settlement, developed severe hypertension during her first pregnancy. During her second pregnancy, she suffered a stroke that left her face temporarily paralyzed and ultimately led to the termination of her pregnancy. As a result of her history, Haydee was warned not to become pregnant again because it could be fatal. Due to financial and practical barriers in accessing safe contraceptives to use with her medical condition, Haydee experienced two subsequent unintended pregnancies. Fearing for her life, she sought an abortion for both pregnancies. Despite the fatal condition of her pregnancy, private doctors denied her request for an abortion on both occasions because they said it was a “sin.” Haydee was forced to resort to induce an abortion herself by taking Cytotec, a brand of misoprostol, at home without medical guidance. While the first abortion did not result in any serious complications, her subsequent attempt caused heavy bleeding for more than four weeks. When Haydee sought medical treatment at a government hospital, the staff coerced her into admitting that she had induced the abortion, scolded her for committing a “sin” and “killing her own child,” and threatened to report her to the National Bureau of Investigation.19 8 REALIZING A HEALTHY, EQUAL, AND THRIVING PHILIPPINES