Moreover, women with disabilities often experience discriminatory treatment,
particularly from HSPs. This ranges from insensitive remarks to blatant nullity of their
SRHR. Below were direct quotations from the conduct of FGDs, and public hearings from
NCR and CAR, to illustrate:
● “Ba’t pa kasi kayo nanganganak eh bulag naman kayo.” (“Why are you still
getting pregnant, when you are blind?”)
● “Bakit kasi ganyang edad eh nag-asawa ka pa?” (“Why get married at your
age?”)
● "Magpa-ligate ka na kasi hindi mo naman kayang mag-anak, tama na yang isa
lang. Eh kasi pag nagkaanak ka ulit, iiwan ka ulit ng asawa mo!" (“You should
get ligated because you are not capable of taking care of a child. One child is
enough. If you bear another child, your husband will leave you again!”)
Women with disabilities’ narration of their stories show deep-seated prejudice with
regard to their SRHR. FGDs and public hearings surfaced that many women with
disabilities received medical advice to undergo ligation or avoid pregnancy, due to the
possibility that their child will inherit their disability. Some experienced being judged by
health service providers as incapable of taking care of children. Others recounted how
their own families prevented them from having relationships and families, for fear that
they will become single mothers, as their partner will eventually leave them due to the
mere fact that they have a disability. As related by a visually impaired participant from
Butuan City in a public hearing in CARAGA, she was discouraged by her doctor to get
pregnant. She expressed, “Upon consultation with my doctor, I was diagnosed with an
infection in the uterus. I asked her if I would still be able to bear a child. She then told me,
“Yes you can, but for me, considering your disability, I wouldn’t want to.”
Likhaan revealed that HSPs commonly take for granted women with disabilities
themselves in the discussion of their health and treatment, in favor of their companions.
This prejudice was articulated by another participant with mobility impairment from
Cagayan de Oro, when she complained of the exclusion of women with disabilities from
essential trainings, and in the provision of RH commodities. According to her, “Kung kinsa
ra gyud tong duol sa kasing-kasing ang mahatagan ug seminar, mahatagan ug condom,
pills, etc. Unya tungod pud kay naa mi disability, abi nilag kay ing-ani mi dili mi kailangan
makahibalo ana.” (Whoever is close to the officials will have access to seminars, condoms,
pills, etc. and because we have a disability, they think we don’t need to know about all
that.)
Cases of coercion and/or non-consent were also among forms of discrimination
documented in the Inquiry. Accounts of women with disabilities deprived of or denied
reproductive and bodily autonomy were shared during the inquiry. In Manila (NCR), a
woman with cerebral palsy was forced to undergo tubal ligation after giving birth in
Quirino Memorial Hospital; a deaf woman confined in Fabella Hospital was injected with
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