CEDAW/C/PHI/5-6 478. The treatment of VAW remains to be purely medical in nature although efforts are now underway to educate medical professionals and service centers in the proper handling of VAW cases (see paragraph 211). 479. The revision of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the National Health Insurance Act must also be closely monitored to ensure that women-friendly provisions are considered and integrated into the program. The Plan 500, which contains the expansion of the national health insurance program, is also silent on women. There is a need to review said plan and how gender can be integrated in its major components. 480. Although gender and health training for officers of the health department have been conducted in regions and at the central office, implementation of participants’ action plans to mainstream gender in their projects and activities remain to be seen. For instance, they should intensify their efforts of enlisting the participation and support of men for responsible parenthood, which includes family planning and child rearing to ensure the well being and health of their children and spouses. 481. Controversies erupted during the drafting of the Reproductive Health Care Bill in 2002. The explanatory note of the bill, which cites the need to remove legal barriers to abortion, has provoked heated debates. The health department stressed that the government does not promote abortion as a family planning method. The prevention and management of abortion complications is the concern. The department welcomes the bill because it would enable it to provide more goods and services, particularly to the poor, beyond its family planning programs. However, it does not agree with the inclusion of the emergency contraceptives. Before, it supported their use because WHO proved they were harmless to the fetus. It has since adopted the anti-artificial contraception position of the current administration and after it had invited foreign researchers who studied the emergency contraceptives and claimed these act as abortifacients. Some local governments, like the City of Manila, are already banning the dissemination of information about and sale of emergency contraception as well as artificial contraception. 482. A current concern about women’s health revolves around the women’s comprehensive health needs across the life span. Women’s health and nutritional needs must be seen in the context of their various roles. Apart from reproductive health, attention should be paid to mental health, occupational health and safety, and the impact of the environment on women’s health. Access to health services for comprehensive women’s health, including reproductive health, need to be made widely available if women are to be empowered to lead productive and healthy lives. Women and men must be given adequate education and information so that they can make informed reproductive health choices. 130