The  Global Implementation Plan to End Violence Against Women and Girls  was a recommendation from the multi-agency  Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on the prevention of violence against women and girls . The meeting was convened as part of the  United Nations Commission on the Status of Women's  multi-year programme of work for 2010–2014.


The "Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls" formed a priority theme for its  fifty-seventh session in 2013 (CSW57).


The  EGM  took place in  Bangkok ,  Thailand , 17–20 September 2012 and was organised by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women ( UN Women ), in collaboration with the following organisations:


The report that the meeting produced reflected the shared discussion and analysis of the major issues, gaps and challenges identified at the EGM and presented key findings and recommendations. It was intended to build on the individual papers on specific issues provided by experts prior to the meeting, and the background paper prepared by the rapporteur. [ 2 ]  It provided inputs for the reports of the Secretary-General to the CSW and was widely disseminated in preparation to the fifty-seventh session of CSW.


Recommendations 106 - 109  of the EGM calls for a global plan to be launched by 2015, to end violence against women and girls organised along these lines:


Recommendation 109 The Global Implementation Plan to End Violence against Women and Girls, endorsed and supported by Member States at its launch, would aim to:


Recommendation 111 Development of the plan would require, among other things:


The  fifty-seventh session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women  took place at the UN building, New York between 4 and 15 March 2013. The agreed conclusions from the session agreed the following four actions:


UN Women's  Executive Director  Michelle Bachelet  urged speedy implementation of the Agreed Conclusions saying, "The best way to honour the commitments made by Member States at the Commission is to work for implementation and accountability." [ 5 ]


Gynopedia  is a  nonprofit organization  that runs an open resource  wiki  for  sexual ,  reproductive  and  women's health  care around the world. [ 1 ]  The website was founded by Lani Fried in 2016. [ 2 ]  The main topics discussed on the site include access to contraception, emergency contraception, testing for sexually-transmitted diseases, medications, menstrual products, gynecologists, pregnancy, abortion, counseling services, women's resources and LGBTQ resources. [ 3 ]  As of November 2017, the website covers nearly 100 cities. [ 4 ] [ 5 ]


Gynopedia is a primarily English-language website, but volunteer translators have begun translating pages into other languages, such as French. [ 6 ]


This website-related article is a  stub . You can help Wikipedia by  expanding it .


This article related to  health informatics  is a  stub . You can help Wikipedia by  expanding it .


Hari-Bhari  (Fertility) is a 2000  Hindi  film by  Shyam Benegal , starring  Shabana Azmi ,  Rajit Kapur ,  Rajeshwari Sachdev ,  Surekha Sikri  and   Nandita Das . [ 1 ]


The film revolves around the story of five women, belonging to different generations, each looking for emancipation and the right to run their lives their own way. The film's main theme is the issue of women's ' fertility rights ' empowerment.


The film won the 2000  National Film Award for Best Film on Family Welfare  at  47th National Film Awards . [ 2 ]


The movie tells the story of a middle aged Muslim woman Gazala (Shabana Azmi), who is ill-treated by her husband and sent back to her parents’ home, just because she is unable to give birth to a son.  Gazala does have a daughter Salma (Rajeshwari Sachdev). The plot revolves around Gazala's stay at her mother's home and the problems faced by the women of the house, namely her mother and sisters-in-law. The film is a beautiful description of the problems faced by women in the name of fertility, or in a different sense the urge to have a male child, especially in rural India.


Shyam Benegal  provides a masterpiece, reflecting on the sorrowful plight of rural Indian women. The irony lies in the point where the movie begins with a scene which shows a bull being brought to impregnate a buffalo. Five different women, each with a different story depicting the harsh realities of a woman's life.


This article about a Hindi film of the 2000s is a  stub . You can help Wikipedia by  expanding it .


The  Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children   (IAC)  ( French :  Comité interafricain sur les pratiques traditionnelles affectant la santé des femmes et des enfants ) is a  non-governmental organization  (NGO) which seeks to change social values and raise consciousness towards eliminating  female genital mutilation  (FGM) and other traditional practices which affect the health of women and children in  Africa . [ 1 ]


The IAC began at a seminar in  Dakar  in 1984 with a focus on fighting harmful practices relating to  female genital mutilation  (FGM),  childbirth ,  nutrition  and food,  early marriage ; and promoting traditional practices considered beneficial, such as  breastfeeding  and  baby massage . [ 2 ]  Fighting FGM is the main focus of their work. [ 3 ]  Now based in  Addis Ababa , the IAC also has 32 national branches (known as National Committees) in 28 countries in Africa. It has a liaison office in  Geneva  and 15 affiliates in Europe, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the US.
In 1990, the IAC adopted the term "female genital mutilation" to describe the procedure previously referred to as "female circumcision". [ 4 ]  According to a 1995 publication, the main focus of their strategy for eliminating FGM is through education. [ 1 ]
The founding President of the IAC was the Ethiopian feminist  Berhane Ras Work . [ 5 ]  From 2009 to 2014  Isatou Touray  served as Secretary-General of the IAC.


The IAC's current President is  Mariam Lamizana  from  Burkina Faso .  Safia Elmi Djibril  is vice-president, representing  Kadra Mahamoud Haid , the First Lady of  Djibouti . The current Secretary General is  Assibi Napoe  from Togo, Chief Coordinator of  Education International 's African regional office.


The IAC considers that legislative change related to FGM in  Burkina Faso ,  Côte d'Ivoire ,  Djibouti ,  Egypt ,  Ghana ,  Guinea ,  Senegal ,  Tanzania  and  Togo  is a result of the lobbying work carried out by the IAC as well as by other NGOs. [ 3 ]


The United Nations coordinated an  International Conference on Population and Development  ( ICPD ) in  Cairo , Egypt, on 5–13 September 1994. Its resulting Programme of Action is the steering document for the  United Nations Population Fund  (UNFPA).


Some 20,000 delegates from various governments, UN agencies, NGOs, and the media gathered for a discussion of a variety of population issues, including immigration,  infant mortality ,  birth control ,  family planning , the  education of women , and protection for women from unsafe abortion services.


The first  World Population Conference , organised by the  League of Nations  and  Margaret Sanger , had been held at the Salle Central in  Geneva ,  Switzerland  from 29 August to 3 September 1927. [ citation needed ]


The first World Population Conference sponsored by the  United Nations  was held in 1954 in  Rome , a second in 1965 in  Belgrade , a third in 1974 in  Bucharest , a fourth in 1984 in  Mexico City .


The conference received considerable media attention due to disputes regarding the assertion of  reproductive rights . The  Holy See  and several predominantly  Islamic  nations were staunch critics, and U.S. President  Bill Clinton  received considerable criticism from  conservatives  for his participation, considering the fact that President  Ronald Reagan  did not attend or fund the previous conference held in Mexico City in 1984. The official spokesman for the Holy See was archbishop  Renato Martino . [ citation needed ]


During and after the ICPD, some interested parties attempted to interpret the term ' reproductive health ' in the sense that it implies abortion as a means of family planning or, indeed, a right to abortion. These interpretations, however, do not reflect the consensus reached at the Conference.
For the European Union, where legislation on abortion is less restrictive than elsewhere, the Council Presidency has clearly stated that the council's commitment to promoting 'reproductive health' did not include the promotion of abortion. [ 1 ]


Likewise, the European Commission, in response to a question from a Member of the European Parliament, clarified:


"The term 'reproductive health' was defined by the United Nations (UN) in 1994 at the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development. All Member States of the Union endorsed the Programme of Action adopted at Cairo. The Union has never adopted an alternative definition of 'reproductive health' to that given in the Programme of Action, which makes no reference to abortion." [ 2 ]


With regard to the US, only a few days prior to the Cairo Conference, the head of the US delegation, Vice President  Al Gore , had stated for the record:


"Let us get a false issue off the table: the US does not seek to establish a new international right to abortion, and we do not believe that abortion should be encouraged as a method of family planning." [ 3 ]


Some years later, the position of the US Administration in this debate was reconfirmed by US Ambassador to the UN,  Ellen Sauerbrey , when she stated at a meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women that:
"nongovernmental organizations are attempting to assert that Beijing in some way creates or contributes to the creation of an internationally recognized fundamental right to abortion". [ 4 ]  She added: "There is no fundamental right to abortion. And yet it keeps coming up largely driven by NGOs trying to hijack the term and trying to make it into a definition". [ 5 ]


According to the official ICPD release, the conference delegates achieved consensus on the following four qualitative and quantitative goals: [ 6 ]


The 2019  Nairobi  Summit on ICPD25 was held in  Nairobi  in November. [ 8 ]  It marks the 25th year of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). The government of  Kenya ,  Denmark  and  UNFPA  are co-convening the summit. It is a platform for all interested in the pursuit of sexual and reproductive health and rights ( SRHR ) which includes duty bearers, civil society organisations (CSOs), private sector organisation, women group, youth networks, faith base organisation etc. to discuss and agree on the actions to complete the ICPD Programme of Action. [ 9 ] [ 10 ]


International Women's Year  ( IWY ) was the name given to 1975 by the  United Nations . Since that year March 8 has been celebrated as  International Women's Day , and the  United Nations Decade for Women , from 1976 to 1985, was also established. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]


After years of work by the  United Nations Commission on the Status of Women  (CSW) to adopt a declaration to eliminate discrimination against women, in 1965, CSW began working in earnest to obtain passage of a declaration to secure women's human rights. Collating responses covering education, employment, inheritance, penal reform, and other issues, from government actors, NGO representatives and UN staff, CSW delegates drafted the  Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women  (DEDAW), which was passed by the General Assembly on 7 November 1967. [ 3 ]  Once support had been garnered for the declaration, the next step was to prepare it to become a  Convention . Though there were delays, by 1972, when the  United States Congress  passed  Title IX , eliminating discrimination in education for any institution receiving federal funding, hope that passage could be secured surged. [ 4 ]  In the meantime, members of the  Women's International Democratic Federation  (WIDF) had long been pressing for an international women's year and conference to address women's inequality. As WIDF was designated as an observer and not a member of the CSW, they could not propose the event directly but drafted a proposal. Persuading the  Romanian  delegate of CSW to present their proposal, it was seconded by Finland. In turn, CSW approved the proposal and submitted it to the General Assembly, which proclaimed 1975 as International Women's Year on 18 December 1972. [ 5 ]  The date was significant because it would take place on the thirtieth anniversary of the creation of the United Nations. [ 6 ]  But there were problems with the conference. Initially, Soviet women rejected the call for a conference and  filibustered  the negotiations, preferring to host their own conference in  East Berlin  that would not be subject to the UN structure. [ 7 ] [ 8 ]  As part of the  Cold War  politics, the United States then proposed that the conference not be limited to women, but should be gender-neutral, because an all-woman conference would not be taken seriously. [ 9 ]  Finally,  Mexico City  agreed to host the conference, and CSW set about the tasks to prepare the "machinery" necessary to secure passage of CEDAW. [ 8 ]   Helvi Sipilä , was selected as the Assistant Secretary-General for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs and placed in charge of organizing events for the year. [ 4 ]


The first  UN World Conference on Women  was held in  Mexico City  from 19 June to 2 July. [ 2 ]  The 1975 conference led to the adoption of the  World Plan of Action , as well as the  Declaration of Mexico on the Equality of Women and Their Contribution to Development and Peace . [ 10 ]  It led to the establishment of monitoring mechanisms such as,  International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women  (INSTRAW) and the  United Nations Development Fund for Women  (UNIFEM) and set in motion plans for follow-up conferences, the first of which would be held in 1980 in  Copenhagen . It established the period of 1975 to 1985 as the  UN Decade for Women , to enable progress and failures to be evaluated and resulted in urging that the  Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)  be quickly ratified. [ 11 ] [ 12 ]  The 1985 third conference in  Nairobi ,  Kenya , not only closed the decade of women but set a series of member state schedules for removal of legislated gender discrimination in national laws by the year 2000. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ] [ 19 ]  The 1975 Mexico City Conference was attended by over a thousand delegates. Prominent attendees included  Elizabeth Reid  and  Margaret Whitlam  of Australia. [ 20 ]  The  International Women's Year Tribune  was also organized by the conference committee and attended by 4,000 women in 1975. [ 2 ] [ 21 ]


The World Congress of Women was held in East Berlin as a part of IWY soon after the Mexico City event. It idealized women's equality as the "true embodiment of the socialist conception of human rights". [ 22 ]  The Working Group on Equal Rights, composed of experts on government and law from the  East German Academy of Sciences ,  Humboldt University  and  Socialist United Party Central Committee  rejected the notion that women's rights should fall under a separate area designated by gender, but instead should be governed by the United Nations Human Right's position. [ 23 ]   Angela Davis  was one of the key guests at the conference, as was  Hortensia Bussi de Allende , former  First Lady of Chile . [ 24 ]  The state-sponsored program advocated women's solidarity in the national struggles to free women from oppression based on class, race and gender through state socialism. [ 25 ]


The  International Tribunal on the Crimes Against Women  was planned as an event for IWY but was not held until 4 to 8 March 1976 in  Brussels , Belgium. Limited by funding strictures, the conference hosted 2000 women from forty countries. Speakers addressed economic exploitation and violence against women in its many forms. The most significant development to come out of the conference was the  International Feminist Network . [ 26 ]


The 1975 conference was also notable for passing the first " Zionism  is racism" resolution passed at any UN-sponsored forum, thus preparing the way for  United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379  in 1975 the following November. [ 27 ] [ 28 ]


A statement equating Zionism with racism was also included in an annex to a report to be considered at the final conference of the United Nations Decade for Women in 1985 in Nairobi, Kenya. [ 29 ]  However, as stated in  It Takes a Dream: The Story of Hadassah  (1997), by Marlin Levin, " Bernice  [Tannenbaum] asked [President Ronald] Reagan to publicly repudiate the U.N. resolution. He agreed and promised that the U.S. delegation would walk out of Nairobi if the Zionism-equals-racism resolution was included in the final conference declaration." [ 29 ]  Tannenbaum also convinced the United States Senate to condemn the conference resolution and demand its withdrawal. [ 29 ]  She also personally flew to Kenya with a draft of the Senate resolution, where  Maureen Reagan , President Reagan's daughter and the head of the American delegation, repeated the president's promise to withdraw from the conference if the resolution was included in the final conference delegation. [ 29 ]  Kenya then brokered a compromise in which Zionism was omitted from the final conference report. [ 29 ]


A conference on 'Women and Politics' was held in September, [ 20 ]  attended by 700 women. [ 30 ]


The events of IWY in Canada as a whole raised awareness with Canadian women as well as the general public on a wide range of women's issues and accomplishments. It spurred the creation of the Ontario Women and the Law Association and the  Service, Office and Retail Workers’ Union of Canada  (SORWUC) and offered funding for many to participate in educational and artistic endeavors aimed at presenting women's perspectives. One such effort was a petition to the  National Film Board of Canada  which led to the creation of Studio D. The  University of Guelph  hosted a conference in September dedicated to  Nellie McClung  and the reform issues which had been important to her. [ 31 ]


In June a United Women's Convention was held in  Wellington . [ 32 ]


Events in support of IWY were held throughout the United States by private organizations and NGOs, such as those held in  Connecticut , 11–12 June 1977 and the  Greater Cleveland  Congress , October. [ 33 ] [ 34 ]  One of the most significant US events, because it was funded by the US government, was held in  Houston, Texas  and though planned as an IWY event, did not take place until 1977. The  1977 National Women's Conference  included women from each state in the United States and developed a National Plan of Action, mirroring many of the points of the World Plan of Action. [ 35 ]


The then Indian Prime Minister  Indira Gandhi  had inaugurated National Women's Day and International Women's Year event jointly sponsored by 50 women's organizations at NDMC Indoor Stadium New Delhi in India  on  Basant Panchami  Sunday February 16, 1975. [ 36 ]


As a result of the international focus on Women in 1975, a number of institutions were established:


The IWY also launched the "dove" emblem used by the IWY, CEDAW, and UNIFIL.  A stylized dove intersected by a female symbol and an equal sign, the emblem was donated by then 27-year-old New York City advertising company graphic designer Valerie Pettis. It remains the official symbol of  UN Women [ 38 ]  and is used in  International Women's Day  celebrations to this day. [ 13 ] [ 39 ] [ 40 ]


Media related to  International Women's Year  at Wikimedia Commons


Líderes Campesinas  is a grassroots organization founded in California in 1992 that advocates for women farm workers. Co-founded by  Mily Treviño-Sauceda , the organization seeks to advance the social, political and economic well being of farm worker women with an emphasis on gender equality and justice. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]


Líderes Campesinas was inspired by a needs assessment survey conducted by Maria Lopez-Treviño and Mily Treviño-Sauceda in California's Coachella Valley. The survey focused on identifying the needs and problems of women farm workers in the region in order to create an educational radio show to address those needs. This led to the establishment of Mujeres Mexicanas in 1988, which was composed of fieldworkers and paraprofessionals. [ 2 ]


In 1992, the organization formally became Líderes Campesinas, a project designed to empower women farm workers through leadership and advocacy. This became the first statewide Campesina organization, focusing on community engagement, leadership training, and workers' rights. [ 1 ]


Líderes Campesinas uses advocacy, education, leadership programs, and safety workshops to support women to realize their rights, improve their working conditions, and become agents of change in their communities. [ 2 ]


Líderes Campesinas provides farm working communities with the appropriate information to ensure their human rights, from workshops about labor rights, food safety, and pesticide training. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]  In 2003, with the help of Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA), Líderes Campesinas created the Farmworker Women and Pesticides in California's Central Valley project to educate themselves and their communities on the effects of pesticides as well as to raise awareness among state regulatory agencies that are responsible for protecting the well-being of farm workers. [ 4 ]


Líderes Campesinas works to support sexual and reproductive health among farm workers and Latinas in the U.S. In 2005, Líderes Campesinas participated in a project with the Guttmacher Institute to improve Latinas' access to healthcare and information. The report stated that Latinas are more likely to delay healthcare appointments due to childcare difficulties, something Líderes has provided for many farm-working women since its inception. [ 2 ] [ 5 ]


In 2008, Líderes Campesinas and Lynn M. and Rachel Rodriguez tested an intimate partner violence icon form assessment for use with seasonal farm workers and migrant women. The purpose was to help illiterate, semi-literate, and literate women who were part of the Líderes Campesinas Domestic Violence outreach and Education Project. As part of their fight against domestic violence, Líderes Campesinas has participated in public marches and created education campaigns to inform battered women of the services available to them. [ 6 ]


The  paternal rights and abortion  issue is an extension of both the  abortion debate  and the  fathers' rights  movement. Abortion can be a factor for disagreement and lawsuit between partners.


Roman law  allowed induced abortions but regulated it in consideration of the biological father.  Emperor   Septimius Severus  ruled circa 211 AD that a woman who had an abortion without consent from her husband should face  exile  for having bereaved her husband of children. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]


In his  speech   Pro Cluentio , delivered in 66 BC,  Cicero  refers to a case he had heard of in which a woman from  Miletus  was  sentenced to death  for having aborted her pregnancy, upon receiving  bribes  from those who stood to  inherit  her husband's  estate  if he produced no heir. Cicero said that in doing so she had "destroyed the hope of the father, the memory of his name, the supply of his race, the heir of his family, a citizen intended for the use of the republic". [ 3 ]


A 4th century BC  Greek  writer from  Alexandria , Egypt, Sopater, quoted the  lawyer  Lysias, who had referred to a trial in  Athens  in which a man named Antigene accused his wife of having deprived him of a son by having an abortion. [ 1 ]


Whether a male has a legal right to advance his personal interest, whether it be toward  abortion ,  fatherhood , or  adoption , over that of the female, differs by region.


In 2011, it was reported that  Indonesia ,  Malawi ,  Syria ,  United Arab Emirates ,  Equatorial Guinea ,  Kuwait ,  Maldives ,  Morocco ,  South Korea ,  Saudi Arabia ,  Japan ,  Taiwan  and  Turkey  all had laws which required that an abortion first be authorized by the woman's husband. [ 4 ]  However, in some countries, this stipulation could be bypassed or overridden if there is genuine concern for maternal health. [ 5 ]


Since  Roe v. Wade , some  states  in the  United States  have attempted to enact laws requiring spousal consent. All of these laws have been ruled unconstitutional, spousal consent in the 1976 decision  Planned Parenthood v. Danforth  and spousal awareness in the 1992 decision  Planned Parenthood v. Casey [ 6 ]


In China the husband of a woman who had an abortion filed a  lawsuit  against her in 2002 under a law intended to grant  sexual equality  in terms of  childbearing  and  contraceptive  decisions. The law stated that a woman has no overriding priority over her spouse in deciding whether to have a child. [ 7 ]


A number of  legal cases  have arisen in the Western world in which men have tried to prevent women with whom they had been sexually active from obtaining an abortion, all of which failed:


About men deciding to decline parenthood in the event of an  unintended pregnancy  and asking for a  financial abortion :


Men who have tried to compel a woman to have an abortion:


Those who support a man's right to intervene in a woman's reproductive decisions, argue that it is unreasonable that, after fertilisation has occurred, women have several opportunities to legally opt out of  pregnancy  and parenthood (such as the  morning after pill , abortion, adoption or safe haven laws) whereas men have none. [ 15 ]  Armin Brott has said of this, "A woman can legally deprive a man of his right to become a parent or force him to become one against his will". [ 16 ]  The man can essentially have the obligations of fatherhood, such as  child support , forced upon him against his wishes. This could potentially apply even if conception was without his knowledge or consent, such as  birth control sabotage ,  sperm theft  or  sexual assault  of the man. [ 17 ] [ 18 ]


Men's rights  and  fathers' rights activists  have argued that men should have veto power over their partners' decisions to abort. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 21 ] [ 22 ]  Similarly, philosopher  George W. Harris  has written that, if a man impregnates a woman with the explicit goal of having a child, in a manner that is mutually consensual, then it would be morally unacceptable for that woman to later have an abortion. [ 23 ]


Those who object to men having a right to direct involvement argue that because it is the woman's body carrying the fetus, her determination for or against abortion should be the only one. [ 15 ] [ 24 ]  Marsha Garrison, a professor at  Brooklyn Law School , stated that U.S. courts acknowledge "that embryo is in the woman's body, it is within her and can't be separated from her, so it's not just her decision-making about whether to bear a child, it's about her body". [ 25 ]


A 2002 United States  Gallup  special report mentions only 38% of the population being opposed to notifying the husband of a married woman for an abortion. [ 26 ]  In a 2003  Gallup poll , 72% of respondents were in favor of notification to the husband, with 26% opposed; of those polled, 79% of males and 67% of females responded in favor of notification inside  married couples . [ 27 ]


Bioethicist Jacob Appel has asked, "if one grants a man veto power over a woman's choice to have an abortion in cases where he is willing to pay for the child, why not grant him the right to demand an abortion where he is unwilling to provide for the child?" [ 28 ]


In reference to cases in which men who do not desire to become fathers have been expected by the mother to pay  child support , Melanie McCulley, a South Carolina attorney, in her 1998 article, "The Male Abortion: The Putative Father's Right to Terminate His Interests in and Obligations to the Unborn Child", set forth the theory of the "male abortion", in which she argues that men should be able to terminate their legal obligations to unwanted children. [ 15 ] [ 17 ]


It is also possible, rather than taking the stance that males should have the freedom to opt out of inherent responsibilities and rights, to take the stance that one must opt-in and agree to undertake those responsibilities to be compelled to follow them, and only through doing so, earn parental rights. This is what occurs during  adoption .


Paternity law  refers to body of law underlying  legal  relationship between a  father  and his  biological  or  adopted   children  and deals with the rights and obligations of both the father and the child to each other as well as to others. A child's paternity may be relevant in relation to issues of  legitimacy ,  inheritance  and rights to a  putative father 's title or surname, as well as the biological father's rights to  child custody  in the case of separation or  divorce  and obligations for  child support .


Under  common law , a child born to a  married  woman is presumed to be the child of her husband by virtue of a " presumption of paternity " or  presumption of legitimacy . [ 1 ]  In consideration of a possible  non-paternity event  (which may or may not include  paternity fraud ) these presumptions may be rebutted by evidence to the contrary, for example, in disputed child custody and child support cases during divorce,  annulment  or  legal separation .


In the case of a father not married to a child's mother, depending on the laws of the jurisdiction:


Today, when paternity is in dispute or doubt,  paternity testing  may be used to conclusively resolve the issue.


The legal process of determining paternity normally results in the naming of a man to a child's birth certificate as the child's legal father. A paternity finding resolves issues of legitimacy, and may be followed by court rulings that relate to child support and maintenance, custody and guardianship.


Generally, under common law, a biological father has a legal obligation for the maintenance or  support  of his biological offspring, whether or not he is legally competent to marry the child's mother. [ 5 ]


In jurisdictions where there is no  presumption of paternity  there is a process for fathers to  recognise  their children and become the legal father of the child. [ 6 ]


In the United States, where a child is conceived or born during wedlock, the husband is legally presumed to be the father of the child. [ 7 ]  Some states have a legal process for a husband to disavow paternity, such that a biological father can be named as the parent of a child conceived or born during a marriage. In most states, any claim of non-paternity by a husband must be heard by a court. [ 8 ]


If parents litigate a divorce case without raising the issue of paternity, in most states they will be barred from disputing the husband's paternity in a later court proceeding. Depending upon state law, it may nonetheless be possible for a man claiming to be the child's biological father to commence a paternity case following the divorce. [ 9 ]


Where paternity of the child is in question, a party may ask the court to determine paternity of one or more possible fathers (called putative fathers), typically based initially upon sworn statements and then upon  testimony  or other  evidence . [ 10 ]


Once paternity has been legally established, if the court finds that to do so would be contrary to the best interest of the child, in most U.S. states a court may deny DNA testing or decline to remove a husband from a child's birth certificate based upon DNA testing. [ 11 ]


A successful application to the court results in an order assigning paternity to a specific man, possibly including support responsibility and/or  visitation  rights, or declaring that one or more men (possibly including the husband of the mother) are not the father of the child. A disavowal action is a legal proceeding where a putative father attempts to prove to the court that he is not the father; if successful, it relieves the former putative father of legal responsibility for the child. [ 12 ]


On the other hand, it could be the case where several putative fathers are fighting to establish custody. In the United States, a state may legally bar a third party from disputing the paternity of a child born within an intact marriage. [ 13 ]


Some paternity laws assign full parental responsibility to fathers even in cases of women lying about contraception, using deceit (such as  oral sex  followed by self- artificial insemination ) [ citation needed ]  or statutory rape by a woman ( Hermesmann v. Seyer ). [ 5 ]


If the context of inheritance rights, it will be the heirs of the deceased person who are attempting to dispute or establish paternity.  In some states, DNA testing will be dispositive to establish paternity.  In many jurisdictions, however, there are a variety of rules and time restrictions that can deny inheritance rights to biological children of a deceased father. [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ]


Paternity fraud  is one form of  misattributed paternity [ 1 ]  or paternal discrepancy. [ 2 ]  Specifically, paternity fraud is the intentional misidentification of a child's biological  father . [ citation needed ]  Paternity fraud is distinct from other, unintentional misattribution, which may arise from simple error, an accident such as a mix-up during fertility treatment, or a sexual assault. [ citation needed ]


Research published in 2016 indicated that up to two percent of British fathers unknowingly raise a child who is the biological child of another man. [ 3 ]


A 2005 scientific review of international published studies of paternal discrepancy found a range in incidence, around the world, from 0.8% to 30% (median 3.7%). [ 4 ]  However, as many of the studies were conducted between the 1950s and the 1980s, numbers may be unreliable due to the inaccuracies of  genetic testing  methods and procedures used at the time.  One study, which published a rate near 30%, was performed on populations in which the purported father already suspected that he was not the genetic parent, rather than on a fully random population. [ 5 ]   Studies ranging in date from 1991 to 1999 quote the following incidence rates: 11.8% (Mexico), 4.0% (Canada), 2.8% (France), 1.4% and 1.6% (UK), and 0.8% (Switzerland). [ 4 ]  These numbers suggest that the widely quoted and unsubstantiated figure of 10% of non-paternal events is an overestimate. However, in studies that solely looked at couples who obtained paternity testing because paternity was being disputed, there are higher levels: an incidence of 17% to 33% (median of 26.9%). [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]  Most at risk were those born to younger parents, to unmarried couples and those of lower socio-economic status, or from certain cultural groups. [ 6 ]


A 2008 study in the United Kingdom found that biological fathers were misidentified in 0.2% (1 in 500) of the cases processed by the  Child Support Agency . Of that 0.2%, those resolved with  DNA paternity testing  between 2004 and 2008 showed that between 10 and 19% of mothers had misidentified the biological father; data about why mothers identified the wrong biological father were not available. [ 6 ]


Since 1989, putative fathers in Australia can recover child support payments for children that are not their own. [ 9 ]


In 2002, the Victorian County Court awarded Liam Neale Magill $70,000 compensation for damages and economic loss against his ex-wife, Meredith Magill as a result of DNA testing in 2000 that showed only one of three children he was paying support for was genetically his. [ 10 ]  That ruling was later overturned in 2005 by the Victorian Court of Appeal finding that "intent to deceive" by his ex-wife had not been proven regarding misrepresentations made by Ms. Magill in birth forms about the children's paternity. [ 11 ]  This ruling was in turn then appealed to the High Court of Australia. [ 12 ]


In 2006, the High Court of Australia struck down the appeal, upholding the 2005 Victorian Court of Appeal ruling. [ 13 ]  Chief Justice Murray Gleeson in the 94 page High Court Ruling opined, "Without doubt the appellant's wife deceived him but the hurtful deception was in her infidelity, not in her failure to admit it." [ 14 ]  Mr. Magill as part of the ruling was also ordered to pay the Child Support Agency's legal fees during the previous 18 months of litigation. [ 15 ]


Mr. Cornelio began paying child support for his ex-wife's twins after the couple separated in 1998. The former couple settled upon a joint custody agreement in 2002 that continued Mr. Cornelio's monetary child support for the twins. [ 16 ]
Shortly afterwards, Ms. Cornelio requested a reduction in visitation time along with an increase in support payments. Mr. Cornelio became suspicious of the paternity of the twins. A subsequent DNA test revealed that he was not their biological father. A request was made by Mr. Cornelio to be excused from paying further child support, claiming to be the victim of misrepresentation or fraud when Ms. Cornelio failed to disclose the extramarital affair when he signed the 2002 joint custody agreement. [ 17 ]


The Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2008 ruled against the request to be excused or reimbursed for child support payments. Judge van Rensburg, in deciding to deny the request, noted that Mr. Cornelio had wondered at the time of his separation if an affair by his ex-wife had actually been responsible for the twins. "It was not until access was interrupted and Ms. Cornelio commenced proceedings seeking increased child support that the respondent began pursuing this issue," the judge remarked. "The fact of that relationship – even if it has now become strained – is sufficient to require Mr. Cornelio to continue to contribute toward the children's material needs." [ 18 ]


The default in Finnish law as of 2018 is that the husband is the acknowledged father of the child who is born into wedlock (or to a deceased husband). Only if the wife agrees can that initial determination be set to something else. However, from 2016, the general right the mother to solely allow or prevent the parental investigation was abolished. The default and immediately forcing juridical assumption of paternity of a husband was not changed in the latest 2015 act.


A man can bring up a later legal action to annul his paternity, disregarding of the resistance of his wife. The legal action for annulment may be brought in the district court by a man whose paternity has been determined on the basis of either marriage or by some other authoritative decision. [ 19 ] [ 20 ]


A man who has officially acknowledged paternity relinquishes his rights to further actions if he, knowing the woman had a sexual intercourse with another man, or that she has used foreign sperm for fertilization, has stated in writing following birth of the child that the child is biologically his. [ 21 ]


Otherwise legally binding prebirth acknowledgment of a man must be rejected, if either the health care staff of the child supervisor do have a founded suspicion that the man is not a father of the child, or he is for any reason not capable of understanding what he is doing when acknowledging the paternity. [ 22 ]


If a mother deliberately gives false information to the authorities that contributes to the erroneous establishment of paternity, she may be fined. [ 23 ]


In 2004, a  South Korean  man was awarded $42,380 compensation for  pain and suffering  when a  DNA test  established that the child he had with his ex-wife was not his. Ms. Doe had become pregnant prior to marriage and claimed that the child belonged to Mr. Doe. Mr. Doe married her as a result. Mr. Doe confronted Ms. Doe on discovering that the baby did not look like him at all, whereupon Ms. Doe claimed that the hospital must have switched the child at birth. When Mr. Doe moved to sue the hospital, Ms. Doe admitted that she had been pregnant with another man's baby. The court nullified the marriage as well. [ 24 ]


On 5 January 2015, the  Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland  (decision 5A_619 of 2015 [ 25 ] ) decided on a case wherein a plaintiff challenged the paternity of his (alleged) daughter. The plaintiff had his sperm examined in November 2009. As a result of the examination, the plaintiff's fertility was found to be 3%. The court contended that the alleged father should have started investigating his paternity as a consequence of that finding. The plaintiff actually had his  non-paternity  confirmed via DNA evidence in 2013 upon failure of his marriage. The court held that the one year time limit under  Swiss civil code  article 260c for filing an action lapsed due to the plaintiff's (the alleged father's) inactivity for more than two years. The  Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland  thus confirmed the ruling by the first instance and dismissed the appeal. It follows that the plaintiff's financial obligations as to his (alleged) daughter will not change.


In the United Kingdom, paternity fraud, like adultery, is not a criminal offence [ 2 ]  except in the case of the lineage of the children of the British monarch under the  Treason Act 1351  where the adulterers are punishable as adultering against the lineage of the King with the King's "companion, ... or the wife of the King's eldest son and heir". Knowingly making a false statement on a public document is a criminal offence, including naming someone who is not the biological father. As of 2008, no individual has been prosecuted in a case involving paternity fraud. [ 26 ]  A mother is permitted to not state the name of the biological father if she does not know it. [ 27 ]   Paternity fraud is a form of  misattributed paternity . [ 27 ]


The split in 2002 between a couple, identified for legal reasons as Mr. A and Ms. B, prompted Mr. A to pursue a parental contract to establish his non-married rights as their child's father.  Ms. B then requested a  DNA test  that later showed Mr. A was not the (then) five year old's father. Following the discovery Mr. A then sued Ms. B for damages of up to £100,000 as a result of the deceit. [ 28 ]


During 2007 in what was reported as the first known case of its kind to reach trial in Britain, the  High Court  ruled in favor of Mr. A awarding £7,500 distress damages with another £14,943 for holidays and meals out Mr. A spent on Ms. B (not the child). The judgment fell short of listed suit amount because the London court did not allow damages for the child's material costs incurred because of Mr. A's enjoyment of the relationship. The judge,  Sir John Blofeld , said he was satisfied that Mr. A's motivation in coming to court was not as a lever for contact with the child but because he did not want "to be taken for a ride". [ 29 ]


In 2019, the unnamed former wife of Richard Mason was ordered to pay him £250,000 in compensation for paternity fraud. Mason discovered that he could not have fathered his three grown up children after being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, meaning he had been infertile since birth. [ 30 ]


In 2021, a man from  Kingston upon Hull  who had already paid £38,000 in child maintenance payments discovered that he was not the father of the girl he had been led to believe was his daughter by his ex-girlfriend and had helped raise for 14 years. The  Child Maintenance Service  agreed to suspend future payments, but still held him liable for his £2000 arrears. After public outcry and intervention from his local MP  Emma Hardy , the CMS reviewed the case and agreed to waive his arrears. [ 31 ]


The United States has historically imposed a strong  presumption of paternity  and has also imposed barriers to paternity challenges once paternity has been legally established. Since the advent of DNA testing, laws and guidelines have been proposed or enacted that may allow for a paternity challenge by a legal father who later determines he is not a child's biological father, or by a biological father who learns that somebody else has been named on a child's birth certificate as the child's father. [ 32 ] [ 5 ]


Paternity fraud activist Carnell Smith has raised awareness about the problem of men paying child support for children that aren't theirs. He has successfully lobbied the Georgia state legislature to expand the time frame in which paternity tests could be administered.


Mandatory paternity testing is available [ clarification needed ]  in Georgia and is necessary in order to obtain a child support order in the state, the law differentiates between legitimacy and paternity and child support orders can only be ordered after a paternity test. [ 33 ] [ 34 ]


In the case of  County of Los Angeles v. Navarro , in 1996, the County of Los Angeles entered a default judgment against putative father Mr. Navarro and ordered him to pay monthly support for Ms. Doe's two children. [ 35 ]   The complaint to establish paternity filed by the Bureau of Family Support Operations was based on information provided by Ms. Doe naming "Manuel Nava" as the children's father. The agency determined that Mr. Navarro was the father in question and delivered notice to his sister's residence, where Mr. Navarro was listed as "co-tenant," a notice Mr. Navarro denied ever receiving. [ 36 ]


In 2001, Mr. Navarro, having undergone a DNA test showing he was not the children's father, sued the County of Los Angeles asking to be relieved from the support order. [ 37 ]  The County of Los Angeles opposed the motion, arguing the motion was filed after the six month limit to contest a default judgment and the mother's assertion that he was the father was insufficient to establish extrinsic fraud. The trial court sided with the county and denied the motion. This ruling was then appealed before the California 2nd Appellate Court of Appeal. [ 38 ]


In 2004, the court of appeal reversed the trial court decision ruling in favor of Mr. Navarro and became the first published California case to hold that the  statute of limitations  did not apply in setting aside an old default judgment against a paternity fraud victim. [ 39 ]  Immediately after the ruling was issued, the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department announced that it would request that the case be depublished so it could not be used as a precedent by other men in Mr. Navarro's situation. [ 40 ]  That request was later denied by the  California Supreme Court . [ 37 ]


In 2002, California Governor  Gray Davis  vetoed a proposed Paternity Justice Act, which would have provided more protection for victims of paternity fraud, citing that the bill could cost the state $40 million in federal funding. [ 41 ]  In 2004, California Governor  Arnold Schwarzenegger  signed into law AB 252, which allows men who prove they are not the biological father more resources to fight paying child support; the law expired in 2007. [ 42 ] [ 43 ]


In the case of  Parker v. Parker , as part of their 2001 Florida divorce settlement, Mr. Parker was obliged to pay $1200 monthly child support based on Ms. Parker's representations to the court that Mr. Parker was the child's biological father. In 2003, Ms. Parker filed a motion for contempt and a petition to enforce child support against Mr. Parker which prompted a DNA test showing that Mr. Parker was not the child's biological father. [ 44 ]  The motion was 16 months after their divorce. Florida law (at that time) only allowed the husband 12 months to contest paternity following divorce. [ 45 ]  Mr. Parker's court-ordered payments would total about $216,000 over the next fifteen years.


Mr. Parker filed a petition for relief claiming that the misrepresentation of paternity had resulted in a fraudulent support order. This was dismissed by both the Trial Court and then, in 2005, the Court of Appeal as being intrinsic fraud and subject to the Florida one-year time limit to contest a dissolution decree, not extrinsic fraud, or a fraud upon the court, that can form the basis for relief from judgment more than a year later. This ruling was then appealed before the Florida Supreme Court who, in 2007, denied Mr. Parker's suit upholding the Fourth District Court of Appeal 2005 ruling. [ 46 ]


During 2006, the Florida statutes changed, allowing a DNA test to be considered new evidence to contest a support order after the one-year time limit. [ 47 ]


In its published opinion the Supreme Court Ruling in 2007 noted the change in Florida statutes, "which provides the circumstances and procedures under which a male may disestablish paternity and terminate a child support obligation"; however, the court decided not to consider the applicability of this new statute to Mr. Parker's circumstances, kicking the question of a retrial under the new law back to the Trial Courts. [ 48 ]


Because the basic facts are little questioned and the case explores differences between  extrinsic  and  intrinsic  fraud, other state Supreme Courts, including Iowa [ 49 ]  and Tennessee, [ 50 ]  have cited  Parker v. Parker  when writing opinions of their own for paternity fraud type cases.


In 2012, the  Iowa Supreme Court  in ruling to allow a paternity fraud tort to proceed as it "fits comfortably within the traditional boundaries of fraud law" and "It  is  supported  by  common  law standards for fraud and is not contrary to public policy or the statutory policy  of  this  state." [ 51 ]


In the case of  Hodge v. Craig  in October 2012, intentional misrepresentation of paternity was recognized by a unanimous Tennessee Supreme Court in  Hodge v. Craig , a case where the mother intentionally lied to a man about who the father of the child was. Based on the mother's assurances the couple married but later divorced. The plaintiff paid child support, including medical insurance for the child. Based on physical differences between himself and the child, he obtained a tissue sample and confirmed his suspicions. Damages were awarded in compensation for child support paid for 15 years. [ 52 ]  The court's decision was based on the  common law  remedy of  intentional misrepresentation ; the court distinguished the award of damages from a retroactive modification of  child support . The action was for damages; it was not a suit to disestablish paternity. [ 53 ]


Medical


Legal


Social


Pregnancy-associated femicide  is a form of  gender-based violence  involving the murder of a woman during the period of  pregnancy  and up to 1 year after childbirth. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]


Pregnancy increases the likelihood of  femicide . [ 1 ]  Globally,  intimate partner violence (IPV)  precedes the majority of pregnancy-associated femicides, with male intimate partners being the primary perpetrators. [ 3 ]  In the United States, the leading cause of death for pregnant and  postpartum  women is femicide. [ 4 ]  Women are more likely to be murdered during the pregnancy and postpartum period than to die from the three principal  obstetric  causes of  maternal death  (high-blood pressure disorders, hemorrhage, and sepsis). [ 4 ]


Pregnancy-associated femicide is a developing field of study. [ 3 ]  Researchers and activists are calling for the implementation of intervention methods in healthcare and policy, as well as standardized documentation of incidence rate, in order to address the sociopolitical factors contributing to the issue. [ 3 ]


Femicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women. [ 4 ]  The risk of femicide for pregnant and postpartum women is 35% greater than for nonpregnant and nonpostpartum women. [ 2 ]  As of 2020, the pregnancy-associated femicide ratio was 5.23 femicides per 100,000 live births. [ 2 ]  This represents a 32.4% increase from the previous year, in correspondence with the  increase in IPV since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ 2 ]  Femicides during pregnancy represented 54% of these cases. [ 2 ]  Black women accounted for 55% of cases; White women accounted for 30.1%; and Hispanic women and other racialized groups accounted for the remainder. [ 2 ]  In 45% of cases, the victims were under 25 years old. [ 2 ]  Firearms were responsible for 81% of incidents. [ 2 ]  Assault by a sharp object and strangulation were, respectively, the second and third most common method of  homicide . [ 5 ]


When data on victim-perpetrator relationship is available, most pregnancy-associated femicides involve a precedence of IPV, and nearly ⅔ of cases took place within the home. [ 2 ] [ 5 ]  Female victims of IPV, for whom 1 in 6 are first abused during pregnancy, [ 6 ]  are 4 times as likely to report increased severity in violence during pregnancy than nonpregnant abused women. [ 7 ]  The risk of being a victim of femicide is therefore tripled for women experiencing  IPV during pregnancy . [ 3 ]


While research on pregnancy-associated femicide primarily centres the United States, recent emergent research on global trends largely corroborates the findings of American researchers. [ 1 ]  Globally, pregnancy represents a significant risk factor in the likelihood of femicide. [ 1 ]  Male intimate partners compose the majority of perpetrators, and between ⅓ to ⅔ of cases were preceded by IPV. [ 3 ]  In Argentina, where rates of femicide are on the rise, femicide by an intimate partner is as a leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women. [ 8 ]


The  maternal mortality ratio  does not include pregnancy-associated femicide. [ 1 ]  Furthermore,  death records  in the majority of countries are not required to include victim-perpetrator relationship or history of IPV. [ 1 ]  Researchers therefore suggest that rates of incidence are higher than reported due to the lack of standardization in documenting pregnancy-associated femicides. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]


38 American states have laws with harsher penalties if the victim is murdered while pregnant. [ 9 ]  The  Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004  recognizes a  fetus  as a legal crime victim if "fetal injury or death occurs during the commission of a federal violent crime". [ 10 ]  These laws define the fetus as a person "for the purpose of criminal prosecution of the offender" (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2008). [ 9 ]


The United States does not have specific policy addressing victims of femicide, and does not provide a legal definition of femicide in its  criminal code . [ 11 ]


As of 2022, policy changes in 20 Latin American countries have introduced femicide as a distinct type of homicide. [ 12 ]  Latin American feminist movements are demanding further legislation addressing pregnancy as a significant risk factor. [ 13 ]


Prenatal  and  postnatal  care visits represent an opportunity for patients to disclose abuse, or for healthcare providers to identify warning signs of IPV. [ 3 ]  Researchers therefore recommend universal screening for IPV during obstetric visits, as well as standardized, adequate training for obstetricians in identifying IPV and providing care in cases of positive screening. [ 3 ]


Studies identify structural  racial disparities in healthcare  as contributing to the elevated rate of pregnancy-associated femicide amongst Black women. [ 3 ]  Due to historical racial biases in the healthcare system, Black female patients have reduced access to prenatal and postnatal care, and may be mistrustful of healthcare providers. [ 3 ]  Consequently, they have fewer opportunities to disclose IPV during pregnancy, and are less likely to do so during obstetric visits, thus decreasing the chance for early intervention. [ 3 ]  Researchers therefore emphasize addressing racial inequities in healthcare, as well as implementing training programs for providers concerning racial biases, as a significant intervention method. [ 3 ]


The lack of access to safe and legal  abortion  increases the risk pregnancy-associated femicide by an intimate partner. [ 13 ]  Abuse during a previous pregnancy is cited by 27.3% of women as an influencing factor in their decision to get an abortion. [ 13 ]  Researchers in the United States caution that recent legislation restricting access to abortion, like the  Texas Heartbeat Act  and the overturning of  Roe V. Wade  in 2022, risks exacerbating the increasing number of pregnancy-associated femicides. [ 2 ] [ 4 ] [ 8 ]  Researchers and feminist movements like  Ni una menos  echo these warnings regarding  women's reproductive rights  in Latin America. [ 8 ] [ 13 ]  The implementation and maintenance of reproductive rights is therefore cited as a crucial intervention method. [ 2 ] [ 8 ] [ 13 ]


In the United States, the likelihood of  intimate partner homicide  by state corresponds to state levels of gun ownership, [ 4 ]  and firearms are the primary weapon in pregnancy-associated femicides. [ 2 ]  Researchers therefore identify stricter  gun laws , specifically in the United States, as a necessary intervention. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 4 ]


Researchers recommend the universal adoption of pregnancy and history of IPV checkboxes in homicide death records, as well the inclusion of pregnancy-associated femicide in maternal mortality reviews. [ 3 ] [ 5 ]  They maintain that accurate and efficient documentation of incidence rates increases efficiency in prevention. [ 3 ]


Laci Peterson  (1975-2002) was murdered on December 24, 2002 while 7 months pregnant. [ 14 ]  Laci’s husband, Scott Peterson, was convicted in 2004 of  first-degree murder  for her death, and of  second-degree murder  for the death of their unborn son Conner. [ 14 ]  The alternate title for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 is Laci and Conner's Law. [ 10 ]  The release of the  Netflix   docuseries   American Murder: Laci Peterson  on August 14, 2024, and the  Peacock  docuseries  Face to Face with Scott Peterson  on August 20, 2024 generated renewed public attention on the case. [ 15 ]


Chiara Páez (2001-2015) was beaten to death in May 2015 during her  first trimester  of pregnancy. [ 13 ]  Her boyfriend, Manuel Mansilla, was convicted for her murder in September 2017. [ 13 ]  Chiara’s family maintains that Manuel’s  motive  was her  unintended pregnancy . [ 13 ]  Chiara’s murder sparked the formation of the Ni una menos movement in Argentina, which then spread to other Latin American countries. [ 13 ]  The elevated rates of femicide and violence against women in Latin America, as well as the decriminalization and legalization of abortion, are amongst the central issues addressed by the movement. [ 13 ]


In the  United States of America , the  putative father registry  is a state level legal option for unmarried men to document through a  notary public  any woman they engage with in intercourse, for the purpose of retaining parental rights for any child they may father. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]


In the United States,  putative fathers  will be notified when actions to terminate their parental rights as part of  adoption  proceedings are filed for a child they may have fathered and registered for. [ 3 ]
Non-marital fathers are not guaranteed notice of an adoption or any rights in contesting the decision by the mother, nor are they guaranteed the ability to adopt or gain  custody  of the child. This has generated controversy, due to the fact that the same unwed fathers are held 100% responsible financially, for the children they father inside or outside of marriage, by DNA, with the same financial responsibilities any married father would be held to. However the unmarried fathers have no right to custody, visitation, or to oppose the adoption of their children, only the obligation to support them financially, and the penalty of prison time, if they fail to do this. Typically, the father is only guaranteed notification, and the right to appear in  court  to testify about their child's best interests when he has registered timely. [ 4 ]  Registering timely with a state's putative father registry supposedly guarantees notice, though there have been documented instances where that wasn’t true. Timely legal establishment of paternity typically guarantees notice and an opportunity to be heard and may confer rights to consent or withhold consent to adoption. Prenatal support of the mother and fetus assures recognition of parental rights in 34 states. [ 5 ]


There is no  federal law  in place regulating putative father registries. [ 6 ]
Among all signatory countries only the United States refuses to ratify the  Convention on the Rights of the Child  and registries are not regulated under the  U.N. Charter . Currently 33 states in the U.S. have putative father registries. [ citation needed ]  The number of children adopted without consent or notice to the biological father under the registry program started in the 1970s is unknown.


State putative father registries are intended to protect the non marital father from fraud by providing him with legal notice of a planned adoption of a child, provided he registers within a limited time-frame, usually any time prior to the birth or from 1 to 31 days after a birth. [ 7 ]
Lack of knowledge of the pregnancy or birth is not an acceptable reason for failure to file; fraud by the birth mother typically does extend the father's time to register. [ 8 ]


Some states require a putative father to file with multiple states, i.e. with the state possible conception might have occurred, state of residence (if different) and possible states the female might visit, [ 9 ]
or relocate to after the possible conception date that also have putative father registries. [ 10 ] [ 11 ]
To be valid at least one state requires a parent or guardian of the declarant to also sign when a minor under the age of 18 is documenting intercourse with a putative father registry. [ 12 ] [ clarification needed ]


17 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington, West Virginia), as well as American Samoa, District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, do not have putative father registries. [ 1 ]


Putative father registries are not always called such by individual states. Other names for registries include:


20 states with a putative father registry and registration forms publicly posted online:


13 states with a putative registry and no registration forms publicly posted online:


This is a  timeline of reproductive rights legislation , a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human  reproductive rights . Reproductive rights are a sub-set of  human rights [ 1 ]  pertaining to issues of  reproduction  and  reproductive health . [ 2 ]   These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe  abortion , the right to  birth control , the right to access quality  reproductive healthcare , and the right to  education and access  in order to make reproductive choices free from  coercion ,  discrimination , and  violence . [ 3 ]  Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive  education  about contraception and  sexually transmitted infections , and freedom from  coerced sterilization , abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as  female genital mutilation  (FGM). [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]


As far as the woman herself is concerned, unless the abortion statute expressly makes her responsible, it is generally held, although the statute reads any "person", that she is not liable to any criminal prosecution, whether she solicits the act or performs it upon herself. [ 57 ]


The  Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 , also known as the  Reproductive Health Law  or  RH Law , and officially designated as  Republic Act No. 10354 , is a Philippine law that provides universal access to methods of  contraception , fertility control,  sexual education , and maternal care.


While there is agreement about its provisions on maternal and child health, there is debate on its mandate that the government and private sector will fund, and undertake widespread distribution of family planning devices such as  condoms ,  birth control pills , and  IUDs , as the government continues to disseminate information on their use, through health care centers.


The passage of the legislation was controversial and divisive, with academics, religious institutions, and politicians declaring their support or opposition while it was pending in the legislature. Heated debates and rallies supporting and opposing the Bill took place nationwide. The  Supreme Court of the Philippines  delayed the implementation of the law in March 2013 in response to challenges. In April 2014, the Court ruled the law was "not unconstitutional" but struck down eight provisions partially or in full. [ 2 ]


The history of reproductive health law in the Philippines dates back to 1967 when President  Ferdinand Marcos  was among the heads of state who signed the Declaration on Population. The 30 countries who participated in the signing of the declaration were acknowledged by  U.N. Secretary-General   U Thant  during a  United Nations  ceremony on December 11, 1967, a day after  Human Rights Day . [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]  The Philippines agreed the population problem should be considered as the principal element for long-term economic development. Thus, the Population Commission was created to push for a lower family size norm and provide information and services to lower fertility rates. [ 6 ]


Starting in 1967, the  United States Agency for International Development  (USAID) began shouldering 80% of the total family planning commodities (contraceptives) of the country, which amounted to $3 million annually. In 1975, the U.S. adopted as its policy the  National Security Study Memorandum 200 : Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests (NSSM200). The policy gives "paramount importance" to population control measures and the promotion of contraception among 13 populous countries, including the Philippines, to control rapid population growth which they deem to be inimical to the sociopolitical national interests of the U.S., since the "U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad", and these countries can produce destabilizing opposition forces against the U.S. It recommended the U.S. leadership to "influence national leaders" and that "improved world-wide support for population-related efforts should be sought through increased emphasis on mass media and other population education and motivation programs by the UN,  USIA , and USAID." [ 7 ]


Different presidents had different points of emphasis. President Marcos pushed for a systematic distribution of contraceptives all over the country, a policy that was called "coercive", by its leading administrator. [ 3 ]  The  Corazon Aquino  administration focused on giving couples the right to have the number of children they prefer, while  Fidel V. Ramos  shifted from population control to management.  Joseph Estrada  used mixed methods of reducing fertility rates, focusing on mainstreaming  natural family planning . [ 6 ]


In 1989, the  Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development  (PLCPD) was established, "dedicated to the formulation of viable public policies requiring legislation on population management and socio-economic development". In 2000, the Philippines signed the  Millennium Declaration  and committed to attaining the Millennium Declaration Goals by 2015, which include promoting  gender equality  and health. In 2003, USAID started its phase out of a 33-year-old program by which free contraceptives were given to the country. Aid recipients such as the Philippines, faced the challenge to fund its own contraception program. In 2004, the  Department of Health  (DOH) introduced the Philippines Contraceptive Self-Reliance Strategy, arranging for the replacement of these donations with domestically provided contraceptives. [ 6 ]  In August 2010, the government announced collaborative work with the USAID in implementing a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy in favor of family planning called  They Have a Plan .


The basic content of the Consolidated Reproductive Health Bill is divided into the following sections. [ 8 ]


SEC. 1. The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy
SEC. 3. Guiding Principles
SEC. 4. Definition of Terms
SEC. 5. Midwives for Skilled Attendance
SEC. 6. Emergency Obstetric Care
SEC. 7. Access to Family Planning
SEC. 8. Maternal and Newborn Health Care in Crisis Situations
SEC. 9. Maternal Death Review
SEC. 10. Role of the Food and Drug Administration
SEC. 11. Procurement and Distribution of Family Planning Supplies
SEC. 12. Integration of Family Planning and Responsible Parenthood Component in Anti-Poverty Programs
SEC. 13. Roles of Local Government in Family Planning Programs
SEC. 14. Benefits for Serious and Life-Threatening Reproductive Health Conditions
SEC. 15. Mobile Health Care Service
SEC. 16. Mandatory Age-Appropriate Reproductive Health and Sexuality Education
SEC. 17. Additional duty of the local population officer  .
SEC. 18. Certificate of Compliance
SEC. 19. Capability Building of Barangay Health Workers
SEC. 20. Pro Bono Services for Indigent Women
SEC. 21. Sexual and Reproductive health
SEC. 22. Right to Reproductive Health Care Information
SEC. 23. Implementing Mechanisms
SEC. 24. Reporting Requirements
SEC. 25. Congressional Committee
SEC. 26. Prohibited Acts
SEC. 27. Penalties
SEC. 28. Appropriations
SEC. 29. Implementing Rules and Regulations
SEC. 30–32. Separability Clause, Repealing Clause, Effectivity


The bill mandates the government to "promote, without biases, all effective natural and modern methods of family planning that are medically safe and legal." [ 9 ]


Although abortion is recognized as illegal and punishable by law, the bill states that "the government shall ensure that all women needing care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner". [ 9 ]


The bill calls for a "multi-dimensional approach" integrates a component of family planning and responsible parenthood into all government anti-poverty programs. [ 9 ]  Age-appropriate reproductive health and sexuality education is required from grade five to fourth year high school using "life-skills and other approaches." [ 9 ]


The bill also mandates the  Department of Labor and Employment  to guarantee the reproductive health rights of its female employees. Companies with fewer than 200 workers are required to enter into partnership with health care providers in their area for the delivery of reproductive health services. [ 9 ]


Employers with more than 200 employees shall provide reproductive health services to all employees in their own respective health facilities. Those with fewer than 200 workers shall enter into partnerships with health professionals for the delivery of reproductive health services. Employers shall inform employees of the availability of family planning. They are also obliged to monitor pregnant working employees among their workforce and ensure they are provided paid half-day prenatal medical leaves for each month of the pregnancy period that they are employed. [ 9 ]


The national government and local governments will ensure the availability of reproductive health care services like family planning and  prenatal care . [ 9 ]


Any person or public official who prohibits or restricts the delivery of legal and medically safe reproductive health care services will be meted penalty by imprisonment or a fine. [ 9 ]


Free choice regarding reproductive health enables people, especially the poor, to have the number of children they want and can feasibly care and provide for. There are several studies cited by those who support the bill:


Opponents of the bill argue that:


President Aquino stated he was not an author of the bill. He also stated that he gives full support to a firm population policy, educating parents to be responsible, providing contraceptives to those who ask for them, but he refuses to promote contraceptive use. He said that his position "is more aptly called responsible parenthood rather than reproductive health". [ 19 ] [ 20 ]


The Philippines is the 39th most densely populated country, with a density over 335 per square kilometer, [ 21 ]  and the population growth rate is 1.9% (2010 Census), [ 22 ]  1.957% (2010 est. by  CIA World Factbook ), or 1.85% (2005–2010 high variant estimate by the UN Population Division,  World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision ) coming from 3.1 in 1960. [ citation needed ]


The 2013  total fertility rate  (TFR) is 3.20 births per woman, from a TFR of 7 in 1960. [ 23 ]  In addition, the total fertility rate for the richest quintile of the population is 2.0, which is about one third the TFR of the poorest quintile (5.9 children per woman). The TFR for women with college education is 2.3, about half that of women with only an elementary education (4.5 children per woman). [ 24 ]


Congressman Lagman states that the bill "recognizes the verifiable link between a huge population and poverty. Unbridled population growth stunts socioeconomic development and aggravates poverty". [ 16 ]


The  University of the Philippines  School of Economics presented two papers in support of the bill:   Population and Poverty: the Real Score  (2004), and  Population, Poverty, Politics and the Reproductive Health Bill  (2008). According to these economists, which include  Solita Monsod ,  Gerardo Sicat , Cayetano Paderanga, Ernesto M. Pernia, and Stella Alabastro-Quimbo, "rapid population growth and high fertility rates, especially among the poor, do exacerbate poverty and make it harder for the government to address it", while at the same time clarifying that it would be "extreme" to view "population growth as the principal cause of poverty that would justify the government resorting to draconian and coercive measures to deal with the problem (e.g., denial of basic services and subsidies to families with more than two children)". They illustrate the connection between rapid population growth and poverty by comparing the economic growth and population growth rates of Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, wherein the first two grew more rapidly than the Philippines due to lower population growth rates. [ 11 ]  They stressed that "the experience from across Asia indicates that a population policy cum government-funded [family planning] program has been a critical complement to sound economic policy and poverty reduction". [ 10 ]


In  Population and Poverty , Aniceto Orbeta, Jr., showed that poverty incidence is higher among big families: 57.3% of Filipino families with seven children are in poverty while only 23.8% of families who have two children live below the poverty threshold. [ 13 ]


Proponents argue that smaller families and wider birth intervals resulting from the use of contraceptives allow families to invest more in each child's education, health, nutrition and eventually reduce poverty and hunger at the household level. [ 10 ]  At the national level, fertility reduction cuts the cost of social services with fewer people attending school or seeking medical care and as demand eases for housing, transportation, jobs, water, food, and other natural resources. [ 6 ] [ 11 ] [ 25 ]  The  Asian Development Bank  in 2004 also listed a large population as one of the major causes of poverty in the country, together with weak macroeconomic management, employment issues, an underperforming agricultural sector and an unfinished land reform agenda, governance issues including corruption. [ 12 ]


Opponents refer to a 2003 study of  Rand Corporation , which concluded that "there is little cross-country evidence that population growth impedes or promotes economic growth...population neutralism has in fact been the predominant school in thinking among academics about population growth for the last half-century". For example, the 1992 study of  Ross Levine  and David Renelt, which covered 119 countries over 30 years (versus a  University of the Philippines  study of 3 countries over a few years). The RAND study also said that a large population can promote growth given the right fundamentals. [ 26 ]  Thus, they refer to the  HSBC  2012 projection for 2050 that the Philippines will be 16th largest economy due to its large growing population, and those whose populations are decreasing will suffer decline. [ 27 ]


In a recent development, two authors of the Reproductive Health Bill changed their stand on the provisions of the bill regarding population and development. Reps. Emerciana de Jesus and  Luzviminda Ilagan  wanted to delete three provisions which state that "gender equality and women empowerment are central elements of reproductive health and population and development", which integrate responsible parenthood and family planning programs into anti-poverty initiatives, and which name the  Commission on Population and Development   Archived  February 3, 2021, at the  Wayback Machine  or POPCOM as a coordinating body. The two party-list representatives strongly state that poverty is not due to over-population but because of inequality and corruption. [ 28 ]


The  Wall Street Journal  in July 2012 said that Aquino's "promotion of a 'reproductive health' bill is jarring" since it could lead to "a demographic trap of too few workers. The Philippines doesn't have too many people, it has too few pro-growth policies". [ 29 ]


Opposing the bill, Former Finance Secretary  Roberto de Ocampo  wrote that it is "truly disingenuous for anyone to proceed on the premise that the poor are to blame for the nation's poverty:. He emphasized that the government should apply the principle of first things first and focus on the root causes of the poverty (e.g., poor governance, corruption) and apply many other alternatives to solve the problem (e.g., giving up  pork barrel , raising tax collection efficiency). [ 18 ]


Maternal deaths in the Philippines, according to the  World Health Organization , is at 5.7 per day, [ 30 ]  not 10–11 deaths a day, as per the proponents who repeated these numbers "to drive home the point". [ 31 ] [ 32 ]


The proponents state that the passage of the RH Bill would mean:


The Department of Health states that family planning can reduce maternal mortality by about 32%. [ 14 ]  The bill is "meant to prevent maternal deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth", said Clara Padilla of Engender Rights. She reported that every day, "there are 11 women dying while giving birth in the Philippines. These preventable deaths could have been avoided if more Filipino women have access to reproductive health information and healthcare." [ citation needed ]


The key to solving maternal deaths, according to the  Senate Policy Brief  on reproductive health, is the establishment of  birthing centers . [ 6 ]


The  Philippine Medical Association  (PMA) stated in their Position Paper that the goal of reducing the rise of maternal and child deaths "could be attained by improving maternal and child health care without the necessity of distributing contraceptives. The millions of funds intended for the contraceptive devices may just well be applied in improving the skills of our health workers in reducing maternal and child mortality in the Philippines". [ 33 ]


Senator Majority Floor Leader  Tito Sotto  said that the RH Bill is redundant to a 2009 law referred to as the Magna Carta for Women, which contains reproductive health provisions, asking the Senate to drop the bill. [ 34 ]


One of the main concerns of the proponents is the perceived lack of access to family planning devices such as contraceptives and sterilization. The bill intends to provide universal access through government funding, complementing thus private sector initiatives for family planning services, such as those offered by the  International Planned Parenthood Federation  (IPPF) which supports the Family Planning Organizations of the Philippines and the 97 organizations of the Philippine NGO Council. [ citation needed ]


The UP School of Economics argues, in contrast, that there is lack of access especially for poor people, because contraceptive use is extremely low among them and "among the poorest families, 22% of married women of reproductive age express a desire to avoid pregnancies but are still not using any family planning method". [ 10 ]  They say that lack of access leads to a number of serious problems which demand attention: (1) "too many and too closely-spaced children raises the risk of illness and premature deaths (for mother and child alike)," (2) "the health risks associated with mistimed and unwanted pregnancies are higher for adolescent mothers, as they are more likely to have complications during labor," (3) women who have mistimed pregnancies are "constrained to rely more on public education and health services and other publicly provided goods and services", further complicating limited public resources, (4) families are not able to achieve their desired family size. Thus the UP economists "strongly and unequivocally support" the thrust of the bill to enable "couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have the information and means to carry out their decisions". [ 10 ]  Proponents argue that government-funded access is the key to breaking the inter-generational poverty that many people are trapped in. [ 10 ] [ 25 ]


Proponents of the bill contend that "natural family planning methods have not proven to be as reliable as artificial means of birth control". [ 35 ]


According to the RH bill, one of its components is "prevention of abortion and management of post-abortion complications". It provides that "the government shall ensure that all women needing care for post-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in a humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner". It also states that "abortion remains a crime and is punishable", as the Constitution declares that "the State shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from  conception ". [ 36 ]


The position of the  Philippine Medical Association  (PMA) "is founded strongly on the principle that 'life or conception begins at fertilization' at that moment where there is fusion or union of the sperm and the egg and thus a human person or human being already does exist at the moment of fertilization". The PMA condemns abortifacients that "destroys the fertilized egg or the embryo" and "abhors any procedure...or medication that will interrupt any stage of fertilization and prevents its normal, physiological, uninterrupted growth to adulthood". [ 33 ]


Jo Imbong, founder of the Abay Pamilya Foundation, reported that "Lagman said in a House hearing that the bill would protect human life 'from implantation' ", [ 37 ]  and not from fertilization, noting at the same time that the Records of the Constitutional Commission state that "Human life begins at fertilization". [ 37 ] [ 38 ]


Proponents argue that research by the  Guttmacher Institute , involved in advancing international reproductive health, reveals that the use of contraceptives can reduce abortion rates by 85%. Proponents such as 14  Ateneo de Manila University  professors, argued thus: "Studies show that the majority of women who go for an abortion are married or in a consensual union (91%), the mother of three or more children (57%), and poor (68%) (Juarez, Cabigon, and Singh 2005). For these women, terminating a pregnancy is an anguished choice they make in the face of severe constraints. When women who had attempted an abortion were asked their reasons for doing so, their top three responses were: they could not afford the economic cost of raising another child (72%); their pregnancy occurred too soon after the last one (57%); and they already have enough children (54%). One in ten women (13%) who had attempted an abortion revealed that this was because her pregnancy resulted from forced sex (ibid.). Thus, for these women, abortion has become a family planning method, in the absence of information on and access to any reliable means to prevent an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy". [ 25 ]


The bill, said Clara Padilla of EnGender Rights Inc, will "help reduce the number of abortions by providing increased access to information and services on modern contraceptive methods, that in turn will reduce the number of unwanted—and often aborted—pregnancies". [ 39 ]


Both sides of the debate accuse the other side of deception and misleading the public. The pro-RH people accuse the anti-RH group of misleading the public by calling the bill an abortion bill, when the bill states that abortion remains a crime and is punishable. The anti-RH advocates accuse the RH supporters of hiding from the public the international population control agenda which includes abortion and they refer to U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton who said that RH includes abortion. [ 40 ] [ 41 ] [ 42 ]


Fourteen professors from  Ateneo de Manila University , a prominent Catholic University, considering the empirical evidence of the dire socioeconomic conditions of the Filipino poor, urged that the bill be passed to help them. They argued: "As Catholics and Filipinos, we share the hope and mission of building a Church of the Poor. We are thus deeply disturbed and saddened by calls made by some members of the Catholic Church to reject a proposed legislation that promises to improve the wellbeing of Filipino families, especially the lives of women, children, adolescents, and the poor". They announced that "Catholic social teachings recognize the primacy of the well-formed conscience over wooden compliance to directives from political and religious authorities", urging Catholic authorities to withdraw their opposition the bill. [ 25 ]  Citing Catholic documents and scientific studies, they reasoned that "the RH Bill is pro-life, pro-women, pro-poor, pro-youth, and pro-informed choice". They emphasized that the bill "promotes quality of life, by enabling couples, especially the poor, to bring into the world only the number of children they believe they can care for and nurture to become healthy and productive members of our society". [ 25 ]  Thus, they called their paper "Catholics Can Support the RH Bill in Good Conscience". [ 25 ]


In response, the Ateneo administration announced its unity with Catholic teaching and that it had "serious objections to the present bill". [ 43 ]


Proponents such as Lagman also stressed that official Catholic teaching itself, expressed in the Encyclical  Humanae Vitae  issued only forty years ago in 1964, is not infallible. [ 16 ]  He said that the Papal Commission on Birth Control, which included ranking prelates and theologians, recommended that the Church change its teaching on contraception as it concluded that "the regulation of conception appears necessary for many couples who wish to achieve a responsible, open and reasonable parenthood in today's circumstances". The editorial of the  Philippine Daily Inquirer , moreover, stated that Catholic teaching is "only" a religious teaching and should not be imposed with intolerance on a secular state. [ citation needed ]


Opponents argue that misery is not the result of the church which they say is the largest charitable organization in the world, but of a breakdown in moral sense that gives order to society, nor does misery come from parents who bring up children in faithfulness, discipline, love and respect for life, but from those who strip human beings of moral dignity and responsibility, by treating them as mere machines, which they believe contraception does. [ 44 ]


Stating that contraception is a lie and "against the beginning of new life", the  Philippine Medical Association  also stressed that the "health risks of contraception to women are considerable; the list of side effects is long, and includes high blood pressure, strokes, increased incidence of some forms of cancer". [ 33 ]


Proponents such as E. Ansioco of Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines argued that "The World Health Organization (WHO) includes contraceptives in its Model Lists of Essential Drugs" and thus are safe medicines. [ 14 ] [ 15 ]  "Medical and scientific evidence," says the main proponent, "shows that all the possible medical risks connected with contraceptives are infinitely lower than the risks of an actual pregnancy and everyday activities...The risk of dying within a year of using pills is 1 in 200,000. The risk of dying from a vasectomy is 1 in 1 million and the risk of dying from using an IUD is 1 in 10 million...But the risk of dying from a pregnancy is 1 in 10,000." [ 16 ]


The RH bill provides for "prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other, STIs/STDs", especially since the number of HIV cases among the young nearly tripled from 41 in 2007 to 110 in 2008. [ 39 ]  Proponents emphasized that RH will help in stemming the AIDS epidemic that is worsening in the Philippines. Lagman explained that "Globally, the new number of reported cases of HIV infections and deaths has dropped by nearly 20 percent. It is therefore both ironic and tragic that the Philippines' trajectory is towards the other direction. Our country's HIV/AIDS statistics have increased by 30 percent!" [ 45 ]  Primary among the means is distribution of condoms. The proponents applauded government efforts last February 2010 when it distributed condoms in some areas of Manila. [ citation needed ]


Proponents refer to many surveys conducted by two prominent locally based organizations (SWS and Pulse Asia) which show majority support for the bill. A survey conducted in 2008 by the  Social Weather Stations , commissioned by the Forum for Family Planning and Development (FFPD), a non-government advocacy group, showed that 68 percent of Filipinos agree that there should be a law requiring government to distribute legal contraceptives. [ 46 ]  SWS President and RH Bill proponent,  Mahar Mangahas  reported that the "survey found 71 percent in favor [of the RH Bill], 21 percent undecided, and a mere 8 percent opposed. Among those who originally knew of the bill, the score is 84 percent in favor, and 6 percent opposed. Among those who learned of the bill for the first time because of the survey, the score is 59 percent in favor, versus 11 percent opposed." [ 17 ] [ 46 ]  Pulse Asia reported that in an October 2008 survey "most Filipinos are aware of the reproductive health bill pending at the House of Representatives (68%) and are in favor of the bill (63%)". [ 47 ]  In December 2010, Pulse Asia announced based on the results of an October 2010 survey, 69% of the Filipinos are in favor of the bill. [ 48 ]


The President of Prolife Philippines,  Lito Atienza , said that the surveys conducted by SWS and Pulse Asia were misleading, because the participants were not fully informed of the bill, were merely aware of it, and informed that it was about health and "modern methods". Instead he referred to the Filipino Family survey of December 2009 conducted by the HB&A International (an affiliate of  Louis Harris & Associates ) together with the personnel of Asia Research Organization (the Philippine affiliate of  Gallup International ). The survey concluded that 92% of people in metropolitan Manila rejected the bill, "85 percent are not aware that once passed the RH bill would allow teenagers to secure 'abortifacient devices and substances' without their parents' knowledge and consent...90 percent do not agree that Congress should appropriate P2 billion to the detriment of other essential medicines for free children's vaccinations, treatment of dreaded diseases and other more important health and medical concerns." [ 49 ]  Mangahas acknowledged that the SWS surveys did not include the penalties. [ 50 ]


A TV Debate was also hosted by  ABS-CBN  in May 2011. Leaders of both sides, including Rep. Lagman and Rep. Golez, were present. According to the ABS-CBN news which reported on the results: "In the SMS poll, 69.58% of votes cast reject the RH bill while 30.42% support it." [ 51 ]  In the separate online poll held on the Harapan microsite that livestreamed the debate, majority voted against the bill at the very end of the debate. [ dubious  –  discuss ]


On TV5's Debate  Hamon sa Pagbabago  on August 21, 2011, the studio audience voted 100% against the bill, while 58.7% of the viewers voted against the RH Bill via text messaging, versus 41.3% in favor. [ 52 ]


The online poll conducted by the  Philippine Star  published on May 18, 2011, showed that 56% were against the RH Bill, while 44% were in favor. [ 53 ]


Beginning in late 2010, there were rallies for and against the bill. [ 54 ] [ 55 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] [ 58 ] [ 59 ] [ 60 ] [ 61 ] [ 62 ] [ 63 ]


In the legislative arena, women's rights NGOs like  Likhaan  organized mobilizations to amplify the voices of impoverished women within broader discussions. They strategically organized urban poor women to participate in rallies, applying pressure on legislators. Consequently, these women were invited to share their experiences during plenary sessions and committee hearings in Congress, specifically addressing the deliberations on the Reproductive Health Bill at that time. [ 64 ]


There is mandatory sexuality education starting grade 5, and "malicious disinformation" is penalized. [ 65 ]  All health care service providers which provide reproductive health services, including faith-based hospital administrators, may be imprisoned or fined if they refuse to provide family planning services such as  tubal ligation  and  vasectomy . The same may happen to employers who do not provide free services to employees. [ 65 ]  Imprisonment ranges from one to six months or a fine ranging from ten thousand pesos (P10,000.00) to fifty thousand pesos (P50,000.00). [ 65 ]  Former Finance Secretary  Roberto de Ocampo  stated that these punitive provisions "are tantamount to an affront to civil liberties and smack of religious persecution". [ 18 ]


Defending the bill,  Felipe Medalla , former dean of the  University of the Philippines School of Economics , said that "although the poor's access to family planning services can be improved even without the law, the absence of the law makes it easier to block the program". [ citation needed ]


One of the prelates the  Roman Catholic Church  in the  Philippines ,  Archbishop   Luis Antonio Tagle  opposes the Reproductive Health Bill, along with  abortion  and  contraception . Because 81% of Filipinos are Catholics, the Catholic Church exerts a strong influence in public and moral life. Its staunch opposition to the bill has drawn the controversy among non-Catholics and Catholics alike who support the bill whereby many invoke the principle of  separation of church and state . [ 66 ]


Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J, one of the drafters of the  Philippine Constitution  and a prominent lawyer and writer, explained that the concept of separation of church and state is directed towards the state, rather than the church, as it is a political concept. Technically it means "non-establishment of religion," as the Constitution states, "No law shall be passed respecting an establishment of religion." It means that the state should be guided by the principle that it should support no specific religion and so government funding should not be allocated for building churches or mosques and not favor any particular religion. It does not prevent the church, parents, supervisors, teachers and other moral educators from expressing their views and educating their wards on the morality of their personal and social actions. The Catholic Church also states that their stand is based on secular reasons and natural law that are both acceptable to non-Catholics as well. Proponents, on the other hand, state that the church should not meddle in matters of the state and should focus on religious matters, not political matters. [ 67 ]


The national debate is seen as part of a wider  culture war . [ 68 ]  Passing it or not passing it of the bill has negative implications depending on the views. Proponents state that the not passing the bill will make the Philippines no longer be a backward state and unable to achieve the  Millennium Development Goals , especially the points on poverty alleviation and maternal health. It will mean reneging on international commitments and will slow down modernization. Also, the poor will not have free access to family planning support that many have want, and thus will have more children than they can care for and will not have the money to invest in education to break the intergenerational poverty they are trapped in. Proponents also accuse the Catholic Church of holding the Philippines "hostage" and violating the  separation of church and state . [ 69 ]  They argue that a decreased population growth will lead to improved  quality of life  and economic development.


Department of Health is proposing 13.7 billion pesos to be fund the RH Bill if it is passed in 2012, according to Senator  Pia Cayetano . [ 70 ]


Filipinos for Life, an anti-abortion organization, claimed that the bill was funded by foreign population control groups, a claim that Rep.  Edcel Lagman  denied as "an old yarn which is destitute of factual basis", saying that the lobby opposing the bill was the one which was backed by the "wealthy Catholic hierarchy with the aid of dozens of lay organizations". [ 71 ]


Young Nine Legislators (Y9L)—including Aliah Dimaporo,  Lucy Torres-Gomez , Karlo Alexei Nograles—said that "The proposed P3 billion appropriation for the RH bill, if put towards education, can help secure the future of young Filipinos. That amount can build 4,644 new classrooms…or it can subsidize the college education of 300,000 scholars—a chance for underprivileged student achievers to earn their diploma". [ 72 ]


Lagman on the other hand said that both these priorities are important but with a burgeoning population the budget will become even tighter, thus population growth is a major issue. [ citation needed ]


European Union  Ambassador to the Philippines Alistair MacDonald said "We have all seen the figures on illegal abortion a year in the Philippines and I very much hope that both Houses of Congress will take these issues into account in producing a reproductive health legislation which will really help people make their own choices and to provide for their families." [ 73 ]