{"id":7159,"date":"2021-06-02T14:07:09","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T06:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=7159"},"modified":"2021-06-02T14:07:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T06:07:10","slug":"womens-rights-groups-grassroots-organizations-come-together-in-online-rally-for-womens-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/womens-rights-groups-grassroots-organizations-come-together-in-online-rally-for-womens-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s rights groups, grassroots organizations come together in online rally for women\u2019s health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Women\u2019s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) and the Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN) led an online rally to amplify demands regarding women\u2019s health amid the pandemic. Attended by a hundred women from various sectors, the rally is in line with the global commemoration of the International Day of Action for Women\u2019s Health with the theme, \u201cWomen\u2019s Health Matters: Ending the Inequality Pandemic and Ensuring Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights remain essential!\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCOVID-19 has impacted us all, but we are not all impacted equally. It exposed and exacerbated long-standing social and gender inequalities that are manifested in many forms across contexts,\u201d said Marevic Parcon, Executive Director of WGNRR, in her opening remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Parcon, this year the May 28 campaign is focusing on how the pandemic affects women, girls, and non-binary people’s health especially for those belonging to grassroots communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rally featured interventions from leaders of various basic sector and community-based organizations, representing health workers, women human rights defenders, working women, rural women, indigenous women, urban poor women, and young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flora Assidao-Santos from women\u2019s group Oriang brought out concerns of urban poor women in accessing healthcare. According to Santos, poor women are not entertained in healthcare facilities because they are poor and are not prioritized for local interventions such as pre-natal and post-natal check-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PINSAN spokesperson and EnGendeRights Executive Director, Atty. Clara Rita Padilla also criticized local government units for returning contraceptives to the national government with the “lame excuse” of lack of demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany poor women may want to use but cannot afford contraceptives. It is the job of the national and local governments to increase awareness on contraceptive information, supplies and services to generate more demand for contraceptives,\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poverty (kahirapan), along with fear (pangamba) and [worries over] their children\u2019s futures (kinabukasan ng kabataan), was also cited by women from Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayuan (National Rural Women\u2019s Congress) communities as the biggest barriers to women\u2019s health. Meanwhile, women from Indigenous Peoples communities and those living in the Bangsamoro called for accessible public healthcare services as well as livelihood support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Edelina Dela Paz of People\u2019s Health Movement and Health Action Information Network noted how strict lockdown measures are gravely impacting people\u2019s economic needs as well as their health as they risk their lives to go outside to work. She also decried militarized responses to the pandemic citing contract tracing being done by the police instead of health workers. \u201c[The pandemic is a] health issue, not a militarist issue,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe online rally has really served to ground our demands this Day of Action for Women\u2019s Health. We cannot view women\u2019s health myopically. There needs to be structural change to address long-time neglect of women\u2019s health and needs,\u201d ED Parcon said in a comment after the forum.
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The Women\u2019s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) and the Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN) led an online rally to amplify demands regarding women\u2019s health amid the pandemic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2155,247,2039],"class_list":["post-7159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsmakers","tag-women-empowerment","tag-womens-health","tag-womens-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7161,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159\/revisions\/7161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}