ILOILO CITY, Iloilo – Iloilo native, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is challenging the academic community here to support the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

Santiago is the sponsor of Senate Bill No. 2378, otherwise known as An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health (RH) and Population and Development.

“Eleven Filipino women die every 24 hours due to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications,” Santiago pointed out during a forum on the RH bill and women empowerment at the city campus of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UP Visayas).

“It is time for the academic community in Iloilo to make a stand for the right to RH care and the right to informed choice,” she said.

Her bill seeks to provide a full range of modern family planning methods, mandatory reproductive and sexuality education, management of abortion complications, emergency obstetric care, and capability building for barangay health workers to educate on proper RH care.

It also seeks to give additional PhilHealth benefits to those who have been diagnosed with HIV, AIDS, breast cancers, ovarian cancers, or have obstetric complication.

Defensor-Santiago is particularly advocating for the use of social networking sites and text messaging over mobile phones as awareness campaign tools.

“Student leaders from UP Visayas and other schools should use modern tools of political activism to organize and amplify their protests against blind fanaticism,” Santiago stressed.

She also warned that delay of the passage of the bill is “detrimental to the health and lives of Filipinos, especially women and children” in a ballooning Philippine population with more than 50% living below the poverty line.

Santiago is urging the Ugsad (Hiligaynon term for “full moon,” signifying mother) Regional Gender Resource Center of Western Visayas and the UP Visayas Gender and Development Program to strengthen the campaign for the right of women to informed choice.

“By responding to the reproductive health needs of women, the RH bill affords women more employment, educational opportunities, and ultimately, economic empowerment,” Santiago stressed.