MANILA: Women seeking to terminate unwanted pregnancies seem to have found solace in online selling platforms, where vendors openly offer “abortion pills” or herbal potions marketed as remedies to “regulate” menstruation.
A quick search on several e-commerce sites, and even on Facebook, shows that these pills can be purchased through anonymous accounts — many of which are now inactive. In a few public online groups, sellers even post glowing reviews, with images of expelled embryos or sanitary pads soaked in blood clots and screenshots of conversations with “satisfied” customers.
At the peak of her career in May 2023, 28-year-old Dennise (not her real name) discovered one of these Facebook pages after learning she was five weeks pregnant. Soon, she was added to a group chat after connecting with someone she had met through the page.
“I was training to lead a small department, trying to finish my Master’s, and working for a non-profit organisation. Besides, I never intended to have a child. Ever,” Dennise told the Inquirer in an online interview.
Dennise had two options at that time: the services offered through the Facebook group chat and a women-centred clinic she chose not to name.
The former offered a cheaper price for their services — around P2,000 (US$34) to P5,000, depending on the stage of pregnancy up to six months, while the latter offered P15,000 and included assistance during the procedure, post-abortion care and information on what birth control method would be used.
“In the group chat, the instructions were basically the same. They would send pills along with the directions. They only offered medical abortion. At the clinic, they offered both medical and surgical abortion. I chose medical because I still wanted to have control over my body,” she explained.
Although the services were similar and she felt that the Facebook group was also trying to make abortion accessible to women, Dennise ultimately chose to avail herself of the clinic’s services.
For medical abortion, Dennise shared that she picked up the pills from a clinic within Metro Manila but underwent the procedure in a budget hotel with the help of Lorna (not her real name), who guided her through the process, checked on her condition, and reminded her through online messaging of the dos and don’ts — like resisting the urge to drink water, eat or even fall asleep.
Dennise revealed that she was given 14 pills — two tablets to be inserted vaginally, and 12 tablets divided into three batches of four, taken every three hours.
Neither of the drugs is registered in the Philippines, and it is illegal to sell or distribute them for use as abortion drugs.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), when used together, both drugs can “end an intrauterine pregnancy through 10 weeks’ gestation (70 days or less since the first day of the last menstrual period).”
“Of course, at first, I felt like throwing up, but I couldn’t. I had to hold it in. I also wanted to drink water, but that wasn’t allowed either. To be honest, there wasn’t really much I could do except wait for the hours to pass until it was time to take the next two batches of pills. But a lot happened — I cried, I had chills and I even dozed off for a bit, which was not allowed,” she disclosed.
Dennise likened her experience to that of the protagonist in the 2024 sports drama Sunshine, who had to endure her struggles on her own — except that in the film, the character ended up in the emergency room. Dennise, by contrast, successfully completed the procedure but revealed that she went through it alone, confiding only in a few friends about her decision.
During the process, Dennise realised that not all women could easily afford P15,000 for an abortion. In the group chat she had joined, she encountered another pregnant woman who could only proceed once she had saved enough money.
“In that group chat, there was a woman who was already more than six months pregnant, which is beyond what medical abortion could safely handle. But she insisted on proceeding because, according to her, it was only then that she had saved enough money. They were urging her to go to the emergency room because the fetus she expelled was already crying, and she was bleeding heavily,” she detailed.
Under Articles 256 to 259 of the Revised Penal Code, individuals who perform, cause, or are involved in abortion — whether intentional or not — will be penalised.
In 2022, the Inquirer reported that the Philippines is one of only 24 countries that prohibit abortion under all circumstances, not even for cases where the pregnant woman’s life needs to be saved, citing the Centre for Reproductive Rights.
Around 90 million — five per cent — of women of reproductive age live in these countries that prohibit abortion altogether.
The Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network’s (PINSAN) website argued that the country’s strict law, which criminalises abortion and penalises women, parents, and providers who “engage in or induce abortion,” has led to many women dying from complications during and after the procedure.
In line with this advocacy, EnGendeRights Executive Director Atty. Claire Padilla shared a draft bill she prepared for PINSAN. The proposed measure seeks to decriminalise abortion to save pregnant women’s lives by repealing Articles 256 to 259 of the Revised Penal Code. It also seeks to establish mechanisms to ensure humane and nonjudgmental post-abortion care.
Padilla said she will discuss the draft bill during the Decriminalise Abortion Network’s launch on Monday, September 29, a day after the observation of International Safe Abortion Day.
In 2020, “there were an estimated 1.26 million Filipino women who induced abortion, many of them using unsafe methods,” the bill’s explanatory note reads, citing a report from the University of the Philippines Population Institute.
It added that “complications from unsafe abortion are one of the five leading causes of maternal death — between 4.7 to 13.2 per cent — and a leading cause of hospitalisation in the Philippines.”
With this, Padilla stressed the urgent need for this bill to be passed into law.
“The restrictive and outdated Revised Penal Code penalising abortion has never reduced the number of pregnant persons who induce abortion, but only makes it unsafe for pregnant persons who resort to unsafe and clandestine abortions,” she said in an online interview.
“Once decriminalised, pregnant persons who decide to end their pregnancies will have access to quality and safe medical abortion pills, which will be more affordable even to poor pregnant persons because the sale would be upfront and not through the black market, following FDA and Department of Health guidelines,” she added.
According to Padilla, the passage of the draft measure or the Decriminalisation of Abortion Bill “is a step towards eliminating stigma,” even for healthcare providers, and the Department of Health would issue guidelines on the provision of life-saving medical care.
Currently, Padilla said that the country has existing laws that require the provision of “humane, nonjudgmental post-abortion care.” These are Republic Act No. 10354, or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, and the DOH Administrative Order (AO 2016-0044), issued in December 2016.
She also mentioned the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law, which “requires stabilising patients needing emergency care.”
Likewise, Dennise said she believed that criminalising abortion would not stop women from terminating unwanted pregnancies but would “only increase unsafe abortions.”
In an ideal setting, she said, women like her would not have to pay for an abortion and would instead receive proper care from a health worker in the safety of a clinic.
“If we were more open as a country, I wouldn’t have to hide behind an alias, and I could openly advocate for the decriminalisation of abortion,” Dennise concluded. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
