Former Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros. CDN FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines– Former Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros said she would ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its status quo ante order (SQAO) on the implementation of the Reproductive Health law.
“While I respect the decision of the Supreme Court, I believe that the SQAO will cause an alarming aggravation of a status quoe that causes maternal deaths and deprivation of the right of many Filipinos,” Hontiveros , an intervenor in the high court case on the consitutionality of the new RH law, said in a statement on Wednesday.
While pro-RH advocates are “ready, able and willing to defend the law before the SC”, she said the “immediate implementation of the law provides instant relief to women and mothers who are vulnerable to debilitating but preventable conditions.”
Hontiveros reiterated that the struggle for the RH continued.
“There should be no folding of our purple banners yet. We shed tears of joy when the law was finally acted, but we are always ready to defend our ganis and push for more reforms,” she said.
Hontiveros said they would defend the law because it was “morally right to do so and because the law is constitutional.”
“We will defend the RH law in the same way that mothers defend their children,” she added.