Supreme Court TRO stalling gov’t family planning program–DOH

A temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from issuing and renewing licenses for the distribution and sale of all family planning commodities is expected to make contraceptives costly and scarce in the market, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Health Secretary Janette Garin said in an interview that the Supreme Court’s nearly 1-year-old TRO was a “big bottleneck” in the government’s implementation of the reproductive health (RH) law, especially in ensuring poor Filipino couples’ easy access to contraceptives and pills.

“We are now becoming aggressive in putting in family planning supplies where they are needed because in the years to come, the supply will become sparse if the TRO will not be lifted sooner,” Garin told reporters.

She said some of the licenses for these family planning commodities, which include condoms, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and birth control pills, will be expiring later this year and next year.

Licenses issued by the FDA have a five-year expiry period, she said.

If the TRO will not be lifted sooner, companies and distributors cannot supply the market with these commodities, making them scarce not only in government-run health centers but in the private market as well, Garin said.

Last year, the high court issued two restraining orders, barring the DOH from procuring, selling, dispensing and administering contraceptive implants, which are thin rods inserted under the skin that release hormones to prevent pregnancy for up to three years.

A separate TRO was issued last year prohibiting the FDA from issuing and renewing certificate of product registration to companies selling family planning supplies.

“If there will be no licenses for these supplies, you will end up going abroad to buy these. But what about the poor Filipino couples who need help the most?” she said.

“If these commodities are limited in the market, of course the prices will skyrocket. They won’t become affordable to the ordinary Filipinos. Only those who can buy it abroad will have the opportunity to do family planning,” she said.

Recent data show that six million Filipino women have unmet needs for family planning services nationwide.

Garin said the DOH has been preparing for the TRO’s probable consequences, stocking up on family planning commodities with longer shelf life good for the next two years.

“These will be delivered in tranches in the next two years,” she said.

The DOH has already prepared turnover documents, transition reports and the endorsement of the case to the Office of the Solicitor General so that the new administration will be able to work for the lifting of the TRO, said Garin, who will finish her term at the end of the month.

“What is very important is a solution will be arrived at so that the plan [for the implementation of the RH law] will not only be good for two years and so that the DOH can go back to planning it on a long-term basis,” she said.