By: Margaret Padilla
Senator Grace Poe stated that regardless of the situation in the country, women and children should have access to the best health care possible.
“With or without the pandemic, the government is tasked to provide essential, safe, and high-quality care to pregnant mothers and babies,” she said in a statement.
This was the senator’s response to the Department of Health’s (DOH) recent statement that pregnant women face numerous challenges as a result of the pandemic.
Quarantine restrictions have a significant impact on the delivery, and use of maternal and child care services.
To neglect them is to miss the future of our country,” Poe added. “The health crisis should serve as an insight to find ways to continue the delivery of services in the face of unforeseen circumstances. The right to health and nutrition of women and children must be pandemic-proof.”
According to Poe, any problems can be solved if it means providing the necessary assistance to mothers and their children.
“No challenge should be insurmountable in providing mothers, especially the disadvantaged, the needed assistance and in giving every child a fair chance in life,” she explained.
Some of the laws that the senator had passed were Republic Act No. 11037, also known as the “Healthy Food for Filipino Children Act,” established feeding programs for public school students; and Republic Act No. 11148, also known as the “Maternal Health and Nutrition Act.”