Baguio college insists on students’ pregnancy test

By Sohee Kim

BAGUIO CITY – Despite criticism, Pines City College here has stood pat on its policy of mandatory pregnancy test for their female students.

PCC said they are still implementing the policy requiring all female students should be subjected to pregnancy test in the school's medical clinic to safeguard them if they are pregnant. The Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) questioned true intent of pregnancy test in the institution saying no college prohibit readmission of female students due to pregnancy.

PCW officials said they are coordinating with the Commission on Human Rights to probe the matter and make necessary steps to address the situation.

But the PCC said in a statement, "We believe it is a policy protective of our students while they are in our care and are deployed to internship programs in hospitals and to clinical practice."

The CHR  had started the probe on the controversial PCC memorandum mandating pregnancy testing of its female students.

“The CHR is alarmed with the documents circulating in the internet showing Pines City College’s policy of mandatory pregnancy testing not only as to possible MCW (Magna Carta of Women) violation but also of other women’s rights particularly on the rights to privacy and bodily autonomy,” CHR spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia said in a statement.

“Women and girls should not be denied exercise and full enjoyment of basic rights, they should not suffer negative consequences in educational and work spaces simply because they are pregnant,” de Guia added.

De Guia added that pregnancy does not determine one’s capacity as a student. “That deregulation and commercialization policies in education that host unjust determination and widespread collection of widespread exorbitant and dubious fees must be scrapped.”

“As Gender Ombud, the Commission through its CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region) office is investigating the case motu propio, according to the institution due process and verifying the existence of the policy.”

The memorandum signed by PCCs’ school physician Dr. Aurelia Navarro and vice president for administration Maria Regina Prats requires the Dentistry, Nursing, and Pharmacy department deans and heads to require their female students to undergo mandatory pregnancy test this week.

The institution, in a statement late Tuesday afternoon, said that PCC abides by its policy of pregnancy tests for female students who are enrolling in courses such as Clinical Dentistry, Roentgenology, Anesthesiology, and Endodontics, that “would endanger both mother and child.”

“It is a policy agreed to by our students upon their enrollment in this institution,” it stated.

“We believe it is a policy protective of our students while they are in our care and are deployed to internship programs in hospitals and to clinical practice.”

The copy of the memorandum went viral on social media on  Facebook which drew flak from netizens.