1. What is your opinion about the practice of family planning? Are you for it or against it?
As I have learned from the lecture, family planning is an expression of responsible parenting. It allows people to make informed choices and sound decisions on how to properly raise and sustain a family. It provides individuals and couples the ability to anticipate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births (WHO, 2013). By practicing family planning, I believe that couples are more likely to ensure their family’s needs are met as family planning offers a lot of advantages. Some of these include protection of women from any health risks that may occur before, during or after childbirth and time for the parents to plan for childbirth and childrearing (The Medical City, 2020).
Aside from this, the practice of family planning also aids in (1) preventing unintended pregnancies, (2) mitigating the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and (3) reducing infertility rates as it addresses the problem of STDs (Butler & Clayton, 2009). This is highly relevant in our country where the fertility rate is high and rampant. According to the United Nations Population Fund (2020), the Philippines has one of the highest adolescent birth rates among the ASEAN Member States. Given this, the practice of family planning also plays a major role in addressing the nation’s issue on incidence of poverty and overpopulation.
Thus, I firmly support the practice of family planning because not only it allows people to build their families on their own terms, but also emancipates parents in their childrearing process which is highly critical in the growth and development of a child. To reiterate, it also provides a lot of health benefits, such as preventing the spread of STDs and empowering women to recover and recuperate after childbirth.
2. Are you in favor of the Reproductive Health Law and its provisions? Elaborate your answer.
Yes, I am in favor of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law and its provisions. The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, more commonly known as the Reproductive Health Law, guarantees “universal and free access to nearly all modern contraceptives for all citizens, including impoverished communities, at government health centers” (Center for Reproductive Rights, 2014). This law aims to address the country’s problem with high fertility rates and poverty incidence. Furthermore, it aims to promote awareness on reproductive health, which is certainly crucial in a country with alarming cases of unintended teenage pregnancies. With the guidance and counseling that the Reproductive Health Law offers, individuals, most importantly the youth, are informed to increase their sexual awareness and make sound choices. As sexual awareness is highly emphasized in this law, it can also help in eradicating the stigma against contraceptive use and the act of intercourse itself.
In 2013, Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), notes that family planning is “clearly one of the most critically important investments that a country can make in health, in women’s rights, and in the life trajectories of young people.” With effective implementation, I believe that RH Law will not only enable the Philippines to achieve a universal access to reproductive health, but also tear down the barriers against the restrictive patriarchy. By having universal access to quality and safe family planning methods that they deserve, women are empowered in having safe options and making decisions on their health and families and in participating more fully and equally in this society. I am also highly supportive of this law as it promotes the hiring of skilled health professionals for maternal health care and skilled birth attendance. This ensures the development of more responsive reproductive health services that consequently promote women’s health and safe motherhood.
Then again, it all lies in the implementation of law. Not only it challenges the government to allot sufficient funds to make reproductive healthcare accessible for everyone, but also calls for us aspiring health professionals to mold ourselves to become better advocates of health and effectively enforce the provisions of this law. We should not falter against the challenges that this law presents; instead, we work together as a community to achieve the goals of this law.
References:
Butler, A. S., & Clayton, E. W. (2009). Overview of family planning in the United States. National Academies Press.
Center for Reproductive Rights. (2014, April 8). Philippine supreme court upholds historic reproductive health law. Center for Reproductive Rights. https://reproductiverights.org/philippine-supreme-court-upholds-historic-reproductive-health-law/
Osotimehin, B. (2013, January 23). Towards universal access for reproductive health in the Philippines. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/towards-universal-access-_b_2522152
The Medical City. (2020, May 4). Importance of Family Planning. Themedicalcity.Com. https://www.themedicalcity.com/news/family-planning-basic-human-right
United Nations Population Fund. (2020). #GirlsNotMoms: Eliminating Teenage Pregnancy in the Philippines. Unfpa.Org. https://philippines.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/UNFPA_Policy_Brief_Teenage_Pregnancy_%282020-01-24%29.pdf
WHO. (2013). WHO | The ABC’s of family planning. https://www.who.int/pmnch/media/news/2010/20100322_d_shaw_oped/en/