- What is your opinion about the practice of family planning? Are you for it or against it?
I have always been a vocal feminist and staunch advocate of family planning, as well as destigmatizing sex and reproductive health education. Family planning is not only a basic human right; it is also central to empowering women, reducing poverty, and achieving sustainable development. Everyone has the right to decide if, when, and with whom they wish to have children with. Unfortunately, this is not often the case in most As a conservative country with a Christian majority, traditional beliefs still fuel the social stigma that prevails in many Filipinos so they resort to outdated practices such as abstinence until marriage under the false notion that educating youth on family planning encourages early sexual behavior. There are even patriarchal ideologies that encourage couples to have more children than originally planned or wanted since fathering many children is being equated to masculinity while women’s primary role is only as a wife and mother. Such archaic beliefs impede bodily autonomy, limit access to essential health information, and restrain the choices of women and men alike regarding when and how many children they wish to have. In this day and age, continuing to perpetuate these is an outright violation of our freedom that will only bring us further backward as a nation. Contrary to popular belief, family planning is NOT about increasing birth rates to meet a statistic or some sort of government standard, nor is it about discouraging people from becoming parents. Even more so, misinterpretations of Bible passages such as “Be fruitful and multiply” should not be a factor, let alone be the basis for sociopolitical decision-making. Family planning, in all its forms, is about choice. This means upholding women’s rights by empowering them with education and access to health services needed to make informed decisions AND supporting people’s decisions if or when they would like to have children. By letting couples and individuals protect their health and wellbeing, family planning lessens pregnancy complications, adolescent pregnancies, sexually-transmitted infections, and infant mortality rates altogether.
References:
Kanem, N. (2018, July 11). Family planning is a human right. United Nations Population Fund. https://www.unfpa.org/press/family-planning-human-right
Kirkegaard, D. (2019, November 13). 5 Upsetting Reasons Women Aren’t Using Family Planning Around the World Today. Friends of UNFPA. https://www.friendsofunfpa.org/5-upsetting-reasons-women-arent-using-family-planning-around-the-world-today/#:%7E:text=Social%20Stigma&text=Around%20the%20world%2C%20traditional%20beliefs,planning%20encourages%20early%20sexual%20behavior.