Answer the following questions and post your answers here. Cite references if possible.
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What is your opinion about the practice of family planning? Are you for it or against it?
I am for family planning. Family planning in the Philippines has been subject to misconceptions and controversial issues since its introduction to Filipinos. Nevertheless, the National Family Planning Program in the Philippines envisions Filipino women and men with achieved desired family size and fulfilled reproductive health and rights through universal access to quality family planning information and services. Furthermore, the program is committed to providing responsive policy direction and ensuring access of Filipinos to medically safe, legal, non-abortifacient, effective, and culturally acceptable modern family planning methods (DOH, n.d.).
Family planning benefits the mother, father, and children. For a mother, she is able to regain her health better after delivery. It also gives her more opportunity to provide love and time to her husband and children. Aside from her loved ones, she also gets more time for her own personal advancement. If she is suffering from an illness, family planning provides her with enough time for treatment and recovery. For a father, family planning lightens the burden and responsibility of supporting his family. It enables him to give his children their basic needs. It also provides the father with time for his own personal advancement. If he is suffering from an illness, family planning provides him enough time for treatment and recovery. Additionally, children are able to get the attention, security, love, and care they deserve with proper family planning.
Personally, I think that family planning is a way of protecting and securing a family’s future. It empowers all the members of the family with choices on how they want their family to develop, progress and grow.
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Are you in favor of the Reproductive Health Law and its provisions? Elaborate on your answer.
The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act No. 10354 is rooted in the human rights of all persons including their right to equality and non-discrimination, the right to sustainable human development, the right to health including reproductive health, the right to education and information, and the right to choose and make decisions for themselves in accordance to their religious convictions, ethics, cultural beliefs and the demand of responsible parenthood.
I am in favor of the Reproductive Health Law. I believe that through this law, women and the youth can be empowered with informed choices and education appropriate for their age and development. This law strengthens our informed choice and sense of voluntarism that lead to an understanding and recognition of the range of services that RH Law offers. This law makes the information regarding responsible parenthood and reproductive health much more available than before. It also guarantees our access, especially the poor, to facilities and services through ensured stable and sustainable reproductive health programs.
To improve the public’s access to reproductive health services, the following measures are aimed (POPCOM, n.d.):
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“Enhanced Service Delivery Networks (SDN) through facility mapping and population matching with facilities;
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Provision of mobile health clinics in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas;
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Improved PhilHealth coverage of reproductive health services;
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Ensured supply of reproductive health commodities particularly in the procurement and distribution of family planning supplies;
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Hiring and training of skilled health professionals;
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National and local government cooperation in implementation;
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Participation of the Private Sector, Academe, Basic Sector and CSOs; and
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Continuous monitoring and review of programs”.
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Economically speaking, I think that RH law may play a vital role in accelerating poverty reduction in the country. I agree with NEDA Director-General and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Penia that family planning through RH Law is a “very powerful tool” and the “cheapest” way to reduce poverty. He also added, “It is harder to reduce poverty by just macroeconomic growth. It has really to be targeted, focused on the poor families who are having more children than they can afford.”
References:
DOH. (n.d.). National Family Planning Program. National Family Planning Program | Department of Health website. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://doh.gov.ph/family-planning
DOH. (n.d.). What are the benefits of using family planning?: Department of Health Website. What are the benefits of using family planning? | Department of Health website. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://doh.gov.ph/faqs/What-are-the-benefits-of-using-family-planning
Gatpolintan, L. (2018, January 25). Full implementation of RH law to cut poverty: Neda. Philippine News Agency. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1022927#:~:text=MANILA%20%2D%2D%20The%20National%20Economic,poverty%20reduction%20in%20the%20country.
POPCOM. (n.d.). Responsible parenthood and reproductive health (RPRH)- general information. Official Website of POPCOM Region VIII. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://rpo8.popcom.gov.ph/responsible-parenthood-and-reproductive-health-rprh-general-information/