Answer the following questions and post your answers here. Cite references if possible.
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What do you think are the reasons for the high unmet need of FP in the Philippines?
According to Nagai et al. (2019), there is a 17% unmet need for family planning among married women of reproductive age in the Philippines by 2017. The unmet need increases to 49% among unmarried sexually active women. These percentages of unmet needs are results of several barriers that prevent access to family planning services in the Philippines.
Personally, I think that our Filipino culture plays a big role in these unmet needs. As a conservative society, Filipinos value the concept of virginity until marriage. In one way or another, this social norm paradoxically discourages the use of contraception by unmarried women. Additionally, men who are deemed to be decision-makers of a household tend to sometimes control women’s choices in regard to family planning. For instance, they may ought not to use contraceptive methods as they believe that it lessens their experience of reproduction. On the other hand, education also plays an important role in ensuring access to the different family planning methods available. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (2012), increased education leads to decreased unmet need for family planning. The agency also added that the unmet need is highest among married women with no education at all. It is lowest among women with college or higher education. Furthermore, I think that with education, awareness of family planning comes easier. Specifically, with low education, recognition of the benefits and need for family planning as well as the loss of family planning’s consequences is unsure. Another barrier is the religion-based opposition to contraception. According to Miller (n.d.), “more than 86% of the [Filipino] population is Roman Catholic, 6% belong to various nationalized Christian cults, and 2% belong to over 100 Protestant denominations.” With this, it is not a surprise that Filipinos will consider the act of contraception “intrinsically evil” as much as how the Roman Catholic Church sees it. This perception of the Roman Catholic Church, therefore, serves as a barrier that prevents Filipinos from meeting their needs for family planning. Additionally, the different economic status of Filipinos affects their ability to engage in family planning methods as it directly impacts their decision and choices in navigating their journey as a family including their ability to utilize contraception methods. Lastly, I think that corruption within the government disables the public’s access to responsible parenthood and reproductive health programs. With corruption, the funds that should be allocated for the purchase of resources needed to promote family planning in the Philippines are lost. For instance, purchasing contraceptives would be less of a problem to families who want to engage in family planning if only there’s enough supply of contraceptives that the government provides for the whole country.
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What are ways you can suggest to increase the practice of FP in the country? Give at least 1-2 suggestions.
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Continuously provide education about responsible parenthood and reproductive health. Education raises the public’s awareness of the importance of family planning. The provision of accurate and reassuring information about family planning is a vital part of its promotion and advocacy. This will surely encourage the family to participate and motivate them to continue participating in the future.
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Increase public funding on the national family planning program. Without corruption and enough funding, poor families incapable of subscribing to different methods of contraception will be able to engage in such activities. This will also allow the healthcare facilities to improve their services and reach more people in the provision of reproductive health care.
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Stimulate a call for change in our present cultural environment. The present perception of the Filipinos, especially the older generations, on contraceptive methods should be re-evaluated. It is time to reconsider whether what is true “intrinsically evil”. Is it the practice of contraception or the consequences that loss of family planning brings?
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References:
Miller, J. (n.d.). Religion in the Philippines. Asia Society. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://asiasociety.org/education/religion-philippines#:~:text=The%20Philippines%20proudly%20boasts%20to,well%20over%20100%20Protestant%20denominations
Nagai, M., Bellizzi, S., Murray, J., Kitong, J., Cabral, E. I., & Sobel, H. L. (2019, July 25). Opportunities lost: Barriers to increasing the use of effective contraception in the Philippines. PLOS ONE. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0218187
Philippine Statistics Authority. (2012, May 25). Unmet Need for Family Planning Remains High. Philippine Statistics Authority. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://psa.gov.ph/content/unmet-need-family-planning-remains-high-results-2011-family-health-survey