I think that one of the main reasons of the high unmet need of family planning the Philippines is it often remains as a taboo topic not only in the society, but also in smaller units of the community like the family. The use of contraceptives in a conservative, dominantly-religious country such as the Philippines is seen as a sin which makes the general practice of using it even more challenging. Meanwhile, according to Casterline et al. (1997), the high unmet need of family planning is highly attributed to the lack of information about contraception. More often than not, this lack of information about contraception is exacerbated by limited contraceptive methods, financial costs or the affordability of the contraceptives, medical and legal restrictions such as the lack of reproductive health policies, general bias and misinformation, which serve as other reasons that cause the high unmet need of family planning.
- Ensure universal access of appropriate population to reproductive health education
Those who are either fertile, sexually active, currently pregnant, and those who already have children are those who need awareness on family planning. Hence, relevant information must be provided to them especially with regards to the natural and artificial methods in order to encourage them to practice family planning more in the future.
- Expanding access to family planning devices such as condoms, birth control pills, etc.
The government must allocate more funding for the efficient distribution of contraceptives. Higher accessibility can likely lead to the increase the use of contraceptives as it would be seen as a norm.
References:
Casterline, J. B., Perez, A. E., & Biddlecom, A. E. (1997). Factors Underlying Unmet Need for Family Planning in the Philippines. Studies in Family Planning, 28(3), 173–191. https://doi.org/10.2307/2137886