Philippines to offer free contraceptives to 6 million women
President Duterte’s executive order also directs government agencies to locate couples with unmet family planning needs, mobilise agencies up to the village level and partner with civil society
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered government agencies to ensure free access to contraceptives for six million women who cannot obtain them, officials said on Wednesday, in a move expected to be opposed by the dominant Catholic church.
Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said the intensified drive to make contraceptives available and ensure “zero unmet need for family planning” is important to reduce poverty. He said the government’s target is to cut the poverty rate from 21.6 per cent in 2015 to 14 or 13 per cent by the end of Duterte’s term in 2022.
The government cannot continue to tolerate this delay in judgment because time is of the essence as far as the implementation of the [Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health] Law is concerned
The executive order Duterte signed on Monday said out of the six million women with unmet needs for modern family planning, two million have been identified as poor. The two million women should have access to them by 2018, and all the rest thereafter, the order added.
It also directs government agencies to locate couples with unmet family planning needs, mobilise agencies up to the village level and partner with civil society in intensifying the drive.
The Philippines is the only Asia-Pacific country where the rate of teen pregnancies rose over the last two decades, the UN Population Fund said last year. It said the slow decline of the country’s overall fertility rate may deprive the Philippines of faster economic growth expected in similar countries that have more working-age people than younger and older dependents.
In 2015, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on certain provisions of a landmark Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law (RRPH) following appeals by anti-abortion groups that view contraceptives as causing abortions.