Family Planning Shortage in the Philippines
What do rice and birth control have in common in the Philippines? Both are staples of daily life yet increasingly expensive and difficult to access — especially for the country’s 30 million people living in poverty.
In the Philippines, the government promotes fertility awareness-based methods of family planning rather than more effective contraceptive methods, and refuses to fund birth control in public health clinics. With little or no access to family planning and one of the strictest abortion laws in the world, the Philippines’ poorest women have an average of seven children to feed on less than $2 a day. Combined with the rising cost of rice, many women have few options.
“I cannot afford family planning now because of the fee. I have to prioritize my family’s needs before my own,” says a 40-year-old mother of six in Malabon City.
Planned Parenthood is standing up for a woman’s right to control her own body and fertility in the Philippines. We support the courageous efforts of local groups, working to
- provide free or low-cost family planning services and counseling to young people and poor women
- improve the quality of care and services that poor women receive
- empower youth leaders to mobilize peers around reproductive rights
- train peer educators to distribute condoms and promote healthy sexuality
- train providers to better care for women with complications from unsafe abortion
Planned Parenthood is working to make sure that every woman’s choice is her own, in the Philippines and worldwide. Now, that’s food for thought.
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Published: 07.11.08
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