UN: Give women access to hormonal contraceptives, condoms

MANILA, Philippines - The United Nations reiterated yesterday the need to provide women with access to both hormonal contraceptives and condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancies and HIV infection following a renewed consultation with health experts on the issue.

A stakeholder consultation organized by the UN Joint Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva reviewed recent epidemiological studies on the transmission and acquisition of HIV by women using hormonal contraceptives and concluded that the data were not sufficient to change the World Health Organization’s (WHO) current recommendation, which indicates that condoms are the most effective method to prevent HIV infection.

“While a range of contraceptives protect against unintended pregnancies, only condoms, male and female, provide dual protection by stopping HIV transmission and preventing unintended pregnancies,” said UNAIDS in a press statement.

According to UNAIDS, about half of the 34 million people living with HIV are women. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected by the epidemic, nearly 60 percent of all new HIV infections occur in women.

“Women need safe contraceptive and HIV prevention options that they can own and manage,” said Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS.

Sidibé said new investments into research for female controlled HIV prevention options and safe contraceptive methods are essential, adding that not giving women access to these methods increases their vulnerability to HIV.

The level of unmet family planning needs among the 1.18 billion women between the ages of 15 and 49 worldwide is estimated to be 11 percent, while in sub-Saharan Africa it is more than twice that at 25 percent.

UNAIDS recommended that people who are sexually active – particularly women and girls – have full access to information and counseling to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health needs.

“Women and girls must have access to the widest range of contraceptive and HIV prevention options. Such services must be provided in an integrated manner by health workers,” Sidibé said.

In the Philippines, however, there is much debate in allowing women to use contraceptives, an issue that the Catholic Church is against.

There is a pending measure in Congress that allows the government to supervise birth control methods under the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said he is amenable to a discussion over the RH bill.

Palma said that he has no preference on how the RH bill issue should be resolved whether through debate or dialogue.

“Either way, it should be ok with us... as for me, we would always say to people that we are more than eager and willing to engage in an endeavor of making people enlightened,” Palma said.

Palma made the statement in reaction to RH bill principal author Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman proposing a grand debate on the controversial issue.

However, if there would be discussions on the subject matter, Palma believed that the laity should also be involved.

He initially thought that proposed legislation would cover the moral dimension, “but in the last discernment, we said that these discussions are better heard with the laity.”

Palma believes that the laity would be able to expound on the position of the anti-RH bill groups and they could defend the values surrounding family and life and cover the abuses of children and women.

“It would be believable if the laity explain, while we would concentrate on the plan of God.”

Besides, it would be more credible if the laity explain their position since the “dynamics of child bearing is not our area of expertise,” he said. – With Evelyn Macairan