Over 10 million Filipinas lack access to family planning – DOH

MANILA, Philippines — Over 10 million Filipino women nationwide still have no access to family planning and face the risk of unwanted pregnancy, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Dr. Ron Allan Quimado of the DOH’s Child, Adolescent and Maternal Health Division reported that the country is still 17 percent short of the Philippines’ FP2030 commitment to attain 75 percent demand satisfied with family planning methods by the year 2030.

“Our target for family planning demand satisfied with modern family planning is 75 percent and we are at 58 percent,” Quimado said during the 2024 National Conference on Family Planning held in Pasig City yesterday.

“For the target to be achieved, we should be able to serve around 10.177 million women, assuming total demand remains constant by 2030,” he added.

In 2023, Quimado said there were 12.9 million or 44 percent of women who had a need for family planning. Of the number, the health official reported 8.7 million or 67 percent of women aged 15 to 19 years were using modern family planning methods.

He said oral pills remain the top preference of women using modern family planning with 25 percent of total current users, followed by injectables with 1.8 million or 20.66 percent and female sterilization accounting for 9.48 percent.

Among long-acting contraceptives, implants posted the highest increase in the number of users, growing by 24.11 percent and now the fourth most common modern family planning method.

By choosing modern family planning methods, Quimado said around three million unintended pregnancies, 800,000 unsafe abortions and 970 maternal deaths were averted in 2023.

“Even as we celebrate the success, we know that there is more that needs to be done,” Quimado said as he stressed the importance of identifying and providing family planning access to the 10.177 million women.

Commission on Population and Development executive director Liza Bersales said there has been a continuing decline in the country’s fertility rate, with the National Capital Region and Calabarzon contributing the biggest drop.

Citing recent studies, Bersales said over half of the national decline in fertility rate was due to the poorest quintiles of the women population.

This means all women, regardless of educational attainment and socioeconomic status, now want less number of children, according to Bersales.

“It’s an invitation to provide family planning services for the poor and less educated women in the country,” she said.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa admitted that the country has a “big problem” with the increasing number of pregnancies among girls younger than 15 years.

“We have a big problem with teenage pregnancy. That is the number one contributor to maternal mortality because they don’t do prenatal check-ups,” Herbosa explained.

He said controlling childhood pregnancy would result in a decline in the maternal mortality rate in the country.