Arroyo diverted funds for contraceptives — UN

There could be a sharp rise in unwanted pregnancies in the Philippines after the government diverted P70 million allocated for contraceptives to natural family planning, a United Nations (UN) official warned yesterday.

The money was allocated for contraceptives under former President Joseph Estrada in 2000 but after he was ousted the following year, his successor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, diverted the funds to support natural family planning.

"They used the money for natural family planning instead of contraceptives," said Florence Tayzon, assistant representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Manila.

Tayzon warned that this continuing failure to provide contraceptives to Filipino women would inevitably lead to more illegal abortions and even a rise in maternal deaths.

"We foresee a larger number of abortions forthcoming," Tayzon said, remarking that when women did not have access to contraceptives, there was usually a rise in unsafe abortions and this in turn, resulted in deaths.

Lack of access to birth control devices has contributed to the Philippine population growth rate of 2.36 percent, one of the highest in Asia, UN officials warned.

Critics have blamed the country’s population problem on the dominant Roman Catholic Church which lobbies against the use of artificial contraceptives and allows only "natural family planning" techniques like the rhythm method.

Estrada was toppled by a military-backed, popular uprising, supported by the Church, due to a corruption scandal.

His replacement, President Arroyo, is a devout Catholic who has said that her population policy would focus on "natural family planning" methods but would still allow couples the option of using birth control devices.

Tayzon warned that a 1998 study found that there were 400,000 abortions in the Philippines annually even though abortions are illegal here.

She also warned that maternal mortality here stood at 172 cases per 100,000 people, also one of the highest in Asia.

"If they don’t have access to contraceptives (some of them) will resort to abortion. If women go into abortion, you have a higher risk of women dying," Tayzon warned.

She said studies showed that the proportion of fertile Filipina women with access to contraceptives dropped from 49.5 percent in 2001 to 48.8 percent in 2002.

Another concern are findings that more and more adolescent Filipinos are engaging in pre-marital sex, raising the risk of unwanted pregnancies, Tayzon said. — AFP