Contraceptives’ use in CV rises this year

Notwithstanding the strong opposition from the Catholic Church against contraceptives, their rate of use in Central Visayas has increased to 52.2 percent, higher than last year’s 50.2 percent and the present national prevalence rate of 50.6 percent.

Population Commission regional director Leo Rama said that 35.8 percent of birth-control practitioners in Central Visayas use the modern method while only 16.4 percent still stick to the traditional method.

Pills and the calendar method are the leading family planning practices among married Filipino women, aged 15 to 49 years of age, according to results of the 2006 Family Planning Survey of the National Statistics Office.

The survey showed that about 15.6 percent of reproductive-age women in Central Visayas have been using pills and 11.7 percent have been for the calendar method.

The rate of use of female sterilization is at 8.2 percent, of intra-uterine device at 6.1 percent, withdrawal at 4.5 percent, condoms at 3.5 percent, and injectables at 2.3 percent.

Central Visayas also posted the highest rate of condom usage than in other regions in the country, the data further stated.

In 2006, about two-thirds of all users of modern methods obtain their supplies and services from the public sector.

However, a substantial proportion of pill users shifted from rural health units and barangay health stations to the private sector, particularly pharmacies, for their supplies of pills.

The result of the survey indicates that a lot of people already are aware of the contraceptive methods that they have introduced due to the increase also of the contraceptive prevalence rate, Rama said. — Jasmin R. Uy/RAE