NSO survey: Poor women unlikely to use contraceptives

CEBU, Philippines - The use of family planning method is lower among women in poor households than those in non-poor households, according to the results of the 2011 Family Health Survey conducted by the National Statistics Office.

NSO administrator Carmencita Ericta, in a press release posted at their website, said the difference is mainly due to the lower prevalence rate for modern methods among poor women than non-poor women.

Sought for comment, Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer, country director of Human Life International-Philippines confirmed that the use of artificial contraceptives is lower among the poor.

“Suroya lang nang Pasil, Tinago ug areas near the old White Gold towards Queen City Gardens, di ba padaghanay lang og anak, (Visit Pasol, Tinago and areas near the old White Gold toward Queen City Gardens and you will see couples with so many children.)” said Bullecer.

“But again, our NSO itself is a believer and being used by pro-RH advocates that we have a burgeoning population and also that we have both high Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and Population Growth Rate (PGR)which are NOT true,” he added.

Bullecer added that in connivance with other departments in the government, NSO is also being made as an instrument to show and convince the people that because of this discrepancy, the solution is the immediate passage of the RH Bill.

HLI, together with the Catholic Church, has been advocating for the scrapping of the proposed RH bill.

“I’m tired of their repeated lies and unrealistic data used over and over again to justify their claims for RH law,” Bullecer further said.

Bullecer instead suggested that the bureaucrats, businessmen and lawmakers must join hands and frame doable economic solutions to the poverty in this country.

He added that the solution is definitely not population reduction but a clear economic program.

“It is a fact that once a couple starts to become economically well off, their number of children starts to go down from six to even just two which is reverse if the couple lived in dire poverty,” he said.

The NSO survey also showed that the pill remains the most preferred method of contraception for both poor and non-poor women.

The next most commonly used method is ligation or female sterilization. IUD, a less popular FP method, is more preferred by poor women than non-poor women.

The practice of FP is influenced by the woman’s age and education. Contraceptive use is higher among married women aged 20 to 44 years than among women 15 to 19 and 45 to 49 years of age. Very young married women, that is, those aged 15 to 19 are the least likely to practice FP.

Married women with some elementary education are less likely to practice FP than women with higher levels of education.

Those with no education are the least likely to practice it.

Two out of 10 women with no grade completed, and four out of 10 with some elementary education practice FP. By comparison, at least five out of 10 women with higher levels of education practice FP.

The 2011 FHS is a nationally representative survey of about 53,000 households. From these households, about 53,000 women aged 15-49 years were successfully interviewed.

—(FREEMAN)