Filipino women fertility down in 2017

by Julie M. Aurelio, Julius N. Leonen, Inquirer, Feb 23, 2018

The fertility of Filipino women went down in 2017, a development which, the Commission on Population (PopCom) said, was due to increased use of modern family planning methods.

Citing the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the PopCom said the fertility of Filipinas are now at a statistical average of 2.7 children.

This is a decrease compared to the statistical average in the 2013 NDHS, which was at 3.0 children.

In a statement, the PopCom said this decline “was associated with an increase in the use of modern family planning methods by over 40 percent of currently married women.”

“This is an unprecedented chance for family planning in the last four years which coincided with the first four to five years of implementation of the Responsible Parenthood Reproductive Health law,” PopCom executive director Dr. Juan Antonio Perez III said.

The 2017 NDHS showed that while more women were using oral contraceptive pills and injectables, the use of progestin subdermal implants like Implanon was only at 1.1 percent.

Moreover, Perez said that POPCOM and its member agencies would continue to focus on “the poorest 40% of Filipinos who have the highest unmet need for family planning.”

Perez noted that this was due to the Supreme Court’s 2015 temporary restraining order against implants and contraceptives.

“The effect of the two-year TRO on implants and contraceptives still rears its headm with lower rates for implants and a less rigorous improvement in the use of oral contraceptives,” he said.