COVID-19 Exacerbates Existing Challenges
Dr. Juan Antonio Perez III, the Executive Director of the Philippines Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM), says that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing challenges regarding both access to family planning services and opposition to providing services. In 2012, for example, the country’s Senate passed the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law, which would streamline family planning and sexual and reproductive health, address maternal and child health, and tackle HIV and gender-based violence. Government and activists hoped that the law would improve family planning practices and outcomes by adhering to the principles and stated objectives of the program of action of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development.
In 2013, however, the Supreme Court issued an order halting the enforcement of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law. In April 2014, the Supreme Court approved its implementation, but with stringent conditions. For example, adolescents were denied access to family planning services except with parental consent, which was as good as having no access. By 2019, the Philippines had one of the highest rates of adolescent fertility in Asia, according to POPCOM. Yet 2020 could see 18,000 more teenage girls getting pregnant because of the indirect effects of COVID-19 in the Philippines.
Adapting to the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic
“The lockdown caused most health facilities to operate with limited manpower and number of hours, so online platforms became the most dominant force through which Filipinos sought and acquired information,” says Dr. Marvin C. Masalunga, a Medical Officer at the Philippine General Hospital. “Ordinarily, most of these people would be the regular clientele of the various health centers or government health agencies.”
Dr. Masalunga says that while family planning and reproductive health services were disrupted, the government undertook several steps to address the problem. The Philippine General Hospital set up hotlines for remote medical consultations in addition to using social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook to relay messages to the public.
From the data compiled by POPCOM, between May and December 2020 – months of COVID-19 lockdown – 73.29% of people who sought remote family planning services were female, while 12.44% were male. (14.27% did not disclose their gender identity.) People aged 25-49 comprised 40%, while those aged 15-24 were 12%. A bigger percentage, 48%, never disclosed their age. The majority who sought family planning services were married, at 60%.
Dr. Masalunga stated that Local Government Units complemented remote service efforts by doing house-to-house visits, providing contraceptives lasting as long as three months.