FAMILY

PLANNING
Eva Bianca A. Reduban
 Family planning refers to a program
which enables couples and individuals
to decide freely and responsibly the
WHAT number and spacing of their children
HISTORY
IS and to have the information and means
OFFAMILY
FAMILY to do so, and to have access to a full
PLANNING range of safe, affordable, effective, non-
PLANNING?
abortifacient modem natural and
artificial methods of planning
pregnancy.
 Family planning implies that a couple discuss
when and how many children they can have so
that they can give the utmost care to the child,
financially, psychologically and socially. In
WHAT general usage we commonly associate terms
HISTORY
IS like contraception and birth control with Family
OFFAMILY
FAMILY Planning but theoretically family planning is
PLANNING much more than that. Family planning methods
PLANNING? would include every measure that can be taken
so as to give a couple their required freedom to
determine when they want to have their
children and what the time gap should be if
planning more than one child.
 A. International
Family Planning was set up in 1936. It was
at first known as the Sex Hygiene and
Birth Regulation Society. At that time,
HISTORY
contraception was basic and unreliable. It
HISTORY
OF
was common at this time for women to
OF FAMILY
FAMILY die from illegal abortions. A Government
PLANNING inquiry (the McMillan Inquiry) in 1937
PLANNING
found that at least one pregnancy in five
ended in abortion, and that the majority
of women dying from illegal abortions
were married with four or more children
 Family planning has been of practice since the
16th century by the people of Djenné in West
Africa. Physicians advised women to space their
children, having them every three years rather
than too many and too quickly. Other aspects of
family planning include sex education, prevention
HISTORY and management of sexually transmitted
HISTORY
OF infections, pre-conception counseling and
OF FAMILY
FAMILY management, and infertility management. Family
PLANNING
PLANNING planning, as defined by the United Nations and
the World Health Organization, encompasses
services leading up to conception. Abortion is not
a component of family planning, although access
to contraception and family planning reduces the
need for abortion.
 B. In the Philippines
The official Philippine Family Planning Program
(PFPP) was created by the Population Act (RA 6365),
a law passed in 1971. From 1988 up to the present,
the PFPP has been led by the Department of Health
(DOH) and framed as a public health program with
HISTORY desirable demographic impact. Within this broad
HISTORY
OF framework, major variations occurred as a result of
OF FAMILY
FAMILY three main factors: the president’s position on
PLANNING
PLANNING artificial contraception, an issue that has been
elevated to the highest office due to the strong
opposition of the Catholic hierarchy; the devolution
of health personnel, facilities, budget and decision
making to local government units (LGUs); and the
reproductive health framework and international
commitments made at the Cairo ICPD.
 The first period (1988 – 1991) was a transition
phase in many ways: the whole government
was rebuilding old and new institutions and
processes after 14 years of authoritarian rule,
and a law that would radically change the
HISTORY health sector through devolution was
HISTORY
OF proposed and ultimately passed in 1991. The
OF FAMILY
FAMILY
constitutionality of and the need for a family
PLANNING planning program were debated12 at the
PLANNING
highest level of government. From a
population program under the Commission on
Population (POPCOM), family planning
survived and was redefined as a health
program under the health department.
 The second period (1992 – 2000) was
dominated by health devolution and the ICPD.
The actual transfer of health personnel,
facilities and resources occurred from 1993–
94; legal efforts and mass campaigns from
HISTORY public health workers and some officials to
HISTORY
OF renationalize the sector continued until the
OF FAMILY
FAMILY late 1990s; and a new health sector strategy to
PLANNING
PLANNING "make devolution work" was released in
2000.13 High-level commitments and efforts
to promote family planning and reproductive
health were slowed down by the very new and
fragmented structure of the health sector.
 The third period (2001–2010) was defined
by the president's consistent support for the
Catholic Church's doctrine on contraception:
the promotion of natural family planning
(NFP) and lack of commitment to artificial
HISTORY contraception and the RH agenda of Cairo.
HISTORY
OF
OF FAMILY Wittingly or unwittingly, the president also
FAMILY pushed local autonomy to an extraordinary
PLANNING
PLANNING degree and weakened her own national
health department by allowing LGUs to ban
artificial contraceptives in their jurisdiction,
as was done in the city of Manila.