Couples need choice of contraceptives: PKBI
Couples need choice of contraceptives: PKBI
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the Indonesian Planned Parenthood
Association (PKBI) said Saturday that family planning providers
had continued to ignore parents' rights to appropriate
contraceptive methods.
Kartono Mohamad told a seminar on family planning that the
importance of creating awareness on parents' freedom of choice
cannot be overlooked.
The seminar, sponsored by the association in cooperation with
Ford Foundation, was attended by local officials, doctors,
midwives and researchers.
The parents' rights include access to information and
contraceptives, choice, safety, privacy, confidentiality,
dignity, comfort, continuity and opinion, according to the
association's rules.
Kartono said doctors and midwives' ignorance stems from the
tendency to emphasize the government's family planning campaign
at the expense of parents' freedom of choice.
"The parents' right to choose include the right not to use
contraception within reasonable boundaries, a move that does not
necessarily mean avoiding contraception altogether," he said.
Professor Masri Singarimbun, founder of Gadjah Mada
University's Center for Population Studies, said that doctors and
midwives were poorly informed and unable to recommend appropriate
contraception available.
"Doctors and midwives are often under the authorities'
pressure to meet specified demographic targets in which the
effectiveness of certain contraceptive methods have been
accounted for while others are not recommended," Singarimbun
said.
Masri, also winner of the National Family Planning Board
award, called on the government and the public to promote a mass
information drive on family planning.
"This would provide the public with an informed choice," he
said, adding that many parents remain unaware about their right
to choose.
He said public awareness is high on family planning despite
the fact that many villagers have refused to use contraception
due to women's involvement in business activities.
Masri expected that with the increased understanding of birth
control and improved economic circumstances, contraceptives would
be available under a "market system" which enables parents to
purchase them at a competitive price and gives them a wide range
of choice.
He said Indonesia has a favorable international reputation as
contraception is found at family planning associations instead of
clinics.
Director of contraception at the National Family Planning
Board Djoko Roesmoro said that his office has often encountered
problems with promoting contraceptives on moral grounds.
The use of condoms is feared to trigger promiscuity while
birth-control pills are said to encourage premarital sex among
youths, Djoko said.
He cited the problem of doctors with little time to offer
proper counseling about contraceptives with parents at public
health centers. (mun/01)