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)