Family Planning remains important Amid Falling Fertility
August is Family Planning Month. This year, the observance comes at an interesting point, as the latest National Demographic and Health Survey puts the country’s total fertility rate at 1.7. Filipino women are now having an average of 1.7 children over their lifetime, below the roughly 2.1 children needed for one generation to replace itself.
Many Filipinos are marrying later, delaying parenthood, or choosing to have fewer children. Young couples doting on “fur babies” have become part of conversations about attitudes toward parenthood. Behind these choices are changing aspirations, as well as concerns about jobs, childcare, and the cost of raising a family.
If Filipinos are already having fewer children, do we still need family planning? Yes. But perhaps we need to think about it differently.
The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Act was never simply about reducing the number of children. At its heart is something more basic: enabling people to decide freely and responsibly whether, when, and how many children to have. A fertility rate of 1.7 does not mean we have achieved that goal.
National averages can hide very different realities. Women from the wealthiest households have an average of only 1.1 children, compared with 2.8 among the poorest. The fertility rate is 1.5 in urban areas and 2.0 in rural communities.
When Philippine fertility is already low, we should ask: Low for whom?
Many women who want to delay or avoid pregnancy are still not using any family planning method. This is what experts call unmet need for family planning, and it remains important among poorer women, adolescents, and underserved communities. Access to modern contraceptive methods has improved, but many Filipinos who want to prevent or delay pregnancy still do not have their need met.
Teenage pregnancy also deserves attention. Adolescent pregnancy has declined, but the national figure hides inequalities. Teenage pregnancy remains higher in rural areas and some regions. For a teenager whose education, health, and future are disrupted by an unintended pregnancy, a declining national fertility rate offers little comfort.
This is why low fertility should not become a reason to retreat from family planning. If a woman wants two children but ends up with four because she cannot access contraception, that is a failure of reproductive choice. But if a couple wants two children and has only one because they cannot afford childcare, education, or health care, that also deserves government’s attention.
Our goal should not be to push the fertility rate either up or down. The government should not decide the ideal number of children for Filipino families. Its job is to make genuine choice possible.
But this matters only if people are healthy, educated, and able to find decent jobs. Otherwise, as our population eventually ages, we risk growing old before becoming prosperous enough to adequately support older Filipinos.
Family planning remains important in navigating this transition. But its success should not be measured by fewer births. We need reliable contraceptive supplies, a range of methods from which people can freely choose, better services for adolescents and new mothers, and greater attention to communities where access remains poor.
More than a decade after the RPRH law, our conversation about family planning needs to mature.
The question is no longer whether Filipinos are having too many or too few children. The better question is whether every Filipino, rich or poor, wherever they live, has a fair chance to build the family they want.
Amid falling fertility, that is what family planning should ultimately be about.
Dr. Anthony Rosendo
“Tonyboy” Faraon,
argfaraon@zuelligfoundation.org
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