The Philippine Online Chronicles

The latest Social Weather Stations survey (SWS) shows 82 percent of Filipinos agree that the “choice of a family planning method is a personal choice of couples and no one should interfere with it.”

According to the survey, which was conducted from June 3 to 6 with 1,200 respondents, only 8 percent disagreed that family planning is a personal choice, while 9% were undecided.

The 82 percent approval shows an increase of 21 points from the results of a survey on the same issue conducted back in November 1990, wherein 61 percent agreed, 26 percent were undecided and 13 percent disagreed.

Also, 73 percent of the respondents in the June 2011 survey said that the government should provide relevant information on “all legal methods” if a couple wanted to practice family planning.

Moreover, 68 percent agreed that “the government should fund all means of family planning, be it natural or artificial means.”

A little over half the respondents do not consider pills (52 percent), condoms (51 percent), or intra-uterine devices (51 percent) to be abortifacients.

“Pluralities also rejected the view that the inclusion of family planning in the school curriculum would lead to the youth becoming sexually promiscuous (46%) and proposals that tax payments be withheld as a means of protesting the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill (39%),” the survey says.

The RH Bill, which promotes the use of contraception for family planning, is still pending in Congress amidst strong opposition by the Catholic Church and other groups.

Malacañang welcomed the results of the survey. "The survey affirms the longstanding position of the President on Responsible Parenthood since the presidential campaign," said presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda. "We believe that the couple must be given the choice on the family size and the method."

Lacierda further said, "We also believe that information on the different methods be provided to those who will decide on the choices. As to funding, to those who cannot afford the method chosen, the government will so provide."