Comprehensive Sex Education in Mitigating Unplanned Birth

COMPREHENSIVE SEX EDUCATION IN MITIGATING UNPLANNED BIRTH
Education plays a vital role in reducing poverty. Education must start from a
young age, adolescents, so that they are able to make proper decisions when they grow
older. As well as educating adults about family planning and the likes so that they could
apply it in their lives. This is so that their would be a decrease of unwanted pregnancies,
and having quality life. This way they would have less mouths to feed and would spur
them to save more.
One of the Government’s initial actions in decreasing poverty was the

promulgation of the Reproductive Health law in 2012. Included in the law was
guaranteed access to sex education, free contraceptives and maternal care. The law
also provides medical care for post abortion.
As promising as the RH law is, a temporary restraining order was subsequently

issued by the Supreme Court in 2015. This has restricted the distributions of
contraceptive implants, resulting to limited contraceptive measures such tubal ligation,
vasectomy and natural family planning methods. Due to this restriction, even if people
knew about contraceptives, they were restricted and often times, pricey. Therefore,
people would rather use their money to buy than get a major surgery for reproduction
purposes.
However, President Rodrigo Duterte has implemented a few laws and policies to
strengthen and accelerate the implementation of RH Law. These laws and aim to
educate the marginalized about modern family planning (MFP), responsible parenthood
and creating an informed choice, and provide easier access to family planning services
and contraceptives.
Those policies and laws are:

 Executive Order No. 12, s. 2017: Attaining and Sustaining “Zero Unmet
Need for Modern Family Planning” Through the Strict Implementation of
the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, Providing
Funds Therefor, and for other Purposes.
 Administrative Order 2017-0005: Guidelines in Achieving Desired Family
Size through Accelerated and Sustained Reduction in Unmet Need for
Modern Family Planning Methods
 Administrative Order 2016-0005: National Policy on the Minimum Initial
Service Package (MISP) for Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) in
Emergencies and Disasters
 Administrative Order 2017-0002: Guidelines on the Certification of Free
Standing Family Planning Clinics
 Department Order 2017-0345: Guidelines on Forecasting, Procurement,
Allocation and Distribution of Modern Family Planning Commodities
 Administrative Order 2015-0006: Inclusion of Progestin Subdermal Implant
as One of the Modern Methods Recognized by the National Family
Planning Program.
 Administrative Order 2014-0042: Guidelines on the Implementation of
Mobile Outreach Services for Family Planning
 Department Memorandum 2015-0384: Establishment of the Family
Planning Logistics Hotline
In the government’s attempts to educate the youth about the reproductive

healthcare and family planning, DepEd has included the Comprehensive Sexuality
Education (CSE) in the curriculum in 2016. However, it is not up to par with the CSE
standards established by a panel of specialists in consultation with educators, parents,
and teenagers. In order to address that problem, DepEd had issued policy guidelines on
the implementation of the CSE in 2018. The policy aims to improve Filipino adolescents
holistic well-being and address their health and protection needs through a
comprehensive sex education. In addition, adolescent programs that is tailored to lower
teenage pregnancies have been implemented in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR)
(2018) and Western Visayas (2017).
In relation to educating the youth of about family planning, Prevention of

Adolescent Pregnancy Act of 2018 was filed by Hontiveros in 2017 in order to reduce
teenage pregnancy in the Philippines. The bill emphasizes the importance of education
in preventing teenage pregnancy and reminds educational institutions that suspension,
expulsion, dismissal, or denial of admission to pregnant girls are prohibited. It states
that hindering teenage parents access to school increases their risks to drop out from
school. It also points out that hindering them from going to school will expose them to
the risk of repeat pregnancies.
The government's efforts seem to reap fruits because as of 2017, all women in
the Philippines know at least one method of family planning (National Demographic
Survey, 2017). However, despite their knowledge about family planning, only 73% of
women using modern methods of contraception know the potential side effects of the
method they were using. It was also revealed that only about 60% of married women
who are currently using family planning methods were given full information about the
methods. In addition to that, the unmet need for family planning is still high, particularly
for unmarried sexually active women (49%).
Unplanned pregnancies remain high for both adults (27%) and the youth (9%). In
fact, as of 2017, 9% of women ages between 15 and 19 have begun childbearing while
7% have experience giving birth. Compared to the overall average of adolescent
pregnancy rate in Southeast Asia of 4.5%, Philippines’ average rate is twice as high
(NDHS, 2017). It is worth noting that teenage pregnancies in rural areas are more
common compared to urban areas (10% versus 7%). And that teenage pregnancy is
most common in Mindanao, with 48% of the pregnant teenagers coming from Davao,
Northern Mindanao and SOCCSKSARGEN. From these statistics, it shows that even
with the progression of the RH law, unplanned pregnancies are still high.
B. Proposal from Education
Family Planning is one of the key solutions in mitigating the poverty incidence.
Therefore, both the youth and adults should be informed of the methods of family
planning so that they could apply it in their lifestyle. Family planning should be taught in
schools, following the policy guidelines on the implementation of the comprehensive sex
education of 2018. This should be strengthened and implemented in schools in rural
areas that have high adolescent pregnancy incidence. The problems encountered with
the current CSE is its failure in implementation. The goals and topics discussed in the
CSE hold bright prospective in improving the increasing teenage pregnancy in the
Philippines. And thus an intensive sex education in rural areas with the highest teenage
pregnancy incidence like Davao, Northern Mindanao, and SOCCSARGEN will help
mitigate the problem. Furthermore, there should be programs specifically outside of
classroom settings to target children of the slums. These children in particular have
higher dropout risk because of poverty therefore it is important that they are educated
about sex in an early age to prevent early pregnancy.
In addition, since there is no single agency solely in charge of the nationwide

implementation of RPRH, the government should address the organizational structure
disorder the agencies that implements RPRH so that the approach to RPRH policy
development will be more cohesive. This will reduce fragmentation in operations and
accelerate the implementation of the RPRH.
The monitoring and evaluation of results should also be centralized so that modification
in the process will be appropriate. This will also generate reliable data as the data is
more accurate and timely.
References:
Department of Health. (2018). National Family Planning Program. Retrieved from

https://www.doh.gov.ph/family-planning
Ozaki, A., Guadalupe, A., Saquido A. B., et al. (2017). Family planning as a possible
measure to alleviate poverty in the Philippines-beyond sociocultural norms and
pervasive opposition. Int J Health Policy Manag. 683–684.
Doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2017.57. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5675589/
Department of Health. (2017). 4th Annual RPRH Report. Retrieved from

https://www.doh.gov.ph/sites/default/files/publications/4th%20Annual%20Report%20of
%20the%20RPRH%20Law%20Implementation.pdf
Corrales, N. ( January 11, 2018).Duterte signs EO backing modern family planning.

InquirerNet. Retrieved from https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/861437/duterte-signs-
eo-backing-modern-family-planning#ixzz5tU6xyM7K
Leyco, C. (December 16, 2018). NEDA to step up RH law implementation. Manila

Bulletin. Retrieved from https://business.mb.com.ph/2018/12/16/neda-to-step-up-
rh-law-implementation/
Republic of the Philippines Department of Education (2018). Policy Guidelines on the
Implementation of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education. Retrieved from

http://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DO_s2018_031-1.pdf
Crisostomo, S. (2019) Popcom says teenage pregnancy in Philippines still alarming.

Philstar Global.Retrieved from
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/04/10/1908741/popcom-says-teenage-
pregnancy-philippines-still-alarming#I7legXszDxzUsAcM.99

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COMPREHENSIVE SEX EDUCATION IN MITIGATING UNPLANNED BIRTH

One of the Government’s initial actions in decreasing poverty was the

As promising as the RH law is, a temporary restraining order was subsequently

Those policies and laws are:

In the government’s attempts to educate the youth about the reproductive

In relation to educating the youth of about family planning, Prevention of

B. Proposal from Education

In addition, since there is no single agency solely in charge of the nationwide

Department of Health. (2018). National Family Planning Program. Retrieved from

Department of Health. (2017). 4th Annual RPRH Report. Retrieved from

Corrales, N. ( January 11, 2018).Duterte signs EO backing modern family planning.

Leyco, C. (December 16, 2018). NEDA to step up RH law implementation. Manila

Republic of the Philippines Department of Education (2018). Policy Guidelines on the

Implementation of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education. Retrieved from

Crisostomo, S. (2019) Popcom says teenage pregnancy in Philippines still alarming.

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