Natural Birth Control Method Didn’t Succeed During Arroyo’s Term Despite Huge Funding – Group

By: Cher S. Jimenez, Interaksyon.com
August 29, 2012 7:06 PM

Reuters file photo

MANILA, Philippines – Inspite of its huge funding, natural family planning (NFP), the only birth control method implemented by the previous administration, rose to only a few points, according to the non-government Likhaan Center for Women’s Health.

Dr. Junice Melgar, Likhaan executive director, said NFP during the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had risen only from .1 to .3 percent “despite the money poured into” it.

According to Melgar, while the Arroyo administration was solely pushing for NFP and depriving Filipinos of modern reproductive health services, the unmet need for family planning rose from 15.7 percent in 2006 to 19.3 percent in 2011. The data is based on the latest Family Health Survey

In 2004, the government awarded P50 million to the Catholic group Couples for Christ (CFC) to promote natural family planning. Reproductive health advocates criticized the move after it was found out that the money was allegedly used by the CFC to fund its religious assemblies where reading materials containing anti-contraceptive messages were written.

“They have yet to account Couples for Christ for that,” Melgar told reporters on Wednesday after a roundtable discussion on adolescent sexual and reproductive health held in Makati City.

Lawyer Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan, director of the University of the Philippines Institute of Human Rights, said the government could be held accountable for favoring one religious group over others.

Mississippi Schools, With America’s Highest Teen Pregnancy Rate, Largely Adopts Abstinence-Only Sex Education

Reuters | Posted: 08/26/2012 7:00 am Updated: 08/27/2012 9:33 am

By Emily Le Coz

TUPELO, Miss., Aug 26 (Reuters) – Artasia Bobo, a 16-year-old Mississippi high school sophomore, was only 12 when she got pregnant and doesn’t recall receiving much in the way of sex education.

Holding her 3-year-old daughter, Annsley, after cheerleading practice recently, the honor-roll student said she’s now an advocate for comprehensive sex education offered as soon as possible.

“What I went through is nothing any girl would want to go through,” she said. “It changed my life. I love my daughter, but if I could go back in time, my life would be a whole lot different.”

Mississippi, the poorest U.S. state, has the nation’s highest teen pregnancy rate. Yet until this year, the state allowed schools to forgo sex education entirely.

That changed with a state law passed last year that mandated school districts adopt either abstinence-only or abstinence-plus sex education policies. Before the new law, any district that did teach sex education had to teach abstinence-only.

Under the new law, a majority of Mississippi’s public school districts this year adopted abstinence-only policies that avoid or downplay the issue of contraceptives.

States with Abstinence-Only Education Have Higher Teen Pregnancy Rates

WEDNESDAY, 11 APRIL 2012 11:56

BY YURI RESETOVS
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The United States government bet on the wrong program to cut down on teenage pregnancies and birth rates. Numerous studies show that teen pregnancies are highest in states where abstinence-only education is standard. The rates dropped in nearly all states and across all racial and ethnic groups.

Abstinence-Only Education Does Not Lead to Abstinent Behavior, Researchers Find

Nov. 29, 2011 — States that prescribe abstinence-only sex education programs in public schools have significantly higher teenage pregnancy and birth rates than states with more comprehensive sex education programs, researchers from the University of Georgia have determined.

The researchers looked at teen pregnancy and birth data from 48 U.S. states to evaluate the effectiveness of those states’ approaches to sex education, as prescribed by local laws and policies.

“Our analysis adds to the overwhelming evidence indicating that abstinence-only education does not reduce teen pregnancy rates,” said Kathrin Stanger-Hall, assistant professor of plant biology and biological sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Hall is first author on the resulting paper, which has been published online in the journal PLoS ONE.

The study is the first large-scale evidence that the type of sex education provided in public schools has a significant effect on teen pregnancy rates, Hall said.