0 PKBI Bali launches revolutionary family planning for youths, unmarried couples

The Bali chapter of the Indonesia Family Planning Association (PKBI) launched its latest family planning program, entitled “Family Planning Revolution”, targeting adolescents and unmarried couples. In 2011, PKBI Bali recorded more than 1,400 patients with unplanned pregnancies. More than 300 patients among them had been unable to access reproductive health-care services because they were below 24 years old, while some 300 more patients were unmarried. On average, every month PKBI Bali receives 57 patients with unplanned pregnancies.

“We were unable to provide sexually active youths and the unmarried with access to reproductive health-care because contraception was previously only for married couples,” said I Ketut Sukanatha, executive director of PKBI Bali. Sukanatha also acknowledged the increasing presence of middlemen for illegal abortion clinics outside the PKBI Bali office. “They would say that our clinic is closed, so that the patients would go to their clinics instead,” he said. Sukanatha expected the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) and the health agency, as well as the education agency, to take part in this revolutionary campaign for reproductive health.

Bali reproductive health expert I Nyoman Mangku Karmaya said it was about time women’s reproductive health and sexual rights became a top priority to save the lives of mothers and babies. In this revolutionary family planning program, the meaning of family has also been extended to not only include heterosexual couples, but also homosexuals and bisexuals. Infrastructure support, including medicine, funding and counseling centers, are expected to be made available for the program. “All minority groups are welcomed. Services will not only include family planning, but also care for those with sexually transmitted disease and HIV/AIDS,” said Karmaya.

The promotion of condoms will be boosted in the program, because contraception is regarded as representing gender equality between men and women. Services for men in the villages, including voluntary counseling and testing for sexually transmitted disease, will also be made available. “The more men engage in family planning, the more women and children we hope to protect from sexually transmitted diseases and HIV,” said Karmaya.

source : bali daily