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COMMENTARY: Expanding Indonesian women's access to contraceptives
Fifty years ago, fewer than one in 10 Indonesian women had used contraceptives. The average Indonesian woman had five or six children, and she was raising them in extreme poverty.
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Blue is the warmest color: Children play on a beach on one of the Fam Islands, one of Raja Ampat's conservation zones. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
T
oday, Indonesia stands at the cusp of an enormous opportunity: the chance to complete its transformation into a global economic powerhouse. But to ensure its rapid ascent, we encourage Indonesia to continue expanding women’s access to voluntary family planning as a national priority.
Contraceptives are one of the greatest antipoverty measures in history. For evidence of this, Indonesians need look no further than their own recent past. Fifty years ago, fewer than one in 10 Indonesian women had used contraceptives. The average Indonesian woman had five or six children, and she was raising them in extreme poverty.
Everything changed in the 1960s, when Indonesia rolled out one of the most successful policies for expanding contraceptive access that the world has ever seen. In just one generation, access to contraceptives skyrocketed to over 50 percent. The average number of children per women went down to just two or three. And the prospects for each of these families began to rise.
The reason is simple. When a woman has the ability to plan her pregnancies, she is better able to complete her education, increase her earning potential, work outside the home and help lift her family out of poverty. What’s more, her children are likely to be healthier and more educated, and better positioned to live up to their potential at school and at work. As Indonesia saw firsthand, an investment in family planning is an investment in a country’s economic future.
But still today, there are many women across Indonesia who lack access to the family planning methods that best meet their needs. These women are ready and willing to create a brighter future for their families and drive growth for their communities. The question before Indonesia today is whether they will be given that chance.
Fortunately, there are some clear steps that Indonesia can take to continue its global leadership in family planning. Indonesia can reach even more women by focusing on three key initiatives.
First, providing women with a broader range of contraceptive options, particularly the longacting reversible contraceptives a growing number of women prefer. Different women have different needs over the course of their lives. For example, someone who is only briefly delaying pregnancy would probably not choose the same method as a woman who has decided that she does not want any more children. Ensuring women have access to a range of options is important because a woman is more likely to use contraceptives when she can select a method that fits her own life.
