Letter: Family planning

While I strongly agree that the revitalization of the family planning program is very necessary in Indonesia, I have some reservations about your editorial of Aug 19.

Safaris, forced use of contraceptives, little counseling and pressure to meet population targets, I don’t think Indonesia’s young democracy wants to regress to a family planning program that does not honor the individual rights of women.

There are also other considerations. In the last decade, women have turned increasingly to the private sector for family planning, leading methods to be heavily skewed toward pills and injectables, because that is where the profits are.

Any forward-thinking program must have systems in place that support a full range of contraceptives, including implants and intra uterine devicen (IUD)s, at prices poorer women can afford. Third, where are the men?  This country has some of the lowest rates of condom use and vasectomies in Southeast Asia, despite having cadres of well-trained physicians who can do no scalpel vasectomies.

Last, the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) has only itself to blame for its marginalization. They rested on their laurels as one of the world’s most successful family planning programs and did not keep up with the era of decentralization.

To take family planning forward, services need to be responsive, innovative and supple or else there really will be a popu-lation boom.

Lucy S. Mize
Jakarta