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Contraception use drops, unwanted pregnancies rise during pandemic
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Baby boom: As the pandemic rages on, an estimated 47 million women could lose access to contraception, leading to 7 million unintended pregnancies. (Courtesy of UNFPA/-)
U
nwanted pregnancies have risen amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the back of restricted access to contraceptive services, women’s rights activists revealed in a discussion on Thursday.
"The National Population and Family Planning Board [BKKBN] predicted that unwanted pregnancies would rise by 15 percent amid the COVID-19 pandemic," Dati Fatimah, consultant of the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice (AIPJ2), said in an event held by the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) on Thursday.
The event was held to mark the end of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, as well as Human Rights Day.
There were at least 420,000 unwanted pregnancies in Indonesia from March to September, according to BKKBN data. The United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) has estimated that around 7 million unwanted pregnancies have occurred globally throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The secretary-general of the Indonesian Women’s Coalition (KPI), Mike Verawati Tangka, said the trend was mainly caused by limited access to birth control services.
"Women are often blamed for conceiving amid the pandemic. However, our members across the nations have received reports that it has been getting difficult to access contraception," she said at the same event.
Read also: COVID-19 drives people away from contraceptives
She explained that the pandemic had deterred a lot of people from using or continuing to use contraceptives as they were reluctant to visit health facilities over fear of coronavirus transmission.
The operations of some health facilities such as community health centers (Puskesmas) and integrated health posts (Posyandu) have also faced disruptions, with some even temporarily halting their contraceptive services.
A recent study from the Health Ministry revealed that around 30 percent of Puskesmas across the archipelago were inactive during the pandemic. The same study also found that only 19.2 percent of Posyandu had continued services.
The BKKBN previously reported that from January to September, there were 1 million fewer visits to health facilities regarding contraceptive services compared to the same period last year.
Despite the agency recording an increase in the use of condoms, two other common contraceptive methods – pills and injections – recorded a decline in use by 10 percent.
Overall, visits for contraceptive services declined from 3.09 million in March to 2.9 million in April and 3 million in May.
It spiked in June to 3.8 million, but this was mostly attributed to the agency's month-long special program that reached almost 1.4 million recipients.
Read also: Threat of 'baby boom' looms amid COVID-19 pandemonium
Mike said the surge in unwanted pregnancies in the country may have also contributed to the rise of child marriages.
"The number one reason for requesting underage marriage dispensation at court is unwanted teen pregnancies," Mike said.
Dati said marriage exemption requests had increased during the outbreak, from 23,700 cases in 2019 to 34,000 cases as of June 2020. Ninety-seven percent of the requests were granted by the court.
