Philippines: Poor women pay for contraception

MANILA, 11 June 2010 (IRIN) - Insufficient public funding for family planning services means poor women have to buy contraceptives from pharmacies rather than getting them free from clinics.

"Social disparities and lack of access to services make the poorest of our women suffer," said Alberto Romualdez, vice-president of Forum for Family Planning, a local the NGO. Nearly half the population lives on US$2 a day or less, and spending $1 on a pack of condoms is not an option.

Despite the cost, a recent study by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health think-tank, and the Likhaan Center for Women's Health, found that more women - 40 percent in 2008, up from 17 percent in 2003 - were buying contraceptives. (Read full article here)