MAJORITY of Filipinos view family planning as a personal choice that should not be interfered with, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed on Tuesday.
The survey results, which were first published in BusinessWorld, showed that four out of five, or 82 percent of Filipinos, agreed, 8 percent disagreed while 9 percent were undecided with the statement, “The choice of a family planning method is a personal choice of couples and no one should interfere with it.”
The results said that the 82 percent rating was 21 points higher compared to the 61 percent on the same survey issue in November 1990, when 26 percent were undecided and 13 percent disagreed.
According to SWS, Filipinos want the government to provide information and subsidize family-planning methods.
It said that 73 percent of the respondents said that if a couple wanted to practice family planning, relevant information on “all legal methods” should be provided by the government.
The number was 18 points up from November 1990.
SWS said that a “majority” of 68 percent agreed that “the government should fund all means of family planning, be it (through) natural or artificial means.”
A little over half of the respondents disagreed that the use of pills (52 percent), condoms (51 percent) and intra-uterine devices (51 percent) can be considered as abortion.
The survey said that pluralities also rejected the view that the inclusion of family planning in the school curriculum would lead the youth into becoming sexually promiscuous (46 percent) and proposals that tax payments be withheld as a means of protesting the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill (39 percent).
The RH bill, which is pending in Congress, promotes both natural and artificial means of family planning and pushes for sex education in schools.
The bill is opposed by the Catholic Church and pro-life groups.
The SWS survey, which was conducted on June 3 to 6, 2011, used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults in Metro Manila, Balance of Luzon (Luzon without Metro Manila), Visayas and Mindanao and had margins of error of plus or minus 3 percent for national percentages and plus or minus 6 percent for area percentages.
The agency said its latest survey was non-commissioned and conducted on its own initiative.
“The voice of the people is the voice of God” that bounced off the SWS poll, a lawmaker said also on Tuesday.
Rep. Sherwin Tugna of Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption party-list described the results of the survey as “almost like the heavens endorsing the (RH) bill.”
“Our people have spoken, and they are telling this government what they want and what they need, which includes, among other things, assistance on how they can understand family planning better and how they can use the knowledge to improve their lives,” Tugna said.
