Catholic leaders battle against free birth control in the Philippines

Medical professionals travel to remote areas of Nigeria with little access to family planning or maternal health care to hand out resources such as condoms or birth control and to train villages' Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) on updated safe birth practices. The team, called the PeachAid Medical Initiative, has reached over 30,000 women and 400 TBAs through medical outreach to rural communities since 2015. The work at large is meant to address the high maternal death rate in Nigeria.

Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) Clinic is taking a youth centered approach towards teaching reproductive health. Their methods, which include having youth days, hiring youth peer counselors, and providing private rooms for youth to discuss their sexual health, allow them to reach teenagers. “As a result, their uptake of contraception has increased.”

The Nigerian state of Oyo has a modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) of 24%, which is the highest in the country compared to the national average of 10.8%. This can be attributed to family planning services brought to citizens through a fruitful partnership between government efforts and outside partners like nonprofit Marie Stopes International Organization of Nigeria (MSION). Since 2013 MSION has helped bring an influx of new family planning information and media outreach, improve clinic facilities and services, offer counseling for pre- and postnatal care, and much more.

Family planning is crucial to fighting against poverty. However, many women cannot afford contraceptives. The United Nations Fund for Population Activities is now supporting the Zimbabwe government to provide women with affordable services supporting reproductive health.

Injections and implants preventing HIV could be an important breakthrough especially for individuals who can not travel regularly to a health clinic, have trouble remembering to take a pill, or who want to secretly protect themselves.

Colorado causes a large decline in teen pregnancy and abortions by implementing free, long-term birth control to prevent pregnancy. While demonstrating massive success, its continuity is in the air considering the ongoing fight over health insurance at the federal level.

Fabella Hospital in Manila is overrun with women in labor or recovering, it exemplifies the overpopulation of the area due to a lack of contraception and family planning access. The Philippines’ Reproductive Health Bill hopes to change this by allowing contraception to be available at public health places and allowing family planning services at these facilities.

The Covid-19 pandemic complicated health care for women living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Nigeria who already lacked access to family planning services and education, but collaborative efforts are working to change this. Through collective action, a group of non-profits worked together to create a one-day outreach event that provided education and trained community members to carry on the work.

To help pregnant women during the COVID-10 pandemic, the government in Uganda sold travel and private hospital care vouchers to those in their third trimester to ensure the women had access to the care they would need. The program connected the women with health resources in their own areas and also guaranteed that they get routine services such as antenatal and postnatul checkups.

In Nigeria, a project known as IntegratE is gaining traction as a means to improve access to and understanding around family planning. Specifically focused on increasing contraceptive coverage for women, this program trains health workers – not just hospitals, clinics and pharmacies – to become Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors and Community Pharmacists in order to make access easier, especially for teenagers and young adults.