ALTHOUGH LAST WEDNESDAY’S SWS RELEASE, “Men and women of reproductive age in Cebu support family planning and RH bill,” came from a new survey, its message was very much the same as in four earlier local polls and one national poll going back to September 2008.
Great support for the RH bill. The new survey found 78 percent in favor and only 7 percent opposed to the Reproductive Health (RH) bill presently being discussed in Congress, in a random sample of 600 persons of reproductive age from Districts 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Cebu Province and District 2 of Cebu City interviewed on July 2-5, 2009. (The balance from 100 percent are those undecided. “Reproductive age” means 15-54 for men and 15-49 for women. SWS’ samples are 50:50 men and women. The error margin for a sample of 600 is plus/minus 4 percent.)
The RH bill was described by the interviewer as “giving the government the duty to promote responsible parenthood through giving enough information to the people and having safe, legal, affordable and quality reproductive health care services for people who want it.”
For comparison, the respective percentages for and against the RH bill in previous polls, using exactly the same question-wording, were: 71-8 in a September 2008 national survey (sample size
n = 800; error margin 2.5 percent), 86-8 in a December 2008 survey in the City of Manila (n = 600), 84-9 in a February 2009 survey in Parañaque City (n = 600), 76-10 in a March 2009 survey in District 1 of Cebu City and District 2 of Cebu province (n = 600), and 53-17 in an April-May 2009 survey of Bohol province (n = 400; error margin 5 percent). All these polls were done by SWS, except that in Bohol, which was done by Holy Name University, after requesting permission to replicate the SWS questionnaire.
(Note that the July survey was in different congressional districts from those in the March survey. I will refer here to the March poll as Cebu-1 and the July poll as Cebu-2.)
Great support for distribution of contraceptives. Here are the percentages of agreement and disagreement with the statement, “There should be a law that requires government to distribute condoms, IUDs and pills to people who want to avail of them”: 73-17 in Cebu-2; 75-17 in Cebu-1; 70-19 in Parañaque, 64-22 in Manila, and 68-15 in the Philippines as a whole. This item was not tested in the Bohol poll.
Majority rejection of claims that condoms, IUDs and pills are abortifacients. On the other hand, here are the percentages that agree and disagree with the statement, “The use of condoms can also be considered as abortifacients”: 28-51 in Cebu-2; 24-57 in Bohol; and 31-53 in Cebu-1.
Here are the percentages that agree/disagree with the statement “The use of IUDs can also be considered as abortifacients”: 27-52 in Cebu-2; 25-55 in Bohol; and 33-52 in Cebu-1.
Here are the percentages that agree/disagree with the statement “The use of pills can also be considered as abortifacients”: 27-52 in Cebu-2; 25-55 in Bohol; and 33-52 in Cebu-1.
In earlier surveys, opinions on the said contraceptives were tested by the broader statement “The use of condoms, IUDs and pills can also be considered as abortifacients,” which resulted in agree/disagree percentages of 33-53 in Parañaque, 29-56 in Manila, and 33-50 in the Philippines as a whole. Thus the use of a separate question for each contraceptive in later surveys did not change the finding that majorities in all polls reject the claims that these contraceptions are abortifacients.
Great support for teaching family planning to the youth. Here are the percentages that agree and disagree with the statement “There should be a law that requires government to teach family planning to the youth”: 85-7 in Cebu-2; 87-8 in Cebu-1; 85-9 in Parañaque, 88-7 in Manila, and 76-10 in the Philippines as a whole. This item was not used in the Bohol poll.
Here are the percentages that agree/disagree with the statement that “Students of age 15-24 should be given adolescent health education in school”: 87-7 in Cebu-2; 84-7 in Bohol; 88-6 in Cebu-1; 87-5 in Parañaque, and 92-4 in Manila. This item was not used in the national poll.
Here are the percentages that agree/disagree with the statement that “Men and women 15-24 years old should be given family planning information and services”: 84-9 in Cebu-2; 75-16 in Bohol; 86-8 in Cebu-1; 86-8 also in Parañaque, and 89-6 in Manila. This item was not used in the national poll.
Majority rejection of the claim that family planning knowledge is conducive to sexual promiscuity. Here are the percentages that agree/disagree with the statement “If family planning would be included in their curriculum, the youth would be sexually promiscuous”: 30-49 in Cebu-2; 33-52 in Cebu-1; 25-58 in Parañaque, 29-59 in Manila, and 25-54 in the Philippines as a whole. This item was not used in the Bohol poll.
The bottom line is that, so far, all local or district-level opinion polls, including one in Bohol not done by SWS, reinforce the national consensus that the RH bill is popularly supported by Filipinos whose reproductive behavior would be affected by it. Do congressmen who think their constituencies are against the RH bill have scientific polls to back them up?
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The SWS surveys on the RH bill were sponsored for open publication by the Forum for Family Planning and Development (www.forum4fp. org), after a brief embargo period in which the Forum used the material for its advocacy in the House of Representatives. This explains why the Forum specified certain congressional districts for the local surveys.
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Contact SWS: www.sws.org.ph or mahar.mangahas@sws.org.ph.
