DEATHS from pregnancy-related causes in the Philippines may increase to 8,000 in 2022 if the Supreme Court (SC) continues to refuse to lift the temporary restraining order (TRO) against the selling and distribution of subdermal implant contraceptives, Implanon and Implanon NXT.
In its study on the impact of the ban on the implants, the Commission on Population (Popcom) warned that the continuous prevention of the distribution and selling of the subdermal implants could result to more maternal deaths than those already seen since the TRO was imposed in June 2015.
On June 17, 2016, the high court issued a TRO on procurement, selling, distributing, dispensing, administering and promoting contraceptive implants following a petition filed by Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines Inc. The group appealed to permanently ban the product for its alleged "abortifacient" side effects.
"To date, the Popcom estimates that there have been an additional 500,000 unintended pregnancies since the SC imposed the TRO on Implanon use. Thus, the possible effect on maternal health to date is 1,105," said the Popcom study.
"By the end of 2022, this number will rise to 8,398 if Implanon continues to be withheld from public use," it further said.
Popcom said it based its data on its estimates that the country's population could increase to over 113.7 million by 2022 from the present approximation of some 104 million.
This is 3.6 million more when compared to the estimate of over 110 million only if the subdermal implants would be made available.
"The possibility of the SC extending the coverage of the TRO would further affect the demographic scenario and set back our progress to the demographic dividend by over two decades," said the study.
"Households and government would have to support and provide services for an additional 3.6 million Filipinos," added the agency.
Aside from the corresponding increase in unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths, Popcom warned that the continued withholding of the contraceptive implants would cause the gradual decrease in the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) from 2015 to 2022.
From the 2015 CPR of 57.7 percent, the agency fears that it could go down to 55.1 percent only by 2022 if implants remain unavailable.
This is in contrast to the CPR projection if there are available subdermal implants from 57.7 percent to 64.1 percent by 2022.
The study also showed that the total fertility rate (TFR) is also affected by the TRO's presence as it would increase between 2015 and 2022.
From the 2015 TFR of 2.8 percent, Popcom said that it could increase to 2.98 by 2022 sans the implants.
If there would be available implants, however, Popcom said the 2015 TFR of 2.8 percent could eventually go down to 2.3 percent by 2022.
Popcom Executive Director Dr. Juan Antonio Perez said results of the study make it imperative for the SC to already resolve the case pending before it.
"These are the effects of the TRO today. It is for the same reason why the government is asking the SC to please resolve this as soon as possible in the interest of public health," said Perez. (VoxPop Philippines)