An open door.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: John J. Carroll, S.J., Institute on Church and Social Issues

THE SECOND Vatican Council (No. 51) speaks of husband and wife together making decisions with regard to the number of children whom they shall bring into the word. "With docile reverence toward God they will come to the right decision by common counsel and effort." It is not, therefore, something to be left to chance or even to "whatever God wills." Moreover, the Council goes on to say that in making this decision, couples "will thoughtfully take into account both their own welfare and that of their children, those already born and those which may be foreseen," reckoning "with both the material and the spiritual conditions of the times as well as their state in life." And that "they will consult the interests of the family group, of temporal society, and of the Church herself."

And yet it is clear that many couples make no such decision, as I attempt to show at greater length in the coming issue of our newsletter, Intersect. The 1998 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) in the Philippines found that 48 percent of married women of those ages were using some method of family planning while 19 percent wanted no more children at least for now (8 percent wanting to space births and 11 percent wanting to limit them) but were using no means of family planning. Their wish to limit their families is not yet a decision.

A similar conclusion emerges when one looks at the number of children which a woman has beyond the number which she would like to have had. Data from the same NDHS permit one to compare the total number of children which women have actually born (total fertility) with the number they would have wanted (total wanted fertility) to calculate the total unwanted fertility. When broken down by the education of the mother, the data indicate that total fertility decreases with education beyond the elementary level, while total wanted fertility decreases even at the elementary level. The highest levels both of fertility and of unwanted fertility are at the lowest two educational levels-which correspond to the poorest sectors of Philippine society. Women with no education have on the average 1.1 more children than they would have wanted, women with elementary education only, 1.7 more.

Thus, there is a considerable amount of unwanted fertility in Philippine families, and particularly among the poorest. These latter have learned from experience what international research has indicated, namely that the burden of many children is one of the obstacles which prevent families from moving out of poverty. In other words, there is a significant unmet need for family planning services.

We are not talking here of the impact of population growth on the national economy. That ...