Philippine President Duterte wants more Filipino women to have access to contraceptives, which reportedly will run out in the Philippines by 2020 unless a Supreme Court order is overturned. Ana P. Santos reports.

By 2020, the condom will be the only contraceptive available for Filipino couples who want to plan their families. Only the condom will be left as other contraceptives are expected to be out of the market in the next three years, Health Undersecretary Gerard Bayugo said over the weekend.

A sexual reproductive health specialist, Lesego Mokganya has revealed that 65% of pregnancies were unplanned while 35% were unwanted as contained in a study conducted in Francistown between 2007 and 2009. On a national scale, she said, the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey 2011 found that 50.2% of pregnancies were unplanned for. It is against this backdrop that the Ministry of Health yesterday introduced the hormonal birth controls; implanon (a matchstick-sized rod that is inserted in the arm to prevent pregnancy), and vaginal ring meant to offer variety in sexual reproductive health services.

Women in India can now prevent pregnancy without side effects using a free smartphone app called CycleBeads®. The CycleBeads Android app is the only period tracker designed for pregnancy prevention as well as planning.

Women in India now have more birth control options, which are affordable and can guarantee protection against unwanted pregnancies and diseases.

On April 5, Union Health Minister JP Nadda announced a basket of contraceptive choices for women including injectables and oral pills – all of which will be made available through the public health system under the National Family Planning programme.

In early March 2016, a high-level delegation from Nepal’s Ministry of Health family planning division and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) visited Indonesia. The tour aimed to showcase Indonesia’s successful advocacy and social and behavior change communication approaches, which could be relevant to the Nepali context.

This year, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take a major step toward modernizing that system, introducing injectable contraceptives free of charge in government facilities.

At ICFP 2016, India reaffirmed its commitment to the pursuit of its FP2020 goals, with a key step taken last year with the introduction of injectable contraceptives or DMPA.

Medicines360 will work with Marie Stopes International to increase access to its hormonal intrauterine device, LNG IUS, in an effort to expand contraceptive options for women in Kenya.

Come April, Indian women may be able to choose from a whole new basket of birth control options, including injectable contraceptives and weekly pills. The move, which comes as part of the country's new family planning policy, will also see condoms freely available in all government health facilities.

According to Poonam Muttreja, executive director at the non-profit Population Foundation of India (PFI), the most commonly used contraceptive method in India is female sterilization, at about 65.7 percent. She states that one of the reason for this is the non-availability of different contraceptive methods in the public health domain. With the absence of choice, women, especially poor women, continue to use the most intrusive method of contraception.

If manufacturers and designers don’t take women’s preferences and life contexts into account, a new product could fail to meet their needs and end up as a waste of the considerable resources required for product development and regulatory approval. Putting client acceptability at the center of product development isn’t just good business practice; it also reinforces the client’s rights as the principal agent in decision making.

An increasing number of Chepang women in Kalikatar village use contraceptives, indicating a rise in health awareness in the community. According to local Health Post, eight to 10 women come to the health facility for contraceptives, including Sangini injections, Norplant, Copper-T and birth control pills, every week.

Healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies helps women bear children at the healthiest times in their lives.