Government Urged To Revise Regulations For Provision Of Contraceptive Devices For Youth

Deputy Chairman of Commission IX DPR RI from the PKS faction, Kurniasih Mufidayati (doc DPR)

JAKARTA - Commission IX of the DPR RI asked the government to immediately revise Government Regulation (PP) Number 28 of 2024, one of which regulates the provision of contraceptives for teenagers. Deputy Chairman of Commission IX of the DPR RI from the PKS faction, Kurniasih Mufidayati explained, in Article 103 paragraph (4) point e states that reproductive health services for adolescents are at least one of the provision of contraceptives.

He considered that PP as a regulation on the Health Law which is a omnibus regulation did not simplify regulations and instead caused dangerous interpretation of regulations. Kurniasih regretted that the Ministry of Health argued that the rules of contraceptives were specifically for teenagers who were married and technically would be regulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Health.

"If you still have to wait for Permenkes, it doesn't simplify the regulations at all. The Health Law is made with the Omnibus system on the pretext of simplifying regulations, but the derivative rules must be convoluted and bureaucratic. We encourage revisions at the PP level so as not to cause wild interpretations," said Kurniasih in his statement, Wednesday, August 7.

One of the wild interpretations according to Kurniasih, is the permissibility of teenagers having sexual intercourse outside of marriage using contraceptives under the pretext of reproductive health services.

"From the existing data, free sex at the youth level is increasingly worrying with increasing negative consequences," explained the Chairperson of the PKS DPP for Women and Family Resilience.

Kurniasih said, BKKBN noted that in adolescents aged 16-17 years, as many as 60 percent of teenagers had sexual intercourse. While the age of 14-15 years is 20 percent, and at the age of 19-20 it is 20 percent.

"One of the negative excesses of free sex is the number of abortions due to unwanted pregnancy which is getting higher," he said. Kurniasih said, the Guttmacher Institute data on 2,000 abortion estimates was 37 abortions for every 1,000 women aged 15-49 years. This figure is relatively high compared to Asia regionally. Meanwhile, research by Nurhafni in 2022 shows that of the 405 unplanned pregnancies, 95 percent were carried out by teenagers aged 15-25 years. The number of abortions in Indonesia reached 2.5 million cases, 1.5 million of which were carried out by teenagers. In Bandung shows 20 percent of the 1,000 teenagers who have had free sex.

"Not to mention the increasing number of sexually transmitted diseases which is getting higher. The Ministry of Health reported that syphilic cases had increased by almost 70 percent in the last five years, namely 2018 to 2022 yesterday," said Kurniasih.

Meanwhile, there are 100,000 people with HIV who have not been detected and have the potential to infect the public. The Ministry of Health said, of the 526,841 people with HIV, only about 429,215 people had been detected or knew of their HIV status.

"The rising number of free sex must be followed by negative excesses such as cases of abortion and the transmission of rising sexual diseases. We are talking about this from a health perspective. So instead of waiting for the emergence of derivative regulations from the Ministry, the government in a straightforward manner and clearly revising the article on the use of contraceptives for teenagers as soon as possible," concluded Kurniasih.