The Federal Government has appealed to religious clerics to encourage use of contraceptives so as to promote child-spacing initiatives of the government. The Chairman of National Population Commission (NPC), Eze Duruiheoma (SAN) made the call on Monday at an event organized to commemorate the 2017 World Population Day in Abuja. He attributed to endemic poverty in the country to the outdated culture of having large families.
“Having a large army of children who are not catered for because the mothers are denied access to family planning services is neither in the short nor long-term of any interest to any community. Universal access to voluntary family planning can reduce maternal deaths by three and child deaths by as much as 20 per cent.”
He lamented that if contraceptives donated by United Nations Population Fund were put to good use; it could prevent 11.7 million unintended pregnancies as well as 3.7 million unsafe abortions. He added that this could also prevent 29, 000 maternal deaths in the country.
Duruiheoma attributed the refusal to use contraceptives to religious dogmas propagated by some religious groups.
He appealed to clerics to promote the use of contraceptives especially male and female condoms to address the aforementioned hazards.
