The executive director of the FP 2020, Beth Schlachter, has called upon the Bangladesh government to make all family planning methods available to the Rohingya women so that they can choose.
The government is now providing short-acting methods such as condoms, pills and injectables. The long-acting reversible contraceptives include injections, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and subdermal contraceptive implants that provide effective contraception for a certain period until removal.
“I encouraged the government to open up the longer-acting methods,” Schlachter told bdnews24.com in an interview on Monday after her meeting with the government officials in Dhaka.
She said these women deserve the same kind of choice that any women anywhere in the world should have.
But she said the removal of those methods must be included in their return talks to Myanmar so that they can remove when they want.
“We need to make sure that if Rohingya women return, the removal services would be available where they move to,” she said, adding that family planning is entirely voluntary and rights-based approach.
She appreciated the government’s efforts to help the Rohingya people from giving shelter to ensuring basic needs and said many of the women heard about family planning services first from Bangladesh.
FP 2020 or Family Planning 2020 is a global community of partners working together to advance rights-based family planning.
