ABSTRACT

Despite the widely acclaimed success of the Indonesian Family Planning Program in drastically reducing the national fertility rate over the past twenty-five years, Indonesian women have not experienced corresponding improvements in their reproductive health and reproductive rights. As noted in the previous chapter, the most alarming indicator of women’s poor reproductive health is the high incidence of maternal mortality, which compares unfavourably with other ASEAN nations. For instance, Malaysia has an estimated MMR rate of 20 deaths per 10,000 live births, drastically lower than Indonesia’s national average of 450 deaths per 10,000 live births (UNDP 2002).