Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi has called Indonesia's family planning program a failure for its inability to control the country's fertility rate.

Nadya Natahadibrata, Jakarta – Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi has said that the Education and Culture Ministry should address the spread of HIV/AIDS by providing proper sex and reproducti

Nadya Natahadibrata and Nethy Dharma Somba, Jakarta – A non-governmental organization (NGO), National Papua Solidarity (NAPAS), urged the government to investigate the cause of death of

Jon Afrizal, Jambi – Abortion among women in Jambi City has become so prevalent that from 2011 to 2013, 40 percent of unwanted pregnancies ended in abortion.

Robert Isidorus & Dina Manafe, Jayapura/Surabaya – Activists in West Papua province say that up to 95 people have died of hunger in Tambrauw district since last November, with hundr

Ezra Sihite & SP/Jeis Montesori – Indonesian government officials have denied a recent allegation that dozens of people in a Papuan district died after suffering from severe malnutr

SP/Dina Manafe, Surabaya – The recent closure of half of Surabaya's red light districts has prompted worries about the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the city, as sex workers will no lon

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Depok – Hundreds of housewives and their children staged a protest outside the Depok municipality office on Wednesday over the implementation of the administration's h

Indonesia is seeking to boost its community mental health services in an effort to end the lockdown and shackling of thousands of mental health patients.

Margareth S.

Lenny Tristia Tambun & Dessy Sagita – The recent death of a newborn baby who was denied treatment by 10 Jakarta hospitals has raised questions about the readiness of providers to co

Sita W.

According to statistics from the UN agency and UNICEF, malnutrition in Timor-Leste has risen to 58 percent.

Dessy Sagita – Misperceptions about freedom of expression and gender equality have been blamed for the growing number of female smokers in Indonesia.

Kusumasari Ayuningtyas, Klaten, C.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) is bucking a United Nation's campaign to ban female circumcision, demanding that the government keep the practice legal.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) and a number of Islamic mass organisations oppose attempts to ban female circumcision by any groups on the grounds that it represents a reli

The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) spoke out against the Ministry of Health's refusal to ban female circumcision on Monday, calling the practice, which

Charlotte Greenfield – Baby Rivona is a 45-year-old mother of two who lives in Jakarta. She is a busy woman.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jayapura – Consumer protection activists have pushed the government to immediately require cigarette manufacturers to put pictorial warnings on their packaging por

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Anti-tobacco organizations have expressed concern that the tobacco control regulation will do little to wean the country off its cigarette addiction.

Jakarta – Tobacco industry lobbyists have urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to revise the draft government regulation (RPP) on tobacco control, saying that the president should t

Brook Sabin – The busiest doctor in Timor has made a plea for help to New Zealand, inundated with patients who are dying needlessly.

Dessy Sagita – Almost half of pregnant Indonesian women chose to give birth at home in 2012 rather than at health facilities that could help minimize infection risks, according to the H

Nivell Rayda – Health issues have always been a prickly subject in Indonesia and this year was no exception as the country mourned the loss of a minister, heatedly debated the need for

Married women make up the majority of customers to abortion clinics in Indonesia, according to the Indonesian Family Planning Association.

Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – The total number of reported cases of people living with HIV/AIDS in Papua has topped 13,000, with 150 of the new cases involving infants below the age of fi

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – HIV/AIDS advocacy groups have called for an integrated effort to protect HIV-positive women from becoming the targets of violence.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Despite massive campaigns in the past five years, the government has failed to convince more people to use contraceptives, a survey has shown.

Jakarta – As much as 70 percent of the government's budget for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs come from foreign donations, making the nation's fight against the disease vuln

A new health project in East Timor is hoping to harness the power of the mobile phone to promote better infant and maternal health.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Nusa Dua – Although some may consider abortion to be an uncontroversial issue, participants at the three-day Global Youth Forum (GYF) in Bali are still debating it

Ainur Rohmah and Kusumasari Ayuningtyas, Semarang/Surakarta – Commemorating World AIDS Day, which fell on Saturday, Dec.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – At daylight, the street outside Tanah Abang railway station is an illegal parking lot.

Amir Tejo & Vento Saudale, Surabaya/Bogor – The groups with the highest risk of contracting HIV in Indonesia has shifted from commercial sex workers to housewives and children.

Havana – East Timor's Education minister Bendito dos Santos Freitas underscored Cuba's cooperation with his country in the fields of education and healthcare.

Shopping malls, office buildings and other public places in Jakarta will have to provide new mothers with a "breast-feeding corner" under a proposed bylaw aimed at reversing Indonesia's

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – A new report published by the United Nations (UN) shows that Indonesia has suffered a setback in its campaign against HIV/AIDS.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Experts have said that a human rights-based approach was the key to ensuring the success of the family planning program.

Dessy Sagita – Indonesia's infant mortality rate matches that of significantly poorer Bangladesh, and blame for the alarmingly high rate lies with the government, an activist says.

Made Arya Kencana, Denpasar – Indonesia's vaccine industry has requested to be exempt from a controversial halal bill that would require the raw ingredients of food, medicine and cosmet

Lauren Turner – Intestinal worms affect up to half of East Timor's children and former president Jose Ramos-Horta is calling on Australians to help eradicate the "scourge" within five y

Karangasem, Bali – Between rice fields and coconut trees on Indonesia's "paradise" island of Bali, a man lies chained by the ankles to a rotting wooden bed in a garden, staring at roost

Dessy Sagita – Hundreds of people rallied near the Jakarta Convention Center on Wednesday to protest the opening of the World Tobacco Asia 2012 exhibition.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Six Indonesian women groups under the Women's Network for Tobacco Products Control (JP3T) voiced their rejection of the upcoming World Tobacco Asia (WTA)

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – The nation's objective of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 could remain unfulfilled due to the large number of people still withou

Made Arya Kencana, Nusa Dua, Bali – The gap between urban and rural areas has left nearly half of Indonesia's 240 million people without proper access to sanitation and clean water, Hea

Made Arya Kencana, Nusa Dua, Bali – The government has finalized the legislation designed to combat the influence of tobacco, and has asked the cigarette industry to halt its opposition

Made Arya Kencana, Denpasar – Around 500 pregnant women are infected with HIV in Bali each year, the Bali branch of AIDS Prevention Commission has learned.

Soekarno-Hatta airport operator Angkasa Pura II was recently reprimanded by government officials after State-Owned Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan showed up to the airport and shamed t