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Review Related Studies Related To Teenage Pregnancy (Foreign)

This document summarizes 9 articles related to teenage pregnancy around the world. Some key points discussed include: the global adolescent birth rate has declined but is projected to increase again by 2030; teenage pregnancy remains an issue in countries like China, India, and parts of Africa and Asia; high rates of teenage pregnancy in the US have been linked to income inequality; and teenage pregnancy can negatively impact the health of young mothers and their children as well as national economies.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
816 views44 pages

Review Related Studies Related To Teenage Pregnancy (Foreign)

This document summarizes 9 articles related to teenage pregnancy around the world. Some key points discussed include: the global adolescent birth rate has declined but is projected to increase again by 2030; teenage pregnancy remains an issue in countries like China, India, and parts of Africa and Asia; high rates of teenage pregnancy in the US have been linked to income inequality; and teenage pregnancy can negatively impact the health of young mothers and their children as well as national economies.
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Review related studies related to teenage pregnancy (Foreign)

1. Adolescent Pregnancy is a Serious Social Problem (www.peertechz.com)(April 30, 2018)


(Sinisa Franjic)

The global adolescent birth rate has declined from 65 births per 1000 women in 1990 to
47 births per 1000 women in 2015. despite this overall progress, because the global population
adolescents continues to grow, projections indicate the number of adolescent pregnancies will
increase globally by 2030, with the greatest proportional increases in West and Central Africa
and Eastern and Southern Africa. For some adolescents, pregnancy and childbirth are planned
and wanted. In some contexts, girls may face social pressure to marry and, once married, to have
children. Each year, about 15 million girls are married before the age of 18 years, and 90% of
births to girls aged 15 to 19 years occur within marriage.

2. China's Teenage Mothers (thediplomat.com)(May 21, 2018)(Yuhong Pang)

Adolescent motherhood has declined in China since the government initiated its famous
one-child policy in the 1980's, but it was fundamental part of life in Chine before then, especially
in ancient times. The report Population Status of Children in China in 2015, published in
UNICEF, shows this trend. Among 75 million adolescents between 15-19 years old, 1.2 million
were married and teenage women were married at twice the rate of young men. One in every
rural women aged 19 or below is married. Liu Tongxia, a veteran obstetrician in Shandong, said
inadequate sex education in China has increased the likelihood of unwanted teenage pregnancies
in recent years. She even met three teenage mothers who gave birth and many young girls who
came to her for abortions. Compared to the infant's health, she worries more about the influence
of underage pregnancy on young mothers and their family.

3. Rising teenage pregnancy rates in east Asia Pacific spark health warning (theguardian.com)
(Mar. 26, 2018)Ben Doherty)

Teenage Pregnancy - the biggest killer of girls and women aged 15 to 19 in the world - is
growing in the east Asia-Pacific region, the only place where the rate is climbing. A new report
from Plan International, Half a Billion Reasons, has called on governments to develop specific
aid and development policies to improve the lives of the world's 500 million adolescent girls - an
"invisible" cohort whose uplift could boost economies, reduce domestic violence, and improve
health and education. Eighteen-year old Celinda, from Bougainville island in Papua New
Guinea, is mother to a two-year old boy and seven months pregnant with her second child. Her
son Syl, was born outside, on the ground, in her village. "I went to school but I stopped at grade
four because I got married. I was 13 years old at the time. This man always followed me on the
way to school. Her marriage to the man was blighted by consistent violence, before Celinda was
able to leave him. In the Asia Pacific, teen pregnancy rates remain stubbornly high in some
countries, and are growing in others.

4. U.S. Teen Birth Rate Correlates with State Income Inequality (prb.org)(April 26, 2012)(Lori
M. Hunter)
Despite declining rates, teen birth rates in the United States remain persistently high, at
34.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19. And these rates are dramatically higher than in other
developed countries. In the United States, girls are more than twice as likely as their Canadian
peers to have a child (14.2) and nearly six times as likely as Swedish teens (5.9). New analyses
published by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggest that part of the explanation for
high fertility among American teens may be related to surrounding income inequality - the local
gap between "haves" and "have nots". Recent analyses of date from the National Survey of
Family Growth suggest that teenage girls of lower socioeconomic status, in regions of high
income inequality, are far more likely to "keep their baby". Teenagers of higher socioeconomic
status - with college-educated mothers - and in regions with less income inequality have lower
birth rates.

5.Teen pregnancy still a major challenge in India, strongly linked to child stunting
(eurekalert.org)(May 16, 2019)

Children born to teenage mothers are more likely to be undernourished than children of
adult mothers. A new study, the first to comprehensively examine links between teenage
pregnancy and child undernutrition in India, by researchers at the International Food Policy
Research Institute (IFPRI) helps to understand how this happens. India is home to the more
stunted children than any other country and is one of the ten countries with the largest burden of
teenage pregnancy. Although marriage before the age of 18 years is illegal in India, the 2016
National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) -4 revealed that 27 percent of girls are married
before their 18th birthday and further, 31 percent of married Indian women gave birth by the age
of 18 years. "Reducing adolescent pregnancy in India can hasten our progress towards achieving
the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to poverty, health,
nutrition, generalwellbeing, equity, and education," says IFPRI Research Fellow and study co-
author, Phuong Hong Nguyen.

6. Family values failing as teen pregnancies rise, study says (gulfnews.com)(July 25, 2010)
(Daniel Martin)

London: A horrifying picture of the extent of Broken Britain has been painted by an
International report which exposes our moral failure on family values. The study found we have
the worst record on teen pregnancy in Europe and more children living in one-parent families
than any other European country. More of our single mothers are unemployed and on benefit
than anywhere else in the continent, largely because we hand out so much in benefits. Britain's
rates for divorce and illegitimate births are among the highest in the Western world, and our
mothers are among the oldest, putting their health and that of their baby's at risk. Critic says that
UK is paying the price for its promotion of sex education to ever younger children and for the
fact that, since the permissive society of the 1960's, so few value the institution of marriage. The
report, by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development which represents
industrialised nations, is the first time that Britain's poor record has been illustrated so starkly. It
shows: Our teenage pregnancy rate is the worst in Europe and the fifty worst in the Western
world.
7. Teen Pregnancy Negatively Impacts The National Economy (thinkprogress.org)(June 8, 2012)
(Tara Culp-Ressler)

The negative economic effect that teen pregnancy has on young mothers also impacts the
nation's economy as a whole, according to a report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen
and Unplanned Pregnancy. Thirty four percent of young teen mothers earn neither a college
degree nor a high school diploma, and less than two percent of teen mothers earn a degree by the
time they turn 30. Because teenage pregnancy deters increased education, it leads to significant
amounts of lost earning, which negatively effect the economy as a whole, the study points out:
"Nearly one-third of teen girls who have dropped out of high school cite early pregnancy or
parenthood as a key reason [..] According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, it is estimated
that over the course of his or her lifetime, a single high school dropout costs the nation
approximately $260,000 in lost earnings, taxes, and productivity. Put another way, if students
who dropped out of the class of 2011 had graduated from high school, the nation's economy
would likely benefit from nearly $154 billion in additional income over the course of their
lifetimes."

8. Teen Pregnancy a rising concern (news24.com)(Oct. 17, 2018)(Jyothi Laldas)

Girls between the ages 15 to 19 years old account for 11% of births worldwide. Of this
11%, almost all the births, 95%, are in low to middle income countries, South Africa included.
This is according to the World Health Organisations's (WHO) latest fact sheet on adolescent
pregnancy. The WHO claims that teenage pregnancy is still a major contributor to mother and
child in addition to feeding ill-health and poverty. Despite ongoing awareness and deterrent
attempts by government and non-governmental organisations, teen pregnancy is still a major
concern. Annually, about 16 million girls between 15 and 19 years old become pregnant while
about one million girls under the age of 15 give birth. A further three million girl undergo unsafe
abortions each year, according to the fact sheet. A common misconception in South African
society is that girls fall pregnant to make quick cash, in the form of government child support
grants. However, according to former StatisticianGeneral Pali Lehohla, the idea that girls get
pregnanct to make money is unfolded. xxx A lack of education and viewing sexual intercourse as
a taboo subject among parents is another large contributor to teenage pregnancy.

9. The daunting effects of teenage pregnancy (newtimes.co.rw)(Oct. 17, 2019)(Glory Iribagiza)

The rising figures of teenage pregnancies remain a huge concern today. There is a story
of each teenage mother has to tell, of problems they are facing, or have faced for the
disheartening effects of teenage pregnancy. These young mothers not only have high risks of
serious health complications to themselves and their babies, they are also prone to social and
emotional distress. Miriam Batamuriza, a lecturer at the University of Rwanda, School of
Nursing and Midwifery, Rwamagana campus, explains the dangers of teenage pregnancies. She
says first and foremost, obstetric consequences are bound to happen among other effects.
Anaemia, Batamuriza says, rises during pregnancy, because teenage mothers often can't afford
helthy foods, or don't even know how to prepare healthy meals that would keep them and their
unborn babies safe. Even after birth, the baby is likely to suffer malnutrition if no intervention is
made to improve nutrition. Sti's and HIV/AIDS: Young mothers are at risk of sexually
transmitted infections and diseases such as HIV/AIDS, she says.

10. A look at teen pregnancy around the world (pri.org)(July 12, 2013)(Elizabeth Stuart)

To mark the World Population Day Thursday, the United Nations called attention to the
plight of the 16 million teenage girls who give birth each year. "Adolescent pregnancy is not just
a health issue, it is a development issue," said UNPF Executive Director Dr. Babatunde
Osotimehin in a statement. "It is deeply rooted in poverty, gender inequality, violence, child and
forced marriage, power imbalances between adolescent girls and their male partners, lack of
education, and the failure of systems and institutions to protect their rights." In the developing
world, more young girls die from pregnancy and child birth complications than any other cause,
according to the United Nations Population Fund. Their babies, who are more likely to be born
soon and too small, die at higher rates than those born to older women.

11.Did you know 4.5 million Indian teens were pregnant or had kids in 2015-16?
(newindiaexpress.com)(July 21, 2017)(Ians)

When you think of child marriage, you think poverty, illiteracy and rural India. But what
if education could change this and reduce the number of young brides, the number of which
India ranks highest globally. Over 13 million adolescent girls between 10 and 19 years were
married in India in 2011, according to census data. Be that as it may, an analysis by Child Rights
and You (CRY), a Mumbai-based child rights non-profit, found that fewer literate women were
married as child compared to those who were not literate. Also, fewer literate women who were
married off early had children at a young age than illiterate women. Becoming a child bride
initiates a process for the girl where societal pressure, expectations and the responsibilities she is
supposed to shoulder in her new role could make her lose focus from education and even
eventually drop out of school.

12. Here's why teenage mothers in Cambodia are in crisis and what you can do to help
(marieclaire.co.uk)(October 11, 2019)(Corinne Redfern)

As rates of teenage pregnancy escalate across Cambodia, so too are the numbers of young
mothers going without food - with devastating consequences. It's been three weeks since 17year
old Choun Nita gave birth to her daughter, Choy Manich and 36 hours since she last ate any
food. Her breast milk has nearly dried up and she needs to steady herself against the wall as she
stands. "I don't know what to do," she whispers. "My baby is so small and weak. I'd do anything
to keep her alive, but this is all I have. I'm scared I'll have to give her away." Her husband
refuses to provide money for formula milk, she adds. Nita's story is echoed by thousands of girls
across Cambodia, where the teenage pregnancy rate has doubled since 2010, with babies handed
over to 'orphanages', non-governmental organisations and grandparents alike, as their young
mothers struggle to find work in factories, rubbish dump sites and karaoke bars. They dream of
raising their family, but high divorce rates (older husbands often disappear) and deeply ingrained
Cambodian tradition dictating 'men eat first' means they simply can't afford to feed their children.

13. NZ high in world teen birth rates (nzheral.co.nz)(June 30, 2000)(Francesca Mold)
New Zealand has the second highest teenage birth rate among developed countries, with
young Maori women five times more likely to have a baby than Europeans, according to new
research. A New Zealand Medical Journal has also found that Maori teenagers were three times
more likely to get pregnant than non-Maori. Abortion rates among Maori were slightly higher
than Pakeha overall because of their higher pregnancy rate, but only a quarter of teenage Maori
women chose that option. Almost one-half of teenage Pakeha pregnancies end in abortion. The
research showed that Pacific teenagers were twice as likely as European New Zealanders to
become pregnant and three times more likely to give birth. The study, led by Dr. Nigel Dickson
of the University of Otago Medical School, found that of the developed OECD countries, only
the United States had a higher teenage birth rather than New Zealand.

14. Teen Pregnancy is a Growing Problem for Liberia (newnarratives.org)(Nov. 7, 2011)


(FabineKwiah)

Teen pregnancy is on the rise in Liberia and fast becoming a national crisis with far
reaching effects. With one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the world, many young girls
in Liberia are exposed to sex by age 9, and about 3 out of 10 Liberian girls get pregnant before
the age of 18 FabineKwiah reports on the growing issue of teen pregnancy in Liberia.

15. UNFPA Launch Programme to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy in Southeastern Liberia


(frontpageafricaonline.com)(Mar. 1, 2017)(Super User)

Monrovia - The Government of Liberia in collaboration with the United Nations


Population Fund (UNFPA) has launched a 4-year programme aimed at the reduction of teenage
pregnancies in the South East counties. The "Empowered and Fulfilled Programme" funded by
the Swedish Government will complement other on-going Reproductive Health, Gender and
livelihood related projects supported by UN agencies in Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, Maryland and
River Gee counties and build on achievements made at both national and targeted county level
on young people's sexual reproductive health and rights. The programme seeks to contribute to a
reduction in teenage pregnancies through supporting increased access and utilization of Sexual
reproductive health an family planning information and services by adolescents.

16.Pregnant at 15: The story of Romania's teenage mothers (egyptindependent.com)(May 4,


2016)

"God has given me a beautiful little girl. But life is difficult because I am still a child
myself", says Lorena, one of more than 2,000 girls under 16 who give birth in Romania each
year, some as young as 12. Cradling her baby, the 15-year old who lives with her boyfriend and
seven other families in an abandoned building, says she didn't plan to fall pregnant. "I would
have wanted to have waited until later", she adds. A few kilometers away, Diana, also 15, says
she cried when she discovered she was pregnant. "My life has changed dramatically", she says,
adding that she misses not being able to play with other girls her own age. Abandoned by the
father of her child, she and her baby live with her and six brothers and sisters. Lorena and Diana
are just two of the thousands of teenage mothers in Romania. In 2013, 15.6 percent of first
children in Romania were born to teenage mothers, according to the latest figures from Eurostat,
the statistical office of the European Union, published in 2015

17. Mozambique's teenage pregnancy challenge (devex.com(June 5, 2019)(Jessica Abrahams)

Maputo, Mozambique has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the world,
with 40% of girls pregnant by the age of 18 as of 2011, the latest year for which there is
comprehensive data. But recent advancements hard-won by civil society campaigners - including
the roll out of mandatory sex education in schools, the creation of a network of youth-friendly
sexual health clinics across the country, and the decriminalization of abortion in 2014 - have
turned it into one of the most progressive countries in Africa in providing sexual and
reproductive health care for its young people. Yet Mozambique is also one of the poorest
countries in the world, and has been heavily reliant on outside help to fund its efforts - leaving it
highly exposed when the United States restricted funding for sexual and reproductive health and
rights under the "global gag rule", or Mexico City policy.

18. Nicaragua's teen pregnancy rate soars (pri.org)(August 17, 2016)(Shuka Kalantari)

Teen pregnancy in Nicaragua is mostly cause by machismo culture and a lack of sex ed.
Violet lives and goes to school at Casa Alianza, a home for poor and homeless teenage mothers
in Managua, Nicaragua's capital. She walks through the hallways in her school uniform: a white
collared shirt, a pleated skirt. Her daughter's name is written on her name with a green sharpie.
She came here when she was 14 years old and four months pregnant. "I've been on my own since
I was baby," Violet says. "Nobody told me what to do. I was free as a bird." Violet says when her
dad went to prison, her mom emotionally checked out, so Violet run away. She was 8 years old.
Nicaragua has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in all Latin America, according to the
World Bank.

19. Evidence-based Human Development: Measuring the opportunity cost of teen pregnancy in
the Dominican Republic (hdr.undp.org)(February 13, 2018)(Melisa Breton, Programme Officer
Sustainable, UNDP Dominican Republic)

The Dominican Republic is a fast-growing economy with an average growth rate of


around 5%, above the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) average 2% over the last 10 years.
In 2014 it moved up in human development category, from medium to high human development.
Despite these changes, the DR has shown little progress in some key indicators of well-being.
One of them is adolescent pregnancy - with 22% of women between the ages of 15 to 19 who
have already become mothers. Importantly, this percentage has remained relatively unchanged
over the last 30 years and is still 34% above the LAC average. Adolescent pregnancy is
concentrated among the poor, affecting not only the opportunities for young mothers to escape
poverty and improve their human development levels, but also those of their children; it is a
development concern. The NHDR seeks to understand the "opportunity cost" of adolescent
pregnancy. It does this by analyzing the impact of adolescent pregnancy on important indicators
of well-being (such as years of schooling, health insurance, access to decent work, physical
conditions of households, number of children and food security) among women who first became
mothers during adolescence ("treatment" group) and those who were pregnant at a later stage in
life. The different outcomes (or the difference) between these two groups of women in these
indicators approximate the "opportunity cost" of adolescence pregnancy.

20.We see mothers die and children die': Uganda's teen pregnancy crisis (theguardian.com)(Sept.
26, 2018)(Suzanne Moore)

In a country where one in four women have a child by 19, and health workers offering
birth control have been met by men with machetes, confronting myths about contraception is
vital. On average, women in Uganda have five children, but in rural area they have many more.
About 27% of women use a modern form of contraception. Uganda is a very young country, with
a third of the population under 19. A youthful population could transform this country, but not as
long as babies are still making babies. There is a high rate of girls under 14 giving birth, some as
young as 10. Sex education is the key, but the subject is contested. It might mean acknowledging
that young people are having sex. In spite of the obvious evidence, neither the church nor the
government, nor certain aspects of Ugandan culture are keen to do so. Abstinence has been the
key strategy. It is the one recommended by white American evangelicals who also roam the
country telling women what to do with their bodies.

JOURNALS
1. Teenage Pregnancy in the Philippines: Trends, Correlates and Data Sources
https://asean-endocrinejournal.org/index.php/JAFES/article/view/49/477
2. Teen pregnancy
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673843.2012.655912?
scroll=top&needAccess=true
3. Journal(The Sociological Quarterly)
 Closeness with Parents and Perceived Consequences of Pregnancy Among Male and
Female Adolescents
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2004.tb02310.x?
utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=The_Sociological_Quarterly_Trend
MD_0
4. Teen pregnancy in rural western Kenya: a public health issue
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673843.2017.1402794?
scroll=top&needAccess=true&utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Inter
national_Journal_of_Adolescence_and_Youth_TrendMD_0
5. Adolescent pregnancy and social norms in Zambia
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2019.1621379?
utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=_Culture%252C_Health_
%2526_Sexuality_TrendMD_0
6. The Phenomenon of Teenage Pregnancy in the Philippines
Article in European Scientific Journal 12(32):173-192 · November 2016 with 113,713
Reads 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317184942_The_Phenomenon_of_Teenage_Pregnancy
_in_the_Philippines
7. JOURNAL ARTICLE
Teenage Mothers and Teenage Fathers: The Impact of Early Childbearing On the Parents'
Personal and Professional Lives
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2134267?seq=1
8. Prevalence and Factors Associated with Teenage Pregnancy, Northeast Ethiopia,
2017: A Cross-Sectional Study
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jp/2018/1714527/#materials-and-methods
9. Experiences of pregnancy and motherhood among teenage mothers in a suburb of
Accra, Ghana: a qualitative study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3829679/
10. Teenage Pregnancy and Its Associated Factors among School Adolescents of Arba Minch
Town, Southern Ethiopiahttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6016359/

EDITORIAL - Teenage pregnancies


(The Philippine Star) - April 12, 2019 - 12:00am
Official statistics show a decline, but women’s health advocates say teenage pregnancy
incidence remains high. In 2017, the Population Commission registered 47 live births per 1,000
women aged 15 to 19 – down from 57 in 2013. Most of the pregnancies, according to PopCom,
occurred in rural areas.
The Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, a national federation of community-
based women’s groups, says that in absolute numbers, teenage pregnancy incidence remains
high. If population growth is factored in, the actual numbers could be even higher, according to
the group, with most of the teenage pregnancies occurring in poor communities. RH advocates
blame the barriers in the implementation of the RPRH law for the continuing high incidence of
teenage pregnancies. Implementation reportedly has been uneven among local government
units, with even the education campaigns stymied by disinformation particularly on
contraceptives. Teenager tend to be adventurous and rebellious toward parental authority.
Those who become sexually active in their teens can check out birth control options, which are
widely available in cyberspace. But not all teenage girls have access to the Internet, or else they
might not know what to look for, or they cannot be sure about the reliability of the information.
In case of unwanted pregnancies, teenage girls can resort to abortion. Studies have
shown a significant number of teenagers accounting for abortions performed in the Philippines.
RH advocates have stressed the need for age-appropriate sex education in schools and access
to information on reproductive health to prevent teenage pregnancies. With the Supreme
Court TRO lifted for over a year now, the government must step up the campaign to promote
teenagers’ reproductive health
Editorial: Teenage pregnancy: Parents are not doing enough
The National Women’s Council has set a new target to intensify the fight against unwanted
pregnancies among teenage girl
Times Reporter
Published: September 11, 2017
The National Women’s Council has set a new target to intensify the fight against
unwanted pregnancies among teenage girls. This was revealed over the weekend during the
council’s general assembly in Kigali. The assembly noted that teenage pregnancy is still a big
problem and that more efforts are needed to address it.
Teenage pregnancy is still a threat to national development and mainly affects school
going children. Hundreds of girls drop out of school due to teenage pregnancies, and many
times the men responsible deny responsibility. As a result some of the girls opt for abortion,
which puts their lives at risk including losing their lives. Parents must care to their child properly
so that this situation must be prevented or control, the knowledge about this issue is a must.
Proper parenting is very important by teaching their children to be in a good situation of their
lives but without this care and love , children may be more attractive in others that have their
want like care and love to another person .

Babies having babies


posted February 17, 2020 at 12:00 am
The Commission on Population and Development said Friday that pregnancy among 15-
19-year-old women in the Philippines saw a slight decrease from 2017 to 2018—or from
182,906 to 181,717.
But there is a grimmer finding: Pregnancy is on the rise among girls aged between 10
and 14—specifically, a 63-percent jump from figures in 2011 and 2018. Some 2,250 babies were
born to mothers in this age group two years ago.
According to the commission, there are several factors responsible for the trend
observed among younger adolescents and their older counterparts. These factors are both
individual and institutionalism. Among the individual factors are the early onset of
menstruation, lack of education, and exposure to risky behaviors on the internet and among
their group of friends, Meanwhile, the institutional factors include information dissemination
and provision of access to family planning services. Pop com chief Juan Antonio Perez III
attributes the drop-in pregnancy rates among the older group to institutional work.
For the 10-14-year-olds, however, greater involvement of adults and institutions may be
needed. The approach should be cultural, he says, A 2016 study, “Education, Earnings and
Health Effects of Teenage Pregnancy in the Philippines” by Alejandro Herrin, found that early
childbearing reduces an adolescent’s future earning capacity because it diminishes the chances
of completing high school.

EDITORIAL

National social emergency


(The Philippine Star) - August 29, 2019 - 12:00am
When an impoverished 15-year-old girl gets pregnant, she usually drops out of
school, and the disruption in her education can be long-term. The next two or three years are
devoted to caring for the baby – unless a second one comes along, and a third…
Such cases, including the repeat pregnancies during the teenage years, are becoming
increasingly common nationwide, with even girls as young as 10 getting pregnant, according to
population experts. The number of teenage pregnancies has reached such worrisome
proportions that President Duterte recently called a multi-agency summit on the problem and
declared it a “national social emergency. ”Data gathered by the Commission on Population
showed that an average of 196,409 Filipinos aged 15 to 19 years get pregnant each year. That’s
about 24 babies born every hour to teenage mothers, or 500 a day, according to Popcom. In
2017, about 2,000 of the pregnancies involved girls aged 10 to 14 years.
The social and public health issue has worried even economic planners. The National
Economic and Development Authority estimates that lifetime earnings lost by women due to
early childbearing can range from P24 billion to a staggering P42 billion.
The number of teenage pregnancies dipped by one percent from 2013 to 2017,
according to Popcom. It’s not clear if this had anything to do with a more aggressive push by
the Duterte administration for the responsible parenthood and reproductive health law,
despite a restraining order issued by the Supreme Court on contraceptives. The RH efforts,
however, are clearly not enough. With the declaration of a national social emergency, the effort
will involve not just Popcom and the Department of Health but also the Department of
Education and local government units down to the barangays. Popcom records show that the
highest cases of unwanted teenage pregnancies occur among poor households. Often, both
mother and child suffer from the consequences, with fewer economic opportunities and
weaker health. The implementation of the seven-year-old RH law has been delayed enough.
This national emergency deserves the urgent response that is accorded other emergency cases

PopCom to Duterte: Declare teenage pregnancy as national emergency


(UPDATED) Teenage pregnancy causes P33 billion in economic losses, and curbing it would lead
to national development, says Commission on Population and Development Executive Director
Juan Antonio Perez III
Michelle Abad
Published: 8:09 PM October 23, 2019
Updated: 5:22 PM December 15, 2019
PREVENTION AND PROTECTION. Executive Director of Commission on Population and
Development (PopCom) Juan Antonio Perez lll delivers his message during the launch of the No
More Children Having Children campaign, a ramped-up crusade for the passage of a law that
addresses adolescent pregnancies in the Philippines in Quezon City on Wednesday, Oct. 23,
2019. Photo by DARREN LANGIT
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Commission on Population and Development
(PopCom) called on President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, October 23, to issue an
executive order declaring adolescent pregnancy a national emergency, as incident rates remain
alarming. “This issue affects the very essence of the country’s development, because the state
of young people today will affect the state of our collective future,” he said in a conference on
Wednesday.
Teenage pregnancy causes P33 billion in economic losses, and curbing it would lead to national
development, said Perez III.
While Perez said some local government units (LGUs) extend some forms of support for
adolescent parents, there is currently no organized system of social protection for teen
mothers. He said there are around 150,000 adolescent-led families that lack the support they
need, despite the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law in 2012. “Most of our laws are
already there, but we fail at implementation. It is a matter of political will,” said Perez.
Studies show that early pregnancy is a rampant cause of dropping out of school and
lessens chances of poor adolescent-led families to escape poverty. PopCom said that while the
highest levels of pre-marital sex are recorded in the National Capital Region, teenagers in rural
areas are getting pregnant slightly earlier than those living in urban areas.
The 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey revealed that rates of teen
pregnancy in Mindanao had gone up to almost double the national average. Perez cites a
concrete example of the Marawi siege, where disruption of social services occurred amid
conflict and displacement.

Bills for institutionalized action


There are bills in both the House of Representatives and the Senate that seek to address
adolescent pregnancies in the Philippines. (READ: Health experts push for PH policy on teenage
pregnancy)
In the 17th Congress, the Senate version of the bill, authored by Senator Risa
Hontiveros, passed the 3rd reading while its counterpart did not even reach the House plenary
for sponsorship. The bill was refiled for the 18th Congress by representatives Sol Aragones (3rd
District, Laguna) and Edcel Lagman (1st District, Albay).
The PopCom and Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development
(PLCPD) recommend work on the establishment of comprehensive sexuality education to
connect schools with providers of reproductive healthcare.
In an interview with Manila Bulletin, Education Secretary Leonor Briones expressed the
need to instill knowledge on sex education for the youth to make more informed choices. She
has also rebuked schools who kick out pregnant girls.For some, asking parents’ permission to
obtain contraceptives is simply unrealistic. Jona Turalde from SheDecides Philippines said that
young people having sex is a reality, and that pleasure-based information campaigns may be
one way to promote smart RH choices.
PLCPD Executive Director Rom Dongeto believes that if only comprehensive sex
education were rolled out, and LGUs understood that adolescent pregnancies may also result
from abuse, the statistics would be different today. – Rappler.com

Editorial: Touching on intimacy


NEGOTIATING SEX. To prevent unplanned pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted
infections, the government and the civil society must suspend judgment and reach out to young
people to help them in making choices and negotiating the slippery terrain of sex and
reproductive health. (File Foto)
October 7, 2019
A GOVERNMENT official’s proposal to segregate Grades 7-12 male students from the
females was criticized by a member of the Roman Catholic hierarchy for failing to consider
research data establishing the causes behind the rise of unplanned pregnancies and sexually
transmitted infections (STIs) among the youth.
Reacting to the recent proposal of the National Youth Commission (NYC) chairman Ryan
Enriquez to split boys from girls in classes from Grades 7 to 12 to prevent teen pregnancies and
the spread of STI, Nueva Ecija Bishop Roberto Mallari pointed out that the measure disregards
the data gathered by government agencies profiling the behavior of Filipino youths on sex and
other intimate relations.
Mallari chairs the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’s Episcopal
Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education of the (CBCP-ECCCE).
Sex segregation mistakenly presumes that the sex ascribed to a person at birth is also a
person’s gender preference. Putting all boys or all girls in a class ignores that members of the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) community defy
traditional binary distinctions that recognize only male and female heterosexuals.
Nearly 60 percent of new cases diagnosed with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV) is transmitted by males having sex with other males (MSMs), according to recent data
from the Department of Health (DOH).
The CBCP official’s counter-proposal to the NYC’s class segregation promotes more
engagements between the youth and adult guardians like community and church leaders to
address the root causes of these social problems.
Mallari recommended that these youth encounters should be part of the academic
curricula and community programs that address the “culture of indifference and value
degradation” at the root of unplanned teen pregnancies and the spread of STIs, the Philippine
News Agency (PNA) reported on Oct. 5.Yet, to reach a broader segment of the Filipino youth
that is neither Catholic nor religious, the government and the civil society must adopt an
approach that does not frame the youth’s choices in reproductive health only within the
confines of Catholic dogma.
Proposals suggesting teens abstain from sex or condemning homosexuality or
commercial sex are cultural forms of segregation and stigmatization, which are even more
insidiously coercive at segregating young people between the virtuous and the problematic, the
proper and the deviant. As important as the Catholic and Christian initiatives to initiate value
formation or reorientation among youthful believers and followers, other participants from civil
society are also needed to share the stake in closing the gap between information and
assumptions that cause many youths to make choices and adopt behaviors that make them
vulnerable to unplanned pregnancy and STIs. Male partners dominate their female partners’
choices and practice of unsafe sex and other behaviors that make the latter vulnerable to
unplanned pregnancy or STIs.
The loss of educational opportunities and earning potentials suffered by young women
forced to drop out of school emphasizes the need for a gender-sensitive and women-
empowering approach to classroom education and off-campus engagements touching on sex
and other related areas of reproductive health.

More parent-child time needed to stem rise in teen pregnancies


By: Jigger J. Jerusalem -
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Misamis Oriental, Philippines — Parents should spend more
time with their children to arrest the alarming rate of teenage pregnancy in Northern
Mindanao, officials of the Commission on Population (Popcom)
Teenage mothers delivered more than 3,000 babies in the region from January to mid-
June this year, or an average of 18 births a day, Popcom Region 10 Director Jeremias Gupit said
Lack of supervision Gupit attributed the spike in teen pregnancies to parents’ lack of
supervision over their children who find good company in electronic gadgets.
“The rise in teenage pregnancies is due to the failure of parents to pay attention to their
children,” he told reporters.
He added that some parents make up for their absence in the lives of their children by
giving them gadgets, allowing the latter to experiment with sex. To arrest this trend, Gupit
challenged parents to develop closeness especially with their adolescent children, and provide
the needed personal attention which electronic gadgets cannot give. Northern Mindanao had
the second highest rate in teen pregnancy in the country next to Davao region, according to the
PSA’s 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey.
A fourth, or close to a million of the region’s estimated 4.9 million population in 2018 are
teenagers.
A University of the Philippines Population Institute study in 2015 showed Northern Mindanao
as among the areas with the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancy.
According to the study, two in five youngsters in the region had sexual experience, and
one in three of them read pornographic materials. The study showed that the number of youth
in Northern Mindanao having sex in various ways was higher than the national average, Gupit
said.
Phone sex
For example, 4.5 percent of teenagers engaged in sex with someone they met online or
through text message, which was higher than the national figure of 3.7 percent At least 10.1
percent had engaged in phone sex — the highest in the country, 4.8 percent had casual sex and
5.2 percent had sex with the same sex, Nine of 10 youngsters had unprotected sex in their first
premarital sex.

Editorial: Teen pregnancy leads to poverty


Updated Mar 25, 2019; Posted Oct 15, 2010
By The Republican Editorials
large_teen-pregnancy.jpg
There’s an unfortunate myth out there that is often told to explain why teenage girls in
poor urban communities have babies: “They want to get on welfare.”
Too many teenage girls in Holyoke and Springfield are trading youthful promise for
motherhood and the likelihood of a life of poverty. In Holyoke, for example, the teen pregnancy
rate was the highest in Massachusetts in 2008 - five times higher than the state average. And
while Springfield dropped to sixth on the statewide list - after having the second highest rate for
two consecutive years - its rate was still three times the state average. High teen pregnancy
rates are a trend that must be reversed - for the sake of families and the region's economy.
There has been some positive news - notably the creation of the Youth Empowerment
Adolescent Health (YEAH!) Network that advocates for changes in local policy and evidence-
based, teen pregnancy prevention programs.
This week, there was some more good news with announcement of a $5.5 million
federal grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - one of only nine given
nationwide - for prevention and education efforts and increasing access to quality clinical
services. The goal is to reduce teen birth rates in the two target cities by 10 percent by 2015,
With a framework for action already in place, officials and activists in Springfield and Holyoke
expressed confidence that the grant will help them succeed.
"No other communities are better positioned and equipped to use this money," said
Patricia M. Quinn, executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, praising
the ongoing collaborative effort by both communities, "I know we will be successful in reducing
teen pregnancy."
Indeed, the community must not fail in this endeavor. At stake are the lives of families -
and the children we hope will grow up to become the lifeblood of a strong regional economy.
Their success is the region's success.

NEWS

1. The risks of teenage pregnancy

By Jerome Carlo R. Paunan

The issue of teenage pregnancy is widespread in various parts of the country. Today, we face the
painful reality that at a very young age, most young people have children of their own.During the
World Population Day Forum held in Quezon City last July 2019, the Commission on Population
(Popcom) raised concerns about early and unplanned pregnancies by citing that around 500
teenage girls have given birth in the country every day as more adolescents engage in premarital
sex. Popcom said some 196,000 Filipinos between the ages of 15 and 19 years old get pregnant
each year.In the Philippines, according to the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey
(NDHS) and the 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFSS), the number of
women aged 15-19 who have begun childbearing increased from eight percent in 2003 to 10
percent in 2013.The YAFSS study showed an increase in teenage fertility from 6.3 percent in
2002 to 13.6 percent in 2013.  While a more recent 2017 NDHS study revealed that the issue of
adolescent fertility is important for both health and social reasons as children born to very young
mothers are at increased risk of sickness and death. The study further said that teenage mothers
are more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes and to be constrained in their ability
to pursue educational opportunities than young women who delay childbearing.Also based on
the survey, rural teenagers start childbearing slightly earlier than their urban counterpart with 10
percent and seven percent respectively.No less than Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto
Pernia emphasized that the rising teenage pregnancy rate in the Philippines has contributed to the
country's population "crisis”."We are seeing the height of the crisis now. The carrying capacity
of the country is overstretched. It results to lack of jobs because there are many workers looking
for jobs. There are fewer job opportunities," Perniasaid.About 2 million babies are born in the
country annually, according to a 2015 Census data and the Philippines now ranks 13th among
countries with the biggest population in the world, according to Popcom.While it is possible for a
teen, who becomes pregnant, to experience a healthy pregnancy and be an excellent parent, many
pregnant and parenting teenagers struggle with multiple stressors, health risks and other complex
issues. Being pregnant as a teenager puts you at higher risk for having a baby born too early,
with a low birth weight and, tragically, higher risk of death.The World Health Organization in
2015 said an estimated 1.2-million adolescents aged 10-19 years died worldwide. It said
pregnancy during adolescence is associated with higher risk of health problems like anemia,
sexually transmitted infections, unsafe abortion, postpartum hemorrhage, and mental disorders,
such as depression.Adolescents becoming pregnant at an early age have associated risk factors
such as having multiple partners and having greater age differences with their partners, which
may put them at greater risk of acquiring HIV.In the Philippines, children born to adolescent
mothers are more likely to die compared to children of older mothers. Youth in the country are
also at risk for multiple pregnancies in their adolescence. Filipino teen mothers aged 15-19
average 17 months between previous pregnancies compared to the average of 35 months for
mothers of all ages.If a pregnancy is unplanned, the mother may not receive the prenatal care she
and her baby need or may not even be healthy enough to carry a child to term.

Adolescents are often unprepared for the realities involved in parenting an infant and often,
complex relationships, financial burden, social stigma and parenting are stressful and can put a
newborn at risk.Some teen parents are also single and being a solo parent can have financial and
emotional stressors and a stressed parent puts a baby at risk. Social stigma may also lead a teen
mother to voluntary abortion.To fulfill government’s mandate to improve adolescent and youth
education, health, and development, the Department of Education and Department of Health
organized a summit for national convergence and dialogue on the complex issues on early
pregnancy dubbed “Kapit-Kamay: Empowering the Youth to Make Informed Choice” held at the
Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.The summit took a closer look into the
phenomenon of early pregnancy within the context of education, health and development and
brought together government, the private sector, development partners, civil society
organizations, and adolescent and youth-led organizations to provide a platform for
understanding of the phenomenon of early pregnancy. The gathering also identified opportunities
for convergence and collaboration to deepen understanding and work on ways forward.The event
also paved the way for stakeholders to identify common ground, existing interventions and the
formulation of platforms to continue policy advocacy and program implementation to address the
concern. (PIA InfoComm)

https://pia.gov.ph/features/articles/1026925

2. Teenage pregnancy worsening in PH

By Chito Chavez

The Philippines is currently haunted by teenage pregnancy woes as 13.6 percent of girls below
18-years-old got themselves pregnant in 2018.Worse, nine percent of girls aged between 15 and
19 have already given birth or are pregnant, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said in
2017.

Compounding the problem is that 17 percent of females aged 15 to 49, the period of fecundity,
want to use family planning methods, but are not doing so or have no access to such methods.

The Philippines has become the topnotcher in teen pregnancies among the six major economies
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with the rate in the Philippines
increasing while the same rate was reported to be sinking in the other member-states.

It was also not reassuring that the rate of the spread of HIV cases was also the highest in the
Philippines, where sex has become cheaper as more and more motels are built in Quezon City,
Manila, Pasay and other cities in the National Capital Region (NCR.)

Every day, 576 babies are delivered by Filipino teenage mothers, for a total of 210,240 babies
annually, with the Davao Region, from where President Duterte holds court, notching 17.9
percent, followed by Northern Mindanao with 14.7 percent.

The National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) conducted in 2014 showed that the
frequency of early child-bearing was higher in the rural areas with endemic poverty and afflicts
families with more members.

“We are not even talking of teen pregnancies due to incest, or among minors forced to become
commercial sex workers (CSWs) like those recruited to work in night clubs and white slavery
rings the favor virgins for moneyed local clients,” the study said.

Studies conducted by government agencies, Health Undersecretary Juan Antonio “Jeepy” Perez,
executive director of the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) showed that
teenage mothers were more likely to have premature and underweight babies, suffer chronic
poverty and unlikely to achieve higher educational attainment.

Concerned about the impact of teen pregnancies on the national population, poverty situation and
the possibility of minors contracting HIV, Perez and Philippine Legislators’ Committee on
Population and Development (PLPCD) executive director Rom Dongeto and other concerned
individuals like noted Filipino rock star Skarlet Brown (who is also known as Myra Ruaro)
launched the “No More Children Having Children” campaign at the Park Inn by Radisson at SM
North Edsa on October 23.

“Bills seeking to address teenage pregnancies have been filed in the 17th Congress but never
reached the sponsorship stage and thus were doomed to sleep the sleep of the dead in the plenary
while similar proposals reached third reading in the Senate,’’ Perez and Dongeto said.

Versions of the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy Bill are pending in the two Houses of
Congress—House Bill 2297 in the Lower House and Senate Bill 161 in the Upper Chamber.

Briefly, the proposals call for the crafting of a program of action and an investment plan to
prevent teenage pregnancy and the establishment of a national information campaign to educate
minors and their parents about the adverse impacts of early motherhood.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/10/29/teenage-pregnancy-worsening-in-ph/

3. Teenage pregnancy among today’s Filipino youth

By: Carin Van der Hor - @inquirerdotnet

The National Youth Commission, supported by the Department of Health and the World Health
Organization, convened the 2014 National Summit on Teen Pregnancy last April 24. This
summit, which saw the active participation of adolescent youth, delivered a clear message:
Adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH), or the lack thereof, is fast becoming the
defining issue of this generation of young Filipinos. Without a robust response from all
stakeholders, the Philippines is on track toward a full-blown, national teenage pregnancy crisis.

Staggering facts support this call for concern. Recent (2014) data from the Philippine Statistical
Authority (PSA) reveal that every hour, 24 babies are delivered by teenage mothers. According
to the 2014 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality (YAFS) study, around 14 percent of Filipino
girls aged 15 to 19 are either pregnant for the first time or are already mothers—more than twice

the rate recorded in 2002. Among six major economies in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, the Philippines has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies and is the only country
where the rate is increasing, per the United Nations Population Fund.According to Josefina
Natividad, YAFS coordinator and director of the University of the Philippines Population
Institute, young Filipinos have limited access to sex education and ASRH services, especially if
they are underage and unmarried. Seventy-eight percent are not using any form of contraception
or protection against sexually transmitted diseases and infections when they are having sex for
the first time. While government programs aim to delay the beginning of childbearing and hasten
fertility decline, teenage pregnancies continue to increase. Perhaps it is really time for a new and
more collaborative strategy?

Data show that pregnant teenagers in the Philippines are mostly 17 to 19 years old. They live
with their mothers, parents, or relatives. The father of the child is, in most cases, a teenage boy.

Reasons for becoming pregnant among teenagers include: unplanned sexual encounters (“getting
caught up in the moment”) and peer pressure; lack of information on safe sex; breakdown of
family life and lack of good female role models in the family; and absence of accessible,
adolescent-friendly clinics.

The National Youth Commission, supported by the Department of Health and the World Health
Organization, convened the 2014 National Summit on Teen Pregnancy last April 24. This
summit, which saw the active participation of adolescent youth, delivered a clear message:
Adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH), or the lack thereof, is fast becoming the
defining issue of this generation of young Filipinos. Without a robust response from all
stakeholders, the Philippines is on track toward a full-blown, national teenage pregnancy crisis.

Staggering facts support this call for concern. Recent (2014) data from the Philippine Statistical
Authority (PSA) reveal that every hour, 24 babies are delivered by teenage mothers. According
to the 2014 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality (YAFS) study, around 14 percent of Filipino
girls aged 15 to 19 are either pregnant for the first time or are already mothers—more than twice
the rate recorded in 2002. Among six major economies in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, the Philippines has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies and is the only country
where the rate is increasing, per the United Nations Population Fund.

According to Josefina Natividad, YAFS coordinator and director of the University of the
Philippines Population Institute, young Filipinos have limited access to sex education and ASRH
services, especially if they are underage and unmarried. Seventy-eight percent are not using any
form of contraception or protection against sexually transmitted diseases and infections when
they are having sex for the first time. While government programs aim to delay the beginning of
childbearing and hasten fertility decline, teenage pregnancies continue to increase. Perhaps it is
really time for a new and more collaborative strategy?

Data show that pregnant teenagers in the Philippines are mostly 17 to 19 years old. They live
with their mothers, parents, or relatives. The father of the child is, in most cases, a teenage boy.

Reasons for becoming pregnant among teenagers include: unplanned sexual encounters (“getting
caught up in the moment”) and peer pressure; lack of information on safe sex; breakdown of
family life and lack of good female role models in the family; and absence of accessible,
adolescent-friendly clinics.
Teenagers from poor backgrounds are disproportionately represented among pregnant teenagers.
However, experts have argued that teenage pregnancy should be understood as a symptom of
dire economic conditions rather than a cause of it. Teenage pregnancy perpetuates the cycle of
poverty and inequality because most pregnant teenagers have no source of income and face
greater financial difficulties later in life. This is because they drop out of school and are less
likely to pursue further education or skills training.

Teenage mothers face critical health risks, including: inadequate nutrition during pregnancy due
to poor eating habits; dangers associated with the reproductive organs not ready for birth; and
maternal death due to higher risk of eclampsia, among others.

Alarmingly, while maternal deaths are decreasing in the Philippines, teenage maternal deaths are
increasing. Ten percent of pregnant teenagers died in the last year, according to the PSA. Data
from the WHO also show a high and increasing incidence of fetal death in Filipino mothers
under 20.

At the end of the teenage pregnancy summit, the participants strongly endorsed a comprehensive
sexual education curriculum; forging a “Batang Ina” social movement; and establishing
adolescent-friendly spaces. The enactment of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive
Health Act was also recognized as an important step to make ASRH services more accessible to
those in need.

As an international child rights organization, Plan International believes that the rights and needs
of adolescent girls and boys, including their right to access ASRH services, must be ensured. In
our work in the Philippines, ASRH continues to be a priority in line with our global “Because I
am a Girl” campaign and national BatangLusog program.

We are implementing ASRH interventions in Southern Leyte and Eastern Samar, where cases of
teenage pregnancy are increasing. Youth-Friendly Spaces are being established to provide peer
education and counseling on ASRH and rights. This is complemented by our response to

eliminate gender-based violence in communities by establishing Women-Friendly Spaces. These


measures help prevent teenage pregnancy by disseminating the right information about the risks
and impacts of teenage pregnancy on the teen mom and the infant. An exploratory study by Plan
International on the rising incidence of teenage pregnancy in “Yolanda”-affected areas is also
being designed.In the face of numerous challenges that Filipino adolescents face every day—
discrimination, gender-based violence, harmful gender stereotypes—they must be equipped with
the life skills and assets to help them make the best decisions for themselves and their
community. When adolescents choose to have sex, they have a right to access not just
information but also inclusive ASRH services.

At the end of the day, when an adolescent, especially a girl, knows her rights, is empowered to
choose, and is heard, she can improve not only her life but also the life of her immediate and
future families. So, maybe it’s time to have this discussion with your (grand) daughter or niece
now?
Carin Van der Hor is the director of Plan International Philippines and is the mother of two
teenage girls.

https://opinion.inquirer.net/74517/teenage-pregnancy-among-todays-filipino-youth

4. 30 to 50 pregnancies per year in PH are among ten-year-olds, Population Commission


says

By Janine Peralta, CNN Philippines

Published Aug 29, 2019 1:18:52 PM

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 29) — The Commission on Population and
Development (POPCOM) has raised the alarm about the growing number of pregnancies among
teenagers as young as ten years old, amid the government calling teen pregnancy a “national
social emergency.”

POPCOM Executive Director Juan Perez III said there is an average of 530 teenagers that get
pregnant daily, and the figure has stayed above 500 since 2010. The number hit a high in 2017,
when the agency recorded about 574 teen pregnancies per day.

Perez said they are taking a closer look at the 10 to 14 age group, saying they found a 50 percent
increase of pregnancies since 2011, amounting to 2,000 cases. About 30 to 50 of these
pregnancies are among ten-year-olds, Perez said.

“We’ve also noted that the numbers among the ten years old are around 30, 40, 50 every year, so
one a week, a ten year-old is giving birth in this country,” Perez told CNN Philippines’ New Day.

This is likely the result of sexual abuse or incest, Perez mused.

Socioeconomic Secretary Ernesto Pernia said last week teen pregnancy has become a “national
social emergency” in the country with the numbers continuing to soar.

Perez said 16 percent of these are “repeat pregnancies.” He attributed the trend to the Supreme
Court’s decision to remove a provision in the Responsible Parenthood Reproductive Health Law,
which allowed minors who had miscarried to recieve family planning services without their
parents’ consent.

“That teenager needs to get the consent from her mother, even if she is already a mother herself,
so that has given us a problem with repeat pregnancies,” Perez explained.

Economic losses
Young mothers lose about ₱24 billion to ₱47 billion in earnings annually due to an early
pregnancy, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
Having a child at an early age affects the teenager’s education and income, Perez said.

“They may have dropped out of school. That affects their wage income, so the wage income of
teen parents is much lower than the average,” he said. “The danger [is] looking for jobs so that’s
a big loss for young women of emerging families.”

POPCOM is currently coordinating with the Department of Education and Department of Health,
he added, on programs to reach out to the youth to guide them on family planning and to ensure
they receive the necessary health services.

Education chief Leonor Briones said her agency is working to address the problem through the
K-12 curriculum.

“Why are we trying to develop new means of teaching, especially on health and early
pregnancy? It’s because, as I’ve repeatedly said, by the time our learners graduate, everything we
have taught them is already irrelevant. So we are developing in them the ability to accept
change,” Briones said on August 22.

Senator Risa Hontiveros also filed a “Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Bill” on August 24, which
sought to create a sex education program for the youth and to add more social protection
programs for teen mothers.

"If we fail to act and do not guide the youth towards safe and healthy lifestyles, we will not just
condemn young Filipinas to lives of poverty and suffering. We will also be hurting our country's
chances for progress and development,” Hontiveros said.

https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2019/8/29/teen-pregnancy-population-commission-.html

5. DepEd: High dropout rate due to teenage pregnancy

DelonPorcalla, Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) - September 5, 2019 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The spike in the number of out-of-school youths can be traced to
teenagers who are forced into marriage due to underage pregnancy, the Department of Education
(DepEd) said yesterday.

“The number showed that the reason for the high number of dropout rate of girls is marriage and
family matters, which can be treated also as teenage pregnancy,” said Education Secretary
Leonor Briones, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA’s Annual Poverty Indicators Survey showed that school dropouts have reached more
than 2.97 million, 61.9 percent of whom are girls aged 16 to 24 who are forced into “marriage or
family matters.”

Briones disclosed this at aa hearing before the House appropriations committee where she
defended the agency’s P518.85-billion budget for 2020.
By comparison, Briones said the survey statistics are much higher than the 18.8 percent dropout
rate of students who do not have interest at all and the 18.6 percent who are financially
challenged.

This is where the implementation of the Reproductive Health Law in the public school
curriculum should be given attention, she said.

“Even before I assumed office, I was given instructions by President Duterte to adjust the
curriculum to include RH and gender education for learners starting at the age of 10, considering
that the earliest recorded pregnancy in the Philippines is 10 years old,” she said.

Laguna 3rd District Rep. Sol Aragones said the government can prevent cases of teen pregnancy
if Filipinos can act and talk responsibly about sex education, stressing how underaged and
unmarried youth continue to have limited access to sex education and reproductive health
services.

“Teenage pregnancy perpetuates the cycle of poverty and inequality, as it does not only
negatively impact the lives of young parents and their children, but also disenfranchises them
from economic opportunities as adolescent pregnancy forces a majority of teenage parents to
abandon their education,” Aragones said.

According to the Population Commission (PopCom), 24 babies are born to teenage mothers
every hour and almost 200,000 Filipino teens get pregnant annually, most of them from ages 15
to 19.

Popcom added that Filipino teens who were exposed to vice or the internet at an early age
usually end up with unplanned pregnancies.

Underaged pregnancy EO
To address this, the PopCom bared that it was now preparing a draft executive order to hasten the
implementation of programs that will address underaged pregnancies in the country.

According to PopCom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III, teenage pregnancy has become
a “national emergency” that requires concrete and immediate action.

Citing a PSA survey, he said there were 196,000 teenage mothers in 2017. The height of teen
pregnancies in the country was in 2014 with 208,000.

“We are now in a situation that requires the declaration of national emergency because social,
economic and health are affected... If we don’t act now, we will continue to see an increase of
200,000 teenage parents every year,” he told The STAR.

Perez said the PopCom board, headed by the National Economic and Development Authority, is
drafting a proposed EO that will be submitted to Malacañang for the possible declaration of a
“national emergency” to ensure the implementation of two key strategies against underage
pregnancies.
He explained that implementation of the comprehensive sexuality education in schools and for
out-of-school youth is the long-term solution to the enduring problem.

This is provided for in the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) law,
approved in 2014 after 15 years pending in Congress.

“There is a sense that the current programs are not able to turn the tide of teen pregnancies and
the long term solution will have some years to have an impact,” he added.

But this is not yet up for implementation as DepEd is still preparing the modules for integration
of sexuality education in subjects and the materials to be used by teachers.

Perez maintained the “short term” solution is to prevent “repeat pregnancies” among underage
mothers. The scheme, however, was among the eight provisions removed by the Supreme Court
in the RPRH law.

“What is happening is one out of six teen pregnancies has repeat pregnancies. This is what we
have to prevent – the teen-age mothers who get pregnant again during their adolescent years,” he
added.

Based on the PSA survey, there were 30,000 repeat pregnancies in 2017.

Perez said that teenage pregnancy in the country has been declining over the past three years but
the rate of decrease is slow.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/09/05/1949246/deped-high-dropout-rate-due-teenage-
pregnancy

6. Culion winning fight vs teenage pregnancies through education, health

Frank Cimatu

Published 2:05 PM, December 29, 2019

Updated 2:05 PM, December 29, 2019

'We are surprised that they have a very low teenage pregnancy rate in Culion considering they
are composed of islands which make it hard to monitor,' says Chi Vallido of the Forum for
Family Planning and DevelopmentBAGUIO, Philippines – Culion has been the country's
bogeyman since 1907 when it became the last refuge of leprosy patients in the Philippines; its
mere mention would scatter people or make them cower even if leprosy was already banished in
the island in 2006.

"When we are asked where we come from, we say we come from Coron. We say 'Culion' in the
jeep and they go [to] the opposite seat of the jeep," said Culion municipal administrator Maxim
Raymundo.
The new movie Culion may help stop the stigma but there is something that Culion has been
excelling in healthwise.

Palawan has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates among the provinces. There are about
12,000 girls 15 to 19 years old who get pregnant every year in Palawan.

Eleven Palawan towns, including Puerto Princesa, are among the top 30 towns in Mimaropa with
the highest teenage pregnancy rates.

"We are surprised that they have a very low teenage pregnancy rate in Culion considering they
are composed of islands which make it hard to monitor," said Chi Vallido, the campaigns officer
of the Forum for Family Planning and Development.

The Forum had been using Culion as a model for family planning and teenage pregnancy
prevention for GIDA or geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.

Last year, Raymundo said that they monitored only 13 cases of teenage pregnancy in Culion in
2017.

Raymundo said that the low teenage pregnancy rate can be attributed to their hands-on approach
to education and health.

Culion is composed of 41 islands from the Calamian Group of Islands enveloped by 14


barangays. The Twin Lagoon and Kayangan Lake, which are part of the Coron tour, are actually
in Culion.

There are about 28,000 residents in Culion spread over 51,000 hectares, making it one of the
least densely populated areas in the country.

As part of Culion Mayor Virginia de Vera's I Heal vision is the 100% completion rate of the 3
elementary and 4 high schools in Culion. Two of the schools now have a 100% completion rate
while 3 are in the top 90%. Two remain at above 60%.

Raymundo said that the city has been building satellite schools to reach out to the far-flung areas.

They also dispatched barangay health workers to go with mobile teachers during their visits to
the sitios.

This way, Raymundo said, they are able not only to educate the children but also to monitor the
health situation in Culion.

The Culion Sanitarium and General Hospital, the only Department of Health-retained secondary
level general hospital operating in the Calamian Group of Islands, also established in 2016 its sea
ambulance program to reach patients in Culion, Coron, Busuanga, and Linapacan faster,
especially patients in emergency situations.

In 2002, the PATH Foundation Philippines, Incorporated, a private charitable organization, also
introduced the Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management (IPOPCORM) initiative
in coastal villages in Culion.

PATH Foundation Philippines is concerned about the environment of Culion, which is listed as
one of the 14 biodiversity hotspots in the country.

IPOPCORM coordinated with the local government, local non-governmental organizations,


community organizations (fishers, women, and youth groups), and local businesses by
implementing and managing family planning activities simultaneously with coastal conservation
and alternative livelihood strategies.

The distribution and social marketing of contraceptives are coupled with coastal management
activities, including the establishment of marine protected areas, community-based management
planning, community surveillance efforts, and mangrove reforestation.

IPOPCORM also advocated for strengthened enforcement of existing laws prohibiting


destructive fishing methods.

Not only did the coral areas grew back from 25% to 32%, but the acceptance of modern
contraceptives among couples and the youth had also increased.

The Commission on Population through its National Program on Population and Family


Planning, which seeks to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate to 65% nationally by 2022,
has also become active in Culion. It started providing family planning workshops to women and
the youth last July. – Rappler.com

https://www.rappler.com/nation/248116-culion-fights-teenage-pregnancies-education-health

7. PopCom to Duterte: Declare teenage pregnancy as national emergency

Michelle Abad
Published 8:09 PM, October 23, 2019
Updated 5:22 PM, December 15, 2019

(UPDATED) Teenage pregnancy causes P33 billion in economic losses, and curbing it would
lead to national development, says Commission on Population and Development Executive
Director Juan Antonio Perez IIIMANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Commission on
Population and Development (PopCom) called on President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday,
October 23, to issue an executive order declaring adolescent pregnancy a national emergency, as
incident rates remain alarming.

PopCom reported that about 1.2 million children had children over a 10-year period. Around
30,000 of these young mothers have experienced repeated pregnancies, which PopCom
Executive Director Juan Antonio Perez III dubs the even larger emergency.

“This issue affects the very essence of the country’s development, because the state of young
people today will affect the state of our collective future,” he said in a conference on Wednesday.

Teenage pregnancy causes P33 billion in economic losses, and curbing it would lead to national
development, said Perez III.

While Perez said some local government units (LGUs) extend some forms of support for
adolescent parents, there is currently no organized system of social protection for teen mothers.
He said there are around 150,000 adolescent-led families that lack the support they need, despite
the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law in 2012.

“Most of our laws are already there, but we fail at implementation. It is a matter of political
will,” said Perez.

Studies show that early pregnancy is a rampant cause of dropping out of school, and lessens
chances of poor adolescent-led families to escape poverty.

“This issue affects the very essence of the country’s development, because the state of young
people today will affect the state of our collective future,” he said in a conference on Wednesday.

Teenage pregnancy causes P33 billion in economic losses, and curbing it would lead to national
development, said Perez III.

While Perez said some local government units (LGUs) extend some forms of support for
adolescent parents, there is currently no organized system of social protection for teen mothers.
He said there are around 150,000 adolescent-led families that lack the support they need, despite
the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law in 2012.

“Most of our laws are already there, but we fail at implementation. It is a matter of political
will,” said Perez.

Studies show that early pregnancy is a rampant cause of dropping out of school, and lessens
chances of poor adolescent-led families to escape poverty.
PopCom said that while the highest levels of pre-marital sex are recorded in the National Capital
Region, teenagers in rural areas are getting pregnant slightly earlier than those living in urban
areas.

The 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey revealed that rates of teen pregnancy in
Mindanao had gone up to almost double the national average. Perez cites a concrete example of
the Marawi siege, where disruption of social services occurred amid conflict and displacement.

Bills for institutionalized action

There are bills in both the House of Representatives and the Senate that seek to address
adolescent pregnancies in the Philippines. (READ: Health experts push for PH policy on teenage
pregnancy)

In the 17th Congress, the Senate version of the bill, authored by Senator Risa Hontiveros, passed
the 3rd reading while its counterpart did not even reach the House plenary for sponsorship. The
bill was refiled for the 18th Congress by representatives Sol Aragones (3rd District, Laguna) and
EdcelLagman (1st District, Albay).

The PopCom and Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD)
recommend work on the establishment of comprehensive sexuality education to connect schools
with providers of reproductive healthcare.

In an interview with Manila Bulletin, Education Secretary Leonor Briones expressed the need to


instill knowledge on sex education for the youth to make more informed choices. She has
also rebuked schools who kick out pregnant girls.

Problematic Supreme Court decision

In 2014, the Supreme Court (SC) struck down a provision in the RH Law that indicates minors
could obtain reproductive health services without parental consent. House
representatives insisted however that the struck-down provisions do not diminish the law as a
whole.

For some, asking parents’ permission to obtain contraceptives is simply unrealistic. JonaTuralde
from SheDecides Philippines said that young people having sex is a reality, and that pleasure-
based information campaigns may be one way to promote smart RH choices.

PLCPD Executive Director Rom Dongeto believes that if only comprehensive sex education
were rolled out, and LGUs understood that adolescent pregnancies may also result from abuse,
the statistics would be different today. – Rappler.com
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article mistakenly referred to the figure 1.2 million as
children having children every year. The figure is the total over a 10-year period. We regret the
error.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/243253-popcom-tells-duterte-declare-teenage-pregnancy-
national-emergency

8. Young, poor and pregnant: Teen mums in the Philippines

byMary Ann Jolley

24 Jan 2018

While teen pregnancy rates in most countries are declining, numbers are rising in the
Philippines.Puerto Princesa, the Philippines - Angela was just 14 the first time she got
pregnant.

Her boyfriend was 19, and it was her first sexual experience.

"I wanted to cry; I was pushing him away. But he said he would take responsibility and that he
loved me," she says.

Her first pregnancy ended in miscarriage, but Angela is now a mother of four. Her youngest
child is just a week old.

She's one of hundreds of thousands of girls in the Philippines who gave birth when they were just
teenagers. While teen pregnancy rates in most countries are declining, the numbers are rising in
the Philippines. According to reports, about 500 Filipino teenagers become mothers every day.
That's about 182,500 teenage mothers every year. 

The age of consent in this deeply conservative Catholic country is just 12, one of the lowest in
the world, but access to contraception is limited, and abortion is illegal.

Angela's home province of Palawan has one of the country's highest rates of teen pregnancies.
One in five teenage girls in Palawan is pregnant or already has a child.

“They said it [contraception] damaged the uterus. So I got scared … That's why I kept
getting pregnant.”(Angela, Filipino teen mum)
Like Angela, most come from very poor communities and receive little or no sex education.

She says her boyfriend's parents told her contraception had bad side effects.

"They said it damaged the uterus. So I got scared … That's why I kept getting pregnant."
The first time she got pregnant, she miscarried at seven months. By the time she was 16, she had
given birth to another baby.

Just a few weeks after the birth, she was pregnant again.

High rate of teen pregnancies 'a tremendous problem'


Amina Evangelista-Swanepoel, one of the founders of Roots of Health, a Palawan women's
health NGO, says the high rate of teen pregnancy has wide-ranging consequences.

"It is really a tremendous problem - not just in terms of health of the teenagers who are becoming
parents at such young ages and then the children they themselves have, but also costing the
government a lot," she says.

"So much money lost in productivity... and in terms of them being unable to join the formal
economy because they haven't finished high school, it's really a very big problem for the
country."

Health workers say they often see pregnant young girls in relationships with much older men.

Although girls can legally have sex from the age of 12, they need their parents' permission to get
contraception or an HIV test if they are under 18.

Health workers say this leads to many girls having unprotected sex and leaves them vulnerable to
pregnancy.

'Our lawmakers are deeply religious people'


After much lobbying by women's rights advocates and debate that lasted more than a decade, the
Philippines national congress finally passed a comprehensive reproductive health law in 2012,
guaranteeing access to free contraception and sex education in school.

But five years later, that law is yet to be implemented due to fierce opposition from the Catholic
Church and other anti-abortion rights groups, who challenged it before the Supreme Court. 

“There is supposed to be a separation between the state and the church in the Philippines, but most of our
lawmakers are deeply religious people. While I can respect their personal views, I do think it's
problematic when they're imposing their own religious beliefs on a population of over 100 million.”

Amina Evangelista-Swanepoel, Roots of Health


More than 80 percent of Filipinos are Catholic, and the Church is one of the country's most
powerful institutions, wielding enormous influence over government policy, particularly family
planning issues.
"There is supposed to be a separation between the state and the church in the Philippines, but
most of our lawmakers are deeply religious people," says Evangelista-Swanepoel.

"While I can respect their personal views, I do think it's problematic when they're imposing their
own religious beliefs on a population of over 100 million."

Evangelista-Swanepoel says the local Palawan government is failing to properly fund teen


pregnancy prevention programmes.

"They don't allot very much funding or any at all to contraception, and so this really ties the
hands of the provincial health office ... they can't really do very much without having the budget
to have activities and programmes," she says.

'All human life is good'

Palawan's vice governor Dennis Socrates is a firm believer in abstinence until marriage.

"I think the solution lies in a more intensive education campaign to tell young people that sex is
good, but it has to be within the context of a loving and insoluble marriage and it must be open to
life, to parenting, which is the natural consequence of the marital act," he tells Al Jazeera.

“We declared Puerto Princesa city a pro-life, pro-family city, which is really a harmless thing and I
simply refused to allocate funds, specifically to buy contraceptives.”

Dennis Socrates, Palawan's vice governor and former mayor of Puerto Princesa
Socrates, a member of the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei, is vehemently opposed to all
forms of artificial contraception and even some natural ones.

"Even withdrawal is an immoral means for preventing birth because there's an active, a positive
act to prevent the outcome which is the natural consequence of the marital act," Socrates says.
"All human life is good, even life that is helpless, even life that belongs to a poor family, even
human life that isn't wanted by the mother."

When Socrates was mayor of Puerto Princesa in the early 2000s, he stopped the funding for
contraceptives distributed through public health centres.

"We declared Puerto Princesa city a pro-life, pro-family city which is really a harmless thing and
I simply refused to allocate funds, specifically to buy contraceptives," he says.

'I might die if I give birth again'


But Angela, the young mother of four, believes having access to contraception and sex education
could have changed the course of her life.
Now living with her boyfriend and children in a ramshackle hut surrounded by mud, Angela
often struggles to scrounge together enough food to feed her family.

"Sometimes I cry because my children are suffering as sometimes they have nothing to eat," she
says. "Sometimes I wish this didn't happen to me so my children wouldn't have to suffer."

Angela believes things would have been very different if she'd known more as a teenager.

"It's better to be educated about what contraceptives are available and what sex is about. That's
better than being ignorant."

She is determined that the baby she gave birth to a week ago will be her last - she was fitted with
an intrauterine device after the birth.

"This will be the last one. I don't want more kids," Angela says. "I might die if I give birth
again."

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/young-poor-pregnant-teen-mums-philippines-
180123080457459.html

9. Save the Children calls on the passage of Teenage Pregnancy Bill as the world celebrates
International Day of the Girl

Source Save the Children Published 10 Oct 2019

MANILA, October 11 – To mark the International Day of the Girl today, Save the Children
Philippines called for the passage of the Teenage Pregnancy Prevention bill and the full
implementation of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in schools in response to
the National Social Emergency declared by National Economic and Development Authority
(NEDA).

Teenage pregnancy affects 5.99 percent of Filipino girls which is the second highest rate in
Southeast Asia based on Save the Children’s Global Childhood Report (2019). An estimated
538 babies are born to Filipino teenage mothers every single day, according to Philippine
Statistical Authority (2017).

“Early pregnancy forces girls to take on an adult role while their bodies are often not ready,”
said Atty. Alberto Muyot, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Philippines. “Early
pregnancy can also trap girls in an escapable cycle of poverty, stigmatised by society for
being teenage mothers or forced into early marriage. It also creates a greater risk in terms of
maternal complications that affect the mother and the child they bear resulting in low survival
rates.”

There is no single cause for the rising rate of teenage pregnancy, but rather a combination of
factors ranging from biological, social, and cultural. These factors includes the following, but
are not limited to (1) early sexual debut; (2) lack of access to comprehensive sex information
and education; (3) Parents, who are identified by adolescents as one of their preferred source
of information on Sexual Reproductive Health information have limited communication
skills; (4) lack of access to family planning services; (5) cultural practices of early union; and
(6) lack of adolescent sexuality and reproductive health (ASRH) policies and its full-
implementation.

To curb the rise in teenage pregnancy cases, Save the Children Philippines called for the
enactment of the Teenage Pregnancy Prevention bill, which will ensure the implementation of
CSE in schools, training of teachers to deliver CSE, and capacitating parents and carers to
communicate sexuality education to their children.

The bill will also ensure the access of pregnant teenagers to social protection programs, and
access of adolescents to reproductive health services.

“In addition to education about sexuality, adolescents should also have access to reproductive
health services, with proper counseling by trained service providers in public and private
facilities,” said Dr. Miel Nora, ASRH Advisor for Save the Children Philippines. “But this is
just one part of the solution. It’s also vital that children can safely report cases of alleged
abuse or forced marriage with the knowledge that they will be protected. Together, we need to
help create a culture where boys and men respect the rights of girls and women.”

The baseline study conducted by Save the Children among very young adolescents (VYAs) in
2017 revealed that VYAs preferred source of information was their mother. However, parents,
most especially the mothers in particular, do not have the correct ASRH information to share
with their children, or the skills to communicate it. Thus, Save the Children Philippines
implemented Healthy, Empowered and Responsible Teens or “Heart to HEART”, a program
that builds parents’ skills and enhance parent-VYA communication around gender and ASRH.

“The efforts to combat teenage pregnancy should come from all the sectors of society. It
requires a joint effort of government, private sectors, civil society organizations, communities,
parents, caregivers and the entire citizenry, including youth themselves,” said Atty. Muyot.

END

NOTES TO EDITORS:

 Save the Children supports the effective Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in
public and private schools, alternative and indigenous learning centers.
 Research has shown that sex education has the most impact when school-based
programs are complemented with the involvement of parents and teachers, training institutes
and youth-friendly services.
 The Department of Education, Department of Health and the National Economic
Development Authority (NEDA) together with other government agencies, civil society
organizations and youth groups met recently for the National Summit on Teenage Pregnancy
to discuss policies, budgets and programs to reduce adolescent pregnancies in the Philippines.
Among the solutions identified include the CSE implementation and increase of the number of
adolescent-friendly health centres.
 Based on 2017 birth rates more than 400,000 girls aged 15 to 19 will get pregnant in
the Philippines this year.

https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/save-children-calls-passage-teenage-pregnancy-bill-
world-celebrates-international

10. The Pregnant Teen: A Growing Problem?

Published May 13, 2018, 12:05 AM

By Dom Galeon

TEEN MOM — Nineteen-year-old mom, DenniseGacutan carries her 1 month old son, Deejay
Baciera, during an interview in Intramuros, Manila. (Camille Ante)

They say numbers don’t lie. According to the most recent National Demographic and Health
Survey (NDHS 2017) from the Department of Health (DOH), the incidence of teenage or
adolescent pregnancies remains at a considerable rate. Overall, some nine percent of women
from the age of 15 to 19 have already started childbearing.

Compared to the past NDHS, which was conducted way back in 2013, this figure is actually
lower, albeit only by one percent. In fact, on global scale, teenage birth rates have gone down
from 6.5 percent in 1990, to 4.7 percent in 2015.

It’s a glimmer of hope that the government or private institutions and non-government agencies
— or a combination of these — are doing something to keep the numbers down. But the one
percent difference from 2013 to 2017 could also be just a negligible fluke in statistics, one that
comes expected in any survey.

But compared to the overall adolescent pregnancy rates in Southeast Asia, the average rate in the
Philippines is almost twice as high. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), some
4.5 percent of teenage girls in Southeast Asia have already given birth. In the Philippines, seven
percent of teenage girls have already given birth at least once. This higher incidence rate may be
indicative of a growing adolescent pregnancy problem in the country.

Regardless of the reason, this one percent difference isn’t really that much of a hope when one
considers the other data. For instance, there remains a clear connection between teenage
pregnancy and education. The former is also considered by many experts to be a symptom of
poverty. Of the teenage girls pregnant in 2017, 26.2 percent finished primary education, while
only four percent had gone to college. Furthermore, there are more cases of teenage girls getting
pregnant in rural areas than in urban centers.

These numbers echo the findings of the WHO: “Adolescent pregnancies are a global problem
that occurs in high, middle, and low income countries. Around the world, adolescent pregnancies
are more likely to occur in marginalized communities, commonly driven by poverty and lack of
education and employment opportunities,” the report reads.
Interestingly enough, the province of Davao has the highest percentage of teenage births at 15.9
percent, followed by the SOCCSKSARGEN region with 11.8 percent.

At any rate, there is one thing that’s undeniably obvious here: that there are still young Filipino
women who are getting pregnant at such a young age. This translates to women who are forced
to either stop their education and raise a child, or in what’s arguably a worse case, find
illegitimate means to terminate their pregnancies.

For Sen. Risa Hontiveros, teenage pregnancy is an issue that needs to be solved fast.
Recognizing the problem early on, the National Youth Commission (NYC) had previously
conducted a National Summit on Teen Pregnancy back in 2014. More recently, however, these
youth gatherings that tackle the issue of adolescent pregnancy seem to have been limited to the
regional level, with respective regional NYC offices working with the DOH. There is still a lot
that needs to be done to address the issue.

“Because of this,” the senator continued, “I filed a bill in the Senate that aims to solve the
problem of teenage pregnancy. Senate Bill no. 1482, more commonly known as “An Act
Providing for a National Policy on Preventing Teenage Pregnancies, Institutionalizing Social
Protection for Teenage Parents, and Providing Funds Therefor” seeks to decrease teenage
pregnancy incidence. This bill will allow for the development of a comprehensive education for
our youth. It should be age and development appropriate, and should be made mandatory in all
schools. This education should be medically accurate and should not promote discrimination.”

On the contrary, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) does not take
teenage pregnancies lightly. Its approach on the issue has always been more focused on character
development.

“Common sense and rational thought demand that we address the issue of teenage pregnancy and
HIV-AIDS rise with proper values education,” said Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of
the CBCP’s Permanent Committee on Public Affairs.

If there is one thing that both sides agree on, it’s the value they put on the youth.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/05/13/the-pregnant-teen-a-growing-problem/

LOCAL

1. Education, Earnings and Health Effects of Teenage Pregnancy in the Philippines


Alejandro N. Herrin1
July 2016

With respect to the relationship between early childbearing and education, the results are (1)
early childbearing reduces probability of completing high school; and (2) teenage women from
richer households (measured by wealth quintiles) have higher probability of completing high
school than teens in poorer households.
With respect to the relationships among education, wage rates and lifetime foregone earnings,
the results are (1) the age-earnings (wage rate) profile is higher among those who completed high
school compared to those who did not; (2) early childbearing reduces age-earnings (wage rate)
profile through its effect on high school completion; and (3) the discounted lifetime wage
earnings foregone by a cohort of teenage women 18-19 years resulting from early childbearing is
estimated between 24 billion pesos and 42 billion pesos with mean of 33 billion pesos,
representing from 0.8% to 1.4% of GDP with mean of 1.1%.
In terms of policy implications, the results suggest that policies that reduce early childbearing are
likely to have substantial impact on the education and economic conditions of women and their
families as well as on society as a whole.

2. Unwanted Teenage Pregnancies: Sociological Model Based on Agents


Carina Joane V. BarrosoRed Robin P. Babanto

The truth is appalling: sexual activities are increasing among teenagers. It is noted
that a proportion of women aged 15–24 who are sexually experienced has increased from 25% in
1998 to 32% in 2008 (Finer & Hussain, 2013). These practices increase the risk of having
unplanned pregnancies among the youth. Among first-time mothers, the proportion who were
teenagers increased from 20% in 2000 to 27% in 2010 (Finer & Hussain).
Furthermore, the same study showed that poor, rural and young women who have unplanned
pregnancies are likely to seek abortions under unsafe conditions. The Philippines is not exempted
from this observation, as it is among the top 10 countries with escalating population
of teenage mothers and with 64,000 abortions annually (World Bank, 2010). Unsafe abortion
carries significant risks for Filipino women: about 1,000 die each year from abortion
complications contributing to the nation’s high maternal mortality ratio. This abortion is due
to one obvious reason: unwanted pregnancies among young women.In light of this reality,
different authors have explained the various factors that have increased the rate of unwanted
pregnancies. Some of the factors include an incorrect use of effective contraceptive methods,
multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex (CDC, 2015; Finer & Hussain, 2013) . Various
solutions were presented in addressing this pressing problem, including evidence-based
programs on the use of contraceptives (Wang, Long, Cai,Wu, Xu, Shu, Li, Wei, Zhang, Xiong &
Yin 2015, Sonfield et al., 2004 ); delaying sexual debut and reduction of number of sexual
partner
(Baumgartner, Geary, Tucker, & Wedderburn,2009) and information dissemination campaigns
(Wang et al., 2015).

3. Valuation of Women’s Virginity in the Philippines*


1
Eric Julian Manalastas
Clarissa C. David
Despite increasing sexual liberalization, virginity and its loss persist as contested and highly
gendered concepts in many parts of Asia. According to theories in feminism and sexuality
studies, virginity may be socially constructed as either a gift, a stigma, an act of worship, or a
process. This paper examines the socially constructed values and meanings ascribed to women’s
virginity in the context of the Philippines. We synthesize findings from quantitative sources and
original qualitative data from focus groups and interviews with Filipino women and men.
Subsequent analysis of these findings indicated that a strong, widespread importance is ascribed
to women’s virginity. While men endorsed female virginity as important prior to marriage,
women reported even more restrictive views—including legitimizing beliefs linking virginity to
women’s worth and to the avoidance of marital conflict. Filipina women expressed disapproval
of sex for unmarried women, but less for unmarried men, and placed less importance on male
virginity. The evidence indicates the presence of a sexual double standard and supports the
argument that women themselves may endorse cultural belief systems that restrict female
sexuality. Female virginity was dominantly constructed either as a gift (an embodied resource
given by women to men) or, more often, as a prize to be claimed by men from women within the
context of heterosexual marriage. Male virginity, in contrast, was largely viewed as a stigma.
Virginity loss was not construed as a normative developmental process, nor, despite the
predominance of Roman Catholicism in Philippine culture, a sacred act with religious
underpinnings.

4. TEENAGE FERTILITY AND RISK OF PREGNANCY: SOCIOCULTURAL


CORRELATES IN THE PHILIPPINES
Paolo Miguel M. VICERRA
Socio-cultural aspects may also play a role in this issue. Women in the Philippines is said to have
a high level of literacy and is an important part of the labour economy whether locally or
overseas among other matters of a gender egalitarian society. But one aspect that has to be
focused on is maternal health particularly on reproductive health. This is a factor of healthcare
that requires a response to prevent risks of maternal mortality borne of complications including
those related to induced abortions (Cabigon, 2008). Various conservative actors are involved in
conflicting views on reproductive health policies, and this includes the Catholic Church. What
this presentation leads to culminates with what was reported that adolescent fertility rate in the
Philippines is 53 births per thousand women aged 15 to 19 years (United Nations Population
Fund, United Nations Education and Scientific Organization, & World Health Organization,
2015). This rate determines a large increase of 70 per cent in the period of 1999 to 2009 resulting
in it being one of the highest among ASEAN countries. Due to this, there had also been
indications that abortion incidences also increased in almost the same period whereby there is a
prevalence among younger population (Cabigon, 2008)

5. LTeenage mothering as a phenomenon and how to prevent it


Jordan Tovera Salvador, Jucay Sauce, Oneel Castillo Alvarez and Ahrjaynes Rosario, (2016)
describe in their study that teenage pregnancies are a worldwide issue with yearly increasing
numbers, especially in developing countries. By conducting interviews with teenage mothers,
they wanted to examine their experiences. With this article we want to highlight the factors that
contribute to young women becoming teenage mothers and the different aspects of their lives.
In the results of their study they found four themes. In the first one Salvador et al. (2016)
describe the transition a woman is making from childhood to become an adolescent. Being an
adolescent comes with many changes in the body but also in the mindset. Because of their
curiosity adolescents will take interest in sexual actions and want to explore their sexuality which
is seen as a “forbidden act”. They often have spontaneous behavior and poor decision-making
skills that will lead them to impulsive situations that many times end up in unsafe sexual
intercourse.
Salvador et al. (2016) describe the second theme as childbearing.

6. Outcomes of Teen Motherhood L


Teen pregnancy and motherhood result in serious negative consequences.
Maputle (2006) explored the teen mothers’ experiences during their time of pregnancy. The
participants disclosed feelings of discomfort and anxiety due to their lack of knowledge about the
physical changes that occur during pregnancy and also due to their lack of preparedness because
the pregnancy was unplanned. Another difficulty was lack of a support system, a person they
could trust and to whom they could confide with their situation. The study which Coker (2004)
conducted among women in Sierra Leone revealed that these women were confronted with many
difficulties. Among them were dropping out of school, health problems, and coping with the
demands of parenthood. McDonough’s (1992) findings showed that in areas where there are high
rates of teenage motherhood, there are high rates of delinquency.

7. Untangling the trends, consequences and risks of repeated pregnancy among


adolescents in the Philippines
Joemer Calderon Maravilla

Approximately 19% of non-nulliparous adolescents in the Philippines experienced a repeated


pregnancy across all regions, socio-economic status and type of residence. While I observed a
decrease over time in the prevalence of repeated pregnancies in young adults, the trends in
younger girls (aged 15-18 years) remained consistent from 1993 to 2013. Filipino adolescents in
their second pregnancy were at least three times more likely to report obstetric complications,
irrespective of inter-pregnancy interval, when compared with their first pregnancy. RP also
strongly predicted the occurrence and persistence of child stunting up to 24 months of age.
Influential factors were identified at individual, interpersonal and community levels. At the
individual level, non-use of modern contraception and young age at first birth were strong risk
factors for repeated adolescent pregnancy. Results from my meta-analysis also suggested higher
RP risks among girls with depression, history of pregnancy loss and school discontinuation. At
the interpersonal level, having an older partner and being in a de-facto relationship led to
increased risk of repeated pregnancy. At the community level, consulting traditional healers for
prenatal care and being of low socio-economic status were also more likely to result in
subsequent pregnancies. I also found a consensus in the literature about the protective effect of
community health worker visitations against RP in low-income settings.

8. Roles and Responsibilities of Teenage Mothers: A Basis for Intervention Measures


Eden A. Arboneda1, Mary Joyce A. Cantor2, John Nathan Dizon3, Denmark V.
Malicse4, Great I Am W. C. Gismundo5 L
Teenage pregnancy is one of the most common problems in the society nowadays. The
vulnerability is heightened among the teenagers who are belong to the minorities or living in
poverty (Gismundo et al, 2015). According to the data of the National Demographic and Health
(2013), the increasing growth rate of teenage pregnancy in the Philippines is quite alarming that
among the Filipino women that ages 13 to 19, there is at least 1 out of 10 that has begun
childbearing.
Majority of the cases of teenage pregnancy were unplanned, and as a result, the teenagers are
facing tasks with the high demands of being like an adult parent. Raising a child consumes a lot
of time. It also involves a great deal of financial, emotional, and practical planning (Yardley,
2008). It is important that a parent is able to financially support a child and need to be assured
that they can give proper health and health care for them (Julie Boehlke, 2015).
Most teen mothers find that caring for a child makes it difficult for them to continue their
schooling. More than half of the teen mothers graduated only from secondary school, and there is
just 2 percent have graduated from college but that is when they are in 30’s already. In some
schools, especially in Catholic schools, girls who had become pregnant are expelled because it
goes against their moral teaching. Many teen mothers are having a feeling of guilt and
inadequacy in both role as a student and a mother (Thompson, 2004). Unfinished schooling is
one of the major factors that make it difficult for young mothers to look for a well-paying job
(Meghan Slocum, 2017).

9. The Phenomenon of Teenage Pregnancy in the


Philippines L
Jordan Tovera Salvador, PhD, RN
Ben Ryan Jucay Sauce, MN, RN, RM
Marc Oneel Castillo Alvarez, MAN, RN, RM
Ahrjaynes Balanag Rosario, MAN, RN

Teenage pregnancy has been a worldwide issue that needs to be confronted to mitigate the
problems of maternal adolescent childbearing, especially in the third world countries. In fact, it
has emerged to be one of the major public health problems in South Asia (Raj et al., 2010) and in
Western Europe (Seamarck, 2001). It is reported in India that adolescent
pregnancy is one of the serious health threat for women aged 15-19 years old
(Patra, 2016). In Nigeria, the ratio of teenage mothers to women in their 20s
who actually die during pregancy and childbirth is 5:1. In addition, they
likely have more higher mortality rates for infants (Amoran, 2012). Consequently, social analysts
and researchers enumerated some of the reason why pregnacies among adolescents have been
increasing in spite of interventions from government health agencies and NGOs. Thus, the
reasons varies from socio-economic status (Dulita, Nalika, Upul, Crishantha & De Alwis, 2013),
lack of education (Eloundou-Enyegue, 2004), teenagers’ initiation to sexual activity (Grace,
Ihuoma & Temitope, 2013), family history of teenage births (Wall-Wieler, Ross & Nickel,
2016), etc. The incidence of mortality in teenage pregnacies and adverse birth outcomes is
increasing every year due to immature pre-natal care, socio-economical challenges, and
inadequte weight gained during pregnancy (Xi-Kuan, Shi Wu, Flemming Demissie & Rhoads,
2007). However, the Philippines have the same predicament regarding teenage pregnancy. Due
to the official ranking of the United Nation Population Fund Agency in 2012, the number of
teenage pregnancies, aged 10-19 years old, have increased to 70% over the last ten years. As a
result, this has imposed a huge problem towards the achievement of Millenium Development
Goals that puts the country in red alert (Philippine News Agency, 2012). Moreover, 14% of the
teenage girls in the age bracket of 15- 19 were reported for the first time to be already mothers or
have had several children in the 2014 survey of Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality as compared
to the 8% of the 2002 survey (Au-Yeung, 2014). Among the reasons identified, the major causes
of teenage pregnancies are limited access to sexual education and sexual health services. This is
contrary to the church teachings’ alternative methods of family planning.

10. Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior of Teenagers


Regarding Sex in the Community of Los Baños, Laguna
Maria Eleanor L. Candelaria,1 Maricar B. Rodriguez,2 Robbie Jun B. Reyes,3
Leah Rebecah R. Clemente-Co4 and Reymund D. Tatel2The Municipal Health Office
(MHO) of Los Baños, 2018

While for Candelaria,Rodriguez,Reyes,Clemente,Tatel,Laguna, Philippines identified the steady


rise in teenage pregnancies in the municipality as a public health situation that should be
immediately addressed. For the year 2017, there were a total of 348 teenage pregnancies; the
youngest reported case was that of a 13-year old. Among the pregnant women with four or more
prenatal visits, 24 % of them were teenagers.1 This raises a serious alarm since infants born to
teenage mothers are associated with lower birthweights and are less likey to receive proper
nutrition.2 Teenage mothers are also less likely to access prenatal care from health professionals
compared to older women due to social stigma associated with unplanned pregnancies.
Premature labor is also higher among teenaged mothers.

LOCAL

Teenage pregnancy has been a worldwide issue that needs to be confronted to mitigate
the problems of maternal adolescent childbearing, especially in the third world countries. In fact,
it has emerged to be one of the major public health problems in South Asia (Raj et al., 2010) and
in
Western Europe (Seamarck, 2001). It is reported in India that adolescent
pregnancy is one of the serious health threat for women aged 15-19 years old
(Patra, 2016). In Nigeria, the ratio of teenage mothers to women in their 20s
who actually die during pregnancy and childbirth is 5:1. In addition, they
likely have more higher mortality rates for infants (Amoran, 2012). Consequently, social analysts
and researchers enumerated some of the reason why pregnancies among adolescents have been
increasing in spite of interventions from government health agencies and NGOs. Thus, the
reasons varies from socio-economic status (Dulita, Nalika, Upul, Crishantha & De Alwis, 2013),
lack of education (Eloundou-Enyegue, 2004), teenagers’ initiation to sexual activity (Grace,
Ihuoma & Temitope, 2013), family history of teenage births (Wall-Wieler, Ross & Nickel,
2016), etc. The incidence of mortality in teenage pregnacies and adverse birth outcomes is
increasing every year due to immature pre-natal care, socio-economical challenges, and
inadequate weight gained during pregnancy (Xi-Kuan, Shi Wu, Flemming Demissie & Rhoads,
2007). However, the Philippines have the same predicament regarding teenage pregnancy. Due
to the official ranking of the United Nation Population Fund Agency in 2012, the number of
teenage pregnancies, aged 10-19 years old, have increased to 70% over the last ten years. As a
result, this has imposed a huge problem towards the achievement of Millenium Development
Goals that puts the country in red alert (Philippine News Agency, 2012). Moreover, 14% of the
teenage girls in the age bracket of 15- 19 were reported for the first time to be already mothers or
have had several children in the 2014 survey of Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality as compared
to the 8% of the 2002 survey (Au-Yeung, 2014). Among the reasons identified, the major causes
of teenage pregnancies are limited access to sexual education and sexual health services. This is
contrary to the church teachings’ alternative methods of family planning.

While for Gismundo, Teenage pregnancy is one of the most common problems in the
society nowadays. The vulnerability is heightened among the teenagers who are belong to the
minorities or living in poverty (Gismundo et al, 2015). According to the data of the National
Demographic and Health (2013), the increasing growth rate of teenage pregnancy in the
Philippines is quite alarming that among the Filipino women that ages 13 to 19, there is at least 1
out of 10 that has begun childbearing.
Majority of the cases of teenage pregnancy were unplanned, and as a result, the teenagers are
facing tasks with the high demands of being like an adult parent. Raising a child consumes a lot
of time. It also involves a great deal of financial, emotional, and practical planning (Yardley,
2008). It is important that a parent is able to financially support a child and need to be assured
that they can give proper health and health care for them (Julie Boehlke, 2015).
Most teen mothers find that caring for a child makes it difficult for them to continue their
schooling. More than half of the teen mothers graduated only from secondary school, and there is
just 2 percent have graduated from college but that is when they are in 30’s already. In some
schools, especially in Catholic schools, girls who had become pregnant are expelled because it
goes against their moral teaching. Many teen mothers are having a feeling of guilt and
inadequacy in both role as a student and a mother (Thompson, 2004). Unfinished schooling is
one of the major factors that make it difficult for young mothers to look for a well-paying job
(Meghan Slocum, 2017).

While for Salvador,Teenage mothering as a phenomenon and how to prevent it


Jordan Tovera Salvador, Jucay Sauce, Oneel Castillo Alvarez and Ahrjaynes Rosario, (2016)
describe in their study that teenage pregnancies are a worldwide issue with yearly increasing
numbers, especially in developing countries. By conducting interviews with teenage mothers,
they wanted to examine their experiences. With this article we want to highlight the factors that
contribute to young women becoming teenage mothers and the different aspects of their lives.
In the results of their study they found four themes. In the first one Salvador et al. (2016)
describe the transition a woman is making from childhood to become an adolescent. Being an
adolescent comes with many changes in the body but also in the mindset. Because of their
curiosity adolescents will take interest in sexual actions and want to explore their sexuality which
is seen as a “forbidden act”. They often have spontaneous behavior and poor decision-making
skills that will lead them to impulsive situations that many times end up in unsafe sexual
intercourse.

While for Mapute, Teen pregnancy and motherhood result in serious negative
consequences.
Maputle (2006) explored the teen mothers’ experiences during their time of pregnancy. The
participants disclosed feelings of discomfort and anxiety due to their lack of knowledge about the
physical changes that occur during pregnancy and also due to their lack of preparedness because
the pregnancy was unplanned. Another difficulty was lack of a support system, a person they
could trust and to whom they could confide with their situation. The study which Coker (2004)
conducted among women in Sierra Leone revealed that these women were confronted with many
difficulties. Among them were dropping out of school, health problems, and coping with the
demands of parenthood. McDonough’s (1992) findings showed that in areas where there are high
rates of teenage motherhood, there are high rates of delinquency.

While for Barroso and Banato they said that truth is appalling: sexual activities are
increasing among teenagers. It is noted
that a proportion of women aged 15–24 who are sexually experienced has increased from 25% in
1998 to 32% in 2008 (Finer & Hussain, 2013). These practices increase the risk of having
unplanned pregnancies among the youth. Among first-time mothers, the proportion who were
teenagers increased from 20% in 2000 to 27% in 2010 (Finer & Hussain).
Furthermore, the same study showed that poor, rural and young women who have unplanned
pregnancies are likely to seek abortions under unsafe conditions. The Philippines is not exempted
from this observation, as it is among the top 10 countries with escalating population
of teenage mothers and with 64,000 abortions annually (World Bank, 2010). Unsafe abortion
carries significant risks for Filipino women: about 1,000 die each year from abortion
complications contributing to the nation’s high maternal mortality ratio. This abortion is due
to one obvious reason: unwanted pregnancies among young women.In light of this reality,
different authors have explained the various factors that have increased the rate of unwanted
pregnancies. Some of the factors include an incorrect use of effective contraceptive methods,
multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex (CDC, 2015; Finer & Hussain, 2013) . Various
solutions were presented in addressing this pressing problem, including evidence-based
programs on the use of contraceptives (Wang, Long, Cai,Wu, Xu, Shu, Li, Wei, Zhang, Xiong &
Yin 2015, Sonfield et al., 2004 ); delaying sexual debut and reduction of number of sexual
partner
(Baumgartner, Geary, Tucker, & Wedderburn,2009) and information dissemination campaigns
(Wang et al., 2015).

While for Herrin,With respect to the relationship between early childbearing and
education, the results are (1) early childbearing reduces probability of completing high school;
and (2) teenage women from richer households (measured by wealth quintiles) have higher
probability of completing high school than teens in poorer households.
With respect to the relationships among education, wage rates and lifetime foregone earnings,
the results are (1) the age-earnings (wage rate) profile is higher among those who completed high
school compared to those who did not; (2) early childbearing reduces age-earnings (wage rate)
profile through its effect on high school completion; and (3) the discounted lifetime wage
earnings foregone by a cohort of teenage women 18-19 years resulting from early childbearing is
estimated between 24 billion pesos and 42 billion pesos with mean of 33 billion pesos,
representing from 0.8% to 1.4% of GDP with mean of 1.1%.
In terms of policy implications, the results suggest that policies that reduce early childbearing are
likely to have substantial impact on the education and economic conditions of women and their
families as well as on society as a whole.

While base on study of Joemer Calderon Maravilla, Approximately 19% of non-


nulliparous adolescents in the Philippines experienced a repeated pregnancy across all regions,
socio-economic status and type of residence. While I observed a decrease over time in the
prevalence of repeated pregnancies in young adults, the trends in younger girls (aged 15-18
years) remained consistent from 1993 to 2013. Filipino adolescents in their second pregnancy
were at least three times more likely to report obstetric complications, irrespective of inter-
pregnancy interval, when compared with their first pregnancy. RP also strongly predicted the
occurrence and persistence of child stunting up to 24 months of age.
Influential factors were identified at individual, interpersonal and community levels. At the
individual level, non-use of modern contraception and young age at first birth were strong risk
factors for repeated adolescent pregnancy. Results from my meta-analysis also suggested higher
RP risks among girls with depression, history of pregnancy loss and school discontinuation. At
the interpersonal level, having an older partner and being in a de-facto relationship led to
increased risk of repeated pregnancy. At the community level, consulting traditional healers for
prenatal care and being of low socio-economic status were also more likely to result in
subsequent pregnancies. I also found a consensus in the literature about the protective effect of
community health worker visitations against RP in low-income settings.

While for Paolo Miguel M. VICERRA,Socio-cultural aspects may also play a role in this
issue. Women in the Philippines is said to have a high level of literacy and is an important part of
the labour economy whether locally or overseas among other matters of a gender egalitarian
society. But one aspect that has to be focused on is maternal health particularly on reproductive
health. This is a factor of healthcare that requires a response to prevent risks of maternal
mortality borne of complications including those related to induced abortions (Cabigon, 2008).
Various conservative actors are involved in conflicting views on reproductive health policies,
and this includes the Catholic Church. What this presentation leads to culminates with what was
reported that adolescent fertility rate in the Philippines is 53 births per thousand women aged 15
to 19 years (United Nations Population Fund, United Nations Education and Scientific
Organization, & World Health Organization, 2015). This rate determines a large increase of 70
per cent in the period of 1999 to 2009 resulting in it being one of the highest among ASEAN
countries. Due to this, there had also been indications that abortion incidences also increased in
almost the same period whereby there is a prevalence among younger population (Cabigon,
2008)

While for Candelaria,Rodriguez,Reyes,Clemente,and Tatel, Laguna, Philippines


identified the steady rise in teenage pregnancies in the municipality as a public health situation
that should be immediately addressed. For the year 2017, there were a total of 348 teenage
pregnancies; the youngest reported case was that of a 13-year old. Among the pregnant women
with four or more prenatal visits, 24 % of them were teenagers.1 This raises a serious alarm since
infants born to teenage mothers are associated with lower birthweights and are less likey to
receive proper nutrition.2 Teenage mothers are also less likely to access prenatal care from
health professionals compared to older women due to social stigma associated with unplanned
pregnancies. Premature labor is also higher among teenaged mothers.

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