In today’s column, we continue with last week’s topic — teen pregnancies. We said that during the time of former President Duterte, the government had recognized that it was a “national social emergency” that needed to be addressed by all sectors of society.
Based on research, our country has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, registering close to 200,000 live births annually from children between the ages of 10 and 19.
Of this figure, around 40 births each year come from girls below the age of 13. These are vulnerable young girls who have not even reached teenhood, but already are carrying a baby in their very young wombs.
Teenage pregnancy affects about 6 percent of all girls, with teenage births being the highest in the following regions in declining order: Calabarzon, National Capital Region, Central Luzon, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region and Central Visayas.
Teen pregnancies and childbirth complications are the leading causes of death among young girls aged 15 to 19 globally, with low to middle-income countries, such as the Philippines, accounting for over 90 percent of said deaths.
Early childbearing invariably results in poor health outcomes and poses a threat to economic stability and growth. Babies compete with their mothers for the food they need, and the poor are almost always lacking in adequate food. The invariable result is malnutrition for both mother and child.
Babies born to teenagers tend to grow up perpetuating the cycle of poverty in which their parents had found themselves. So they do not even finish high school and are not able to get decent jobs when they become adults.
Eventually, they become objects of charity of the State, which as we said in the earlier article, will surely contribute to the draining of public resources that could otherwise be devoted to real projects that would benefit the country.
No wonder government has sounded the alarm on teenage pregnancy, calling it a national social emergency in Executive Order 141, before the same becomes an unmanageable problem.
Under the EO, “the state shall mobilize existing coordinative and legal mechanisms related to the prevention of adolescent pregnancies and strengthen the adolescent’s capacity to make autonomous and informed decisions about their reproductive and sexual health xxx.”
The order directs that “access to comprehensive sexuality education and reproductive health” shall be ensured. Moreover, all government agencies and instruments are tasked to identify and implement practicable interventions, that include employment opportunities.
The agencies, through their field offices, are encouraged to tie up with local government units, businesses, civil society groups and youth councils, so that together they could come up with plans and strategies on how to help address the prevalence of teen pregnancies.
In the last article, I suggested that we citizens must help government address this problem because it actually affects us all.
As private individuals, what can we do? Not much perhaps, but if you belong to a business or religious group you can sponsor the education of teen mothers. I said before that as teens go up the educational ladder, they tend to become better at judging for themselves how to use their bodies and protect themselves.
In our own family, there is talk of organizing the young girls in our neighborhood into musical groups, somewhat like the bandurria groupings of old. We will contribute to acquiring the musical instruments needed.
Our thinking is that teens get pregnant because they do not really have much to do. With learned musical skills, we would have given them a hobby to preoccupy themselves with rather than doing things that may be detrimental to them.
How far we would go with this idea nobody yet knows. But most should be serious about it — as a way of contributing to society. Please wish us well and pray for us.