The Commission on Population and Development (CPD) is calling for a concrete government intervention and heightened national vigilance against teenage pregnancies involving young girls under 15 years old following an alarming increase of live births which the agency monitored between 2021 and 2022.
Citing the data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), CPD Executive Director Lisa Grace S. Bersales said a 35 percent increase in pregnancies of young girls under 15 years old was recorded in 2022, compared to 2021—or from 2,320 pregnancies in 2021 to 3,135 in 2022.
Teenage pregnancies under 15 years old were actually on the rise based on the PSA data from 2017 with 2,077; 2018 with 2,250; and 2019 with 2,411. In 2020, the figure decreased to 2,113 in 2020 and experts are attributing it to the lockdown due to the Covid 1-19 pandemic.
The figure increased anew in 2021 with 2,320 and in 2022, it went up to 3,135.
“Although live births from adolescent girls, 14 years old and below, is just 0.22% of total live births recorded, CPD is still deeply concerned about the increase in adolescent pregnancy, especially among our very young girls,” said Bersales.
Legislative intervention
With the increase, Bersales emphasized the need for the Congress to prioritize the passage of the “Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill” which was approved on its second reading in September last year.
The proposed law, under the House Bill 8910, provides for a national policy to arrest the growing number of cases of childbearing and child births among adolescents.
“We cannot overemphasize the significance of having the bill enacted. It is my strong belief, and that of the agency’s, that its enactment will be essential in addressing the lingering concern of early child-bearing and motherhood among a great number of our juvenile Filipino girls,” said Bersales.
Experts said teenage pregnancies, if not immediately addressed, would have social costs and a negative impact on the national budget in terms of social services in taking care of young mothers and their babies.
“The negative impact on national budget could run into billions of pesos in terms of the government having to take care of young mothers and their babies; not to mention the human-development aspect that we have to take into consideration,” said Bersales, echoing the earlier statement of Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on the issue.
Bersales said the bill’s passage will be vital in the implementation of the Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action 2023, which includes further advancement of Filipino teens’ health and development, where the phenomenon of early parenthood is specifically addressed.
Sex Education
Bersales said part of the Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action 2023 is the bolstering of the implementation and promotion of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in schools and communities and improved availability and access of adolescents to sexual and reproductive health and other social services.
Such plan of action, according to her, is reinforced by promoting and sustaining youth development and participation initiatives at the community level, with specific tactics to tackle adolescent pregnancies head-on at every level of society.
Bersales also pointed out the need to institute and support strategic interventions, such as those being implemented by the Department of Education that have effectively reduced dropouts due to teenage pregnancies.
She is referring to the statement of Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte about the “2024 Basic Education Report” that DepEd’s promotion of “Alternative Delivery Modes” was able to notably bring down the number of dropouts caused by teenage pregnancies and early marriages.
“Above and beyond these well-laid plans of the government, it is our stand in CPD that the lasting solution to the prevalent concern of early teen pregnancies should begin at the household level,” said Bersales.
“While we exhaust efforts through a whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approach, we remind the parents and guardians of our youth that their roles in their respective families cannot be simply downplayed, as they are responsible in molding their children as productive members of the larger Philippine society,” she added.