THE increase in teen pregnancies could lead to the creation of 133,265 families led by minors by the end of the year, according to the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom).
In a briefing on Wednesday, Population and Development Undersecretary Juan Antonio Perez III said this is equivalent to a population of 260,000 people, which is the average population of 10 municipalities in the Philippines combined.
Perez said births from teen pregnancies have been increasing and may reach 62,510 by the end of 2021. He said this is a conservative estimate and that the continuation of the lockdown may bring this up to around 74,000 births this year.
“This is driven by the fact that more young people are engaging in premarital sex; you have lack of information going on and potentially, also, the impact of the lack of access to family planning by young people because of the Supreme Court decision that they have to ask their parents for access to family planning services,” Perez said.
With minors already starting families even before they finish school, their ability to earn more will be reduced, he pointed out.
Perez said the discounted lifetime wage earnings foregone by a cohort of teenage women 18-19 years resulting from early childbearing is estimated on the average at P33 billion.
Further, this will place parents with an additional financial burden since they will have to be the ones to support their child and their children’s child or children.
“If you look at it at the household level, it immediately affects the households of these 133,000 minors. More often than not, they have to remain with their parents as they raise their first child. So the impact on the household is the one that is most severe,” Perez said.
The results of a nationwide survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and commissioned by the Popcom showed that 59 percent of the respondents said teenage pregnancy is the most pressing problem of women today.
This was followed by physical violence at 11 percent; unintended pregnancy, 11 percent; and sexual violence, 7 percent. The survey was conducted in November 2020 among adults 18 years old and above.
Concern on teen pregnancies was high among those from Mindanao at 67 percent. The concern was especially high among older age groups 45 to 54 years old at 65 percent and 55 and above at 64 percent.
This was also high among those who reached elementary and high school levels at 62 percent. Popcom said these respondents believe the most notable problem besetting females at this time.
“This should be a wake-up call to the government. The recent data force us to examine and ask the government to explain why children in the Philippines are having children. Looking closely, we know that it is not simply because these children, particularly the very young adolescents, have chosen to have consensual sex,” said Romeo Dongeto, executive director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD).
PLCPD, Popcom, and other partners in the government and civil society launched the No More Children Having Children campaign in 2019 to call on Congress to pass the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Act.
Currently under the Period of Interpellation in the Senate and awaiting committee action at the House of Representatives, the bill provides access of minors to reproductive health services including modern family planning methods, comprehensive sexuality education, establishment of adolescent friendly health facilities, and social protection for adolescent mothers and fathers.
The “No More Children Having Children” campaign also calls for the full implementation of the Reproductive Health Law (Republic Act 10354), which mandates comprehensive sexuality education.
PLCPD and its partners also support the movement of related legislation in both houses of Congress, including the prohibition of child marriage in the country, and raising the age to determine statutory rape from below 12 to below 16.
Image credits: John Jerome Ganzon | Dreamstime.com
