RISING TEENAGE PREGNANCY, ADVOCATES URGED GOVERNMENT TO PASS THE BILL

The Commission on Population and Development (CPD) called for the urgent passage of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill for the increasing number of teenage pregnancy among young Filipino.

Based on CPD’s data, there are over 25,358 repeat pregnancies among girls 10 to 19 years old where even before the age of 20, they got pregnant again. On the latest data, mothers aged 15 to 19 who underwent pregnancies for the second time reach 23,022. 

And third pregnancies in the age group were at 2,169 while 125 for the fourth time, and two persons got pregnant for the fifth time. Under age 15, there were 40 girls who got pregnant for the second time.

23,022 women’s under age 15 to 19 got pregnant two times, CPD calls for passage of teen pregnancy prevention bill (Photo courtesy of Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Under the House Bill No. 8910 or the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill, an Inter-Agency Council will be organized to serve as the policy-making body responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies and programs that shall provide family-oriented, adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health programs.

“The passage of this bill is a crucial step towards empowering young people and ensuring their right to sexual and reproductive health,” United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Philippines country representative Dr. Leila Saiji Joudane said.

Having an anti-teen pregnancy law can provide a frameworks for comprehensive action to address the root causes of the issue and ensure that young people have the information and support they need to make healthy choices according to Joudane.

“Beyond numbers, these pregnancies are manifestations of social injustice, where helpless girls are deprived of opportunities to achieve their aspirations because of their lifelong and irreversible consequences. It reflects a societal failure to promote and enable them to fully exercise their rights as children and human beings,” CPD Executive Director Lisa Grace Bersales pointed out.

“It is important to recognize that as we want to protect children and adolescents, they have the right to have access to age- and development-appropriate information and services, including family planning,” said PLCPD Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) Executive Director Romeo Dongeto.

The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill was approved for a third and final reading by the House of Representatives on September 2023. But a counterpart legislation at the Senate remains pending. 

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

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