Have you seen the 1988 movie titled For Keeps starring Molly Ringwald and Randall Batinkoff? The story is about Darcy (Ringwald) and Stan (Batinkoff), two high school seniors who are thrust into a serious commitment at a young age when Darcy becomes pregnant. Their parents urge them to have an abortion or to give up the baby for adoption. However, the teen couple decides to keep their baby and get married. Complications ensue because the young couple is not prepared for the big responsibilities that await them — Darcy drops out of school and suffers from post-partum depression after giving birth while Stan lets go of his university scholarship and struggles on his part-time job.
Although the movie was filmed in 1988, stories about teen pregnancy are still rampant in 2013.
As a champion and ambassador of Goodwill of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), I was invited to moderate a panel discussion about adolescent pregnancy two months ago at Rizal High School. Together with UNFPA, I have visited several schools like Amang Rodriguez High School, PUP, Ateneo and La Salle to discuss and spread awareness regarding sexuality.
The World Population Day is celebrated every July 11. The day was designated by the United Nations to conduct wide-range discussions about important issues concerning population around the world. These past years, World Population Day focused on topics like reproductive health rights, climate change, population growth and family planning. This year was on teen pregnancy.
The Supreme Court (SC) has started hearing oral arguments for and against the Reproductive Health Law. Simultaneous with the SC hearings is the social discourse about teen pregnancy. According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), there is an increase by 65 percent in the number of women (aged 15 to 19) who became mothers from 2000 until 2010. But what’s alarming to know from the statistics is that there is an increase by 75 percent in the number of child births of teenage girls (aged 14 and below) from the same years.
When we discuss teen pregnancy, we cannot avoid talking about data of maternal deaths (or death of a mother due to complications of pregnancy or child birth). This happens because there is a high risk in the life of a woman who gets pregnant at a young age. According to NSO, there is an increase by 80 percent in the number of women (aged 19 and below) who die due to complications of pregnancy or child birth.
If a woman gets pregnant because of unprotected sex, chances are high that they can also acquire sexually transmitted infections like HIV. Thirty percent or three out of 10 recorded new cases of HIV in the Philippines today are teens who are 25 years old and below according to the Department of Health (DOH).
This is the reason why the World Population Day 2013 focused on teen pregnancy due to these disturbing developments in recent years.
In the discussion, the panelists included Casey who got pregnant when she was 17 years old by her partner 10 years her senior; Aldrin who got his girlfriend pregnant when he was 18 years old and they eventually separated; Princess Manzon of PBB who is an active member of UNFPA’s youth peer educators’ network (Y-PEER); and Dr. Emma Llanto who holds adolescent medicine clinics at the Asian Hospital and Medical Center.
Aside from the panelists, resource persons were also invited to enlighten the crowd about teen pregnancy and its effects on the youth: Alicia Arabit, guidance counselor of Rizal High School; Dr. Jeepy Perez, DOH director; and Dr. Esperanza Cabral, former Health Secretary.
Based on the panel discussion, it was articulated that as much as it is a health issue, adolescent pregnancy is a development issue. Its root causes are poverty, gender inequality, violence, power imbalances between adolescent girls and their male partners, lack of education and the failure of systems and institutions to protect their rights.
Likewise, it was discussed that adolescents and youth must be given age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education to develop the required knowledge and skills that will help them protect their health throughout their lives.
Although education and information are important, panelists/participants agreed that good quality reproductive health services must also be accessible in order for adolescents to make informed choices and be healthy.