Senator urges gov't to step up response to teen pregnancy surge
MANILA, Philippines — (Updated 2:24 p.m.) Sen. Win Gatchalian is calling for a more aggressive government response to the surge in teen pregnancies, sounding the alarm over the growing number of young mothers who are trapped in poverty.
This comes after PopCom reported last week that births among girls aged 14 years and below jumped by 7% in 2019 against the previous year’s figure provided by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). "In 2019, [there were] 2,411 girls considered as very young adolescents aged 10 to 14 [who] gave birth,” it said.
Gatchalian warned that the coronavirus pandemic could further increase the number of teen pregnancies based on data from past calamities and disasters.
Citing a study conducted by the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP), he said 23.5% of teenage girls in Eastern Visayas got pregnant after Typhoon Yolanda struck.
"Even before the pandemic hit our country, the rise in teenage pregnancies could already be considered a crisis," Gatchalian said in Filipino. PopCom has been asking President Rodrigo Duterte to formally declare the surge adolescent pregnancies a national social crisis since 2019.
Need for 'grassroots' reproductive health education
For Gatchalian, keeping girls in school, where they can access information and sexuality education, is the best way to prevent teenage pregnancy.
However, he also emphasized the need for a more grassroots approach to reproductive health education which involves not just schools but barangays and parents as well.
"We need to help young people and their parents through intensified health and education programs," Gatchalian said in Filipino. "Parents need to be capacitated in terms of effectively talking to their childlren about sexuality and reproductive health issues."
Proposed legislative interventions
Gatchalian last month filed Senate Bill No. 1985 which seeks to institutionalize in every barangay and municipality the Parent Effective Service Program, meant to help parents and parent substitutes "enhance their knowledge, skills, and attitude in parenting."
Meanwhile, Sen. Risa Hontiveros earlier this week renewed her call for the passage of Senate Bill No. 161, which she filed in July 2019, seeking to institutionalize social protection for teenage parents.
In the lower house, Rep. Lawrence Fortun (Agusan del Norte) said he and other lawmakers filed House Bill No. 5679 "that seeks to educate adolescents on sexual and reproductive health."
Fortun told ANC's "Dateline" on Friday afternoon that the proposed measure also seeks to "afford [adolescents] access to comprehensive reproductive health programs and services."
The lawmaker added that this would be achieved "through the institutionalization of a program of action and investment plan to be implemented a national council that spearheads and coordinates the program of action and investment plan from the national level down to the grass roots."
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