‘More than 20,000 repeat pregnancies among teens’

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Population and Development (CPD) is alarmed after recording more than 20,000 repeat pregnancies among adolescents.

Latest CPD data showed there are over 22,000 repeat pregnancies involving teenagers.

“This means they got pregnant again for the second, third and even fourth time,” CPD acting Knowledge Management and Communications Division chief Mylin Mirasol Quiray said yesterday in an interview at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon program.

“The pandemic is a big factor for this, but it is also cultural because the adolescent who got pregnant and the one who impregnated her are forced to live together,” she added.

Repeat pregnancies usually involve girls aged 13 to 15, she noted.

“Anecdotal or qualitative data showed that the girl and the man who got her pregnant are made to live in one house so the chance for the girl to get pregnant again is very high,” she stressed.

“Most of those who get these girls pregnant are senior citizens so there is unequal power relations here. When you are in a relationship with someone older than you, what happens is that the latter is seen as the one powerful, and the younger one doesn’t have a voice, and that is alarming,” Quiray explained.

Pregnant teenagers must be provided with social protection, she said.

“As much as possible we do not want the girl and her partner to cohabitate. Or if they really have to be together, they should also practice family planning,” she added.

“For these young mothers to be able to practice family planning, there should be parental consent,” Quiray said.

The CPD is pushing for the passage of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill.