Teen pregnancies are on the rise. According to the Commission on Population and Development, the number of 15-year-old girls and younger who gave birth went up by seven percent from 2018 to 2019.
“As a national and social emergency, the spread of teenage pregnancy across the archipelago still persists at an alarming rate,” Popcom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III was quoted as saying in a report.
So far no figures have been provided yet for last year, but they fear that the figures may have risen again, considering the quarantine that was imposed in many areas of the country because of the pandemic.
The consequences of having many teen pregnancies are dire. Aside from leading to having a runaway population, we are also faced with the possibility of an entire generation of young parents who may not yet be financially as well as emotionally equipped to bring up children.
This means their children may also grow up lacking the wherewithal and guidance they need to become productive members of society. They may also end up as young parents themselves, resulting in an endless cycle where one problem will lead to the other.
This will result in another host of issues, and not just for that families and communities, but also the entire country. The government has to step in in cases where people cannot take care of themselves or their families, you can probably imagine how taxing that will be to any administration.
Action must be taken, in particular the strengthening of reproductive health education, as recommended by the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines.
This isn’t just a call to action for the government. Considering that every administration seems to struggle with sufficient funding, everyone --most especially parents with young children-- has a part to play to make sure teenage pregnancies are avoided.
This problem isn’t out of control for now, but we cannot say the same for it in the years to come.