There ought to be a law on teenage pregnancy in the country, according to the Commission on Population Development (CPD).
The CPD said it is closely monitoring the incidence of pregnancy among very young adolescents nationwide, and was alarmed at the increase in the number of very young and unwed females expecting to be mothers soon.
The CPD noted that the incidence of teenage pregnancy in the country increased considerably between 2021 and 2022.
The agency also noted a spike in total live births by young girls under 15 years old.
“We cannot overemphasize the significance of having the bill enacted.
It is my strong belief, and that of the agency’s, that its enactment will be essential in addressing the lingering concern of early child-bearing and motherhood among a great number of our juvenile Filipino girls,” CPD executive director Lisa Grace Bersales said.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) most recent release of registered live births in the Philippines, babies born from this age group rose to 3,135 in 2022 from 2,320 in 2021, or went up by 35.13 percent.
“Although live births from adolescent girls 14 years old and below make up just 0.22 percent of total live births recorded, CPD is still deeply concerned about the increase in adolescent pregnancy, especially among our very young girls,” said Bersales, who is also undersecretary for Population and Development (POPDEV).
Given the situation, Bersales reiterated CPD’s call to its government partners and stakeholders to strongly support the agency’s proposal for Congress to prioritize the passage of the “Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill.”
In September 2023, the House of Representatives approved on its second reading House Bill 8910, or the proposed “Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Act,” which provides for a national policy to arrest the growing number of cases of childbearing and child births among adolescents.
Bersales reinforced Congress’ stand on the situation’s adverse effects not only on the affected persons, but on Philippine society in general: “I underscore Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez’s statement that this issue’s social cost and its negative impact on the national budget could run into billions of pesos—in terms of the government having to take care of young mothers and their babies; not to mention the human-development aspect that we have to take into consideration.”
The CPD official pointed out that the bill’s passage will be vital in the implementation of the Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action or PPD POA 2023, which was approved by Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. via Memorandum Circular 40 on November 14, 2023. Under the action plan’s eight key strategies is the further advancement of Filipino teens’ health and development, where the phenomenon of early parenthood is specifically addressed.
“PPD-POA covers bolstering of the implementation and promotion of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in schools and communities, improved availability and access of adolescents to sexual and reproductive health and other social services, plus promoting and sustaining youth development and participation initiatives at the community level, with specific tactics to tackle adolescent pregnancies head-on at every level of society,” Bersales said.
With regard to CSE and related measures, she insisted on the need to institute and support strategic interventions, such as those being implemented by the Department of Education that have effectively reduced dropouts due to teenage pregnancies. Recently, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte mentioned in her “2024 Basic Education Report” that DepEd’s promotion of “Alternative Delivery Modes” was able to notably bring down the number of dropouts caused by teenage pregnancies and early marriages.
“Above and beyond these well-laid plans of the government, it is our stand in CPD that the lasting solution to the prevalent concern of early teen pregnancies should begin at the household level,” the CPD chief emphasized. “While we exhaust efforts through a whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approach, we remind the parents and guardians of our youth that their roles in their respective families cannot be simply downplayed, as they are responsible in molding their children as productive members of the larger Philippine society,” Bersales said.