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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Wednesday, June 21, 2017
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MANILA – The Philippines needs a national policy that will address teenage pregnancies, according to Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
Senate Bill No. 1482, authored by Hontiveros, seeks to institutionalize social protections for teenage parents.
“Teen pregnancy has serious consequences for young women, their children and communities as a whole,” said the senator. “Too-early childbearing increases the likelihood that a young woman will drop out of school.”
The Philippines has the highest teenage pregnancy rate among Southeast Asian countries, according to the United Nations Population Fund.
Twenty-four babies are delivered by teenage mothers every hour, the Philippine Statistics Authority said, while from 2011 to 2014, one in 10 women of child-bearing age was a teenager, Local Civil Registry Office data showed.
Moreover, 14 percent of Filipino girls aged 15 to 19 were either pregnant for the first time or already mothers in 2014 — more than twice the rate recorded in 2002 — based on a Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality study.
Adolescent girls must be educated and given access to age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, according to the Senate bill.
“Teenage pregnancy perpetuates the cycle of poverty and inequality because most pregnant teenagers have no source of income and face greater financial difficulties later in life,” Hontiveros said./PN
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