CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – A total of 311 live births in Central Luzon were delivered by young adolescents aged 10 to 14.
The Commission on Elections has warned that teenage pregnancy in the region has remained alarming with the incidence of younger girls giving births.
Citing the latest civil-registry statistics for 2019 from the Philippine Statistics Authority, PopCom said that births among adolescent girls remained high in the region contributing a total of 20,974 or 31.27 percent of the total adolescent birth rate in the country.
With this finding, PopCom acting regional director Maricar Prieto said the agency will intensify its initiatives in adolescent health and development in partnership with local government units even amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It shall also focus on the study of various factors at play in the prevalence of teen pregnancy.
“Empirical evidence gathered suggests the interplay of information and communication technology, poverty, lack of access to reproductive health information and services, ineffective parental guidance, negative peer pressure, and early engagement in risky behaviors are among the crucial factors attributed to the prevalence of teenage pregnancy,” Prieto explained.
She said that PopCom asserts the issue as both a health and development concern as it affects the health and total development of the individual with implications on the family, the community and socioeconomic development.
“Children born to very young mothers are at a higher risk of diseases and death while teenage mothers who have given birth are more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes and are restrained from pursuing educational and employment opportunities,” Prieto added. —Carlo Lorenzo J. Datu/PIA–3
