Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 3) — The Commission on Population and Development (PopCom) has expressed concern over the “worrying” number of 10- to 14-year-old girls who are getting pregnant even as a significant decline has been recorded in teenage pregnancies over the past five years.
PopCom Executive Director Lisa Grace Bersales urged lawmakers and other stakeholders Thursday to study policies that could prevent adolescent pregnancies because of their impact on the health and future of young mothers.
Citing information from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Bersales said during the hearing of the House Committee on Youth and Sports that 2,113 births were recorded from the 10- to 14-year-old age group in 2020. Data from the Department of Health, meanwhile, showed 2,299 girls aged 10 to 14 gave birth in 2021.
“Our concern now are births from 10 to 14, the much younger teenage girls… The statistics vary depending on the source of data but they are all worrying. If I may emphasize, the 10 to 14 may be something that we need to look into,” she said.
Based on the fifth Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study, the rate of 15- to 19-year-old girls who gave birth in 2021 was halved from 13.7 percent in 2013 to 6.8 percent.
While the PopCom official confirmed the decline in teenage pregnancies, she said the data still needs to be validated because the study was conducted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when various restrictions were imposed.
“We still have to undergo a more in-depth study on whether it was the pandemic that produced the reduction or if there were some interventions that government agencies did that had this positive impact,” Bersales said.
At least five bills have been filed in the 19th Congress for the creation of a policy to prevent adolescent pregnancies. Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, who authored one of the pending measures, said teenagers aged 16 years old and above should be allowed access to contraceptives even without parental consent.
The Supreme Court in 2014 struck down a provision in Republic Act 10354 or the reproductive health law that allowed minors who have been pregnant or miscarried to access family planning and reproductive health services without parental consent.
