AS the country marks National Women’s Month and Week of the Girl Child, the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) called on lawmakers to the pass long-overdue measure addressing adolescent pregnancy and advancing gender equality.
The call came as serious concerns were raised during the first hearing on 17 versions of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (APP) bill in the House of Representatives, including the case of an eight-year-old girl who got pregnant and gave birth at nine – the youngest documented childbirth in the country.
“No girl deserves this. All of us adults in this room, especially the duty bearers, should not let this situation continue,” PLCPD executive director Au Quilala said.
Quilala noted that adolescent pregnancy is also a public health and development concern. Children born to adolescent mothers face higher risks of low birth weight and malnutrition – conditions that can have lifelong, irreversible effects on their physical and cognitive development, she added.
“Even while still in the womb, complications already abound, Let us not allow this problem to persist,” Quilala said.
Data from the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) also showed a troubling rise in teenage pregnancies, with many cases involving significantly older male partners.
The PLCPD stressed that passage of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill was critical to closing gaps in the Reproductive Health Law and scaling up local responses to what the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development has called a “national social emergency.”
The measure also complements landmark laws previously pushed by PLCPD and the Child Rights Network, including: the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials Act, and the Raising the Age to Determine Statutory Rape Act.
“The Constitution guarantees children the rights to education, health, and protection from abuse and exploitation. These rights must be made real through enabling policies that uphold their best interests. Early and unintended pregnancy is a condition that is prejudicial to girls’ development,” Quilala said.
Beyond the APP bill, PLCPD also called for the passage of key measures advancing women’s rights and gender equality, including the Magna Carta of Workers in the Informal Economy, recognition of unpaid care work of women, gender-responsive amendments to naturalization laws, and sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics equality.
The PLCPD also pushed the passage of Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Act, Protection of the rights of internally displaced persons (IDP), Human Rights Defenders Protection (HRD) Act, Anti-discrimination on the basis of age, race, religion, ethnicity, disability, and SOGIESC, among others, and Institutionalization of women and children protection units (WCPU) in public hospitals.
The group likewise raised concern over misogyny in public discourse and policymaking spaces.
“Recent misogynistic remarks in various spaces, including the halls of Congress, show that we still have much to do to achieve true gender equality. Women continue to be looked down upon, reduced to punchlines, harassed, sexualized, and held to double standards. These must be challenged in both our laws and institutions,” Quilala said.
