Teenage pregnancies may increase by more than 20 percent during quarantine amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a Commission on Population and Development official said.
Executive Director Juan Perez, citing a study by the University of the Philippines Population Institute and the United Nations Population Fund, said pregnancies among teenagers aged between 15 and 19 might increase by 21 percent amid the pandemic.
“For ages 15-19, if the quarantine is 10 months, there is an increase of 21 percent of teenage pregnancies,” Perez said during a forum on the Linggo ng Kabataan.
Perez noted that recorded live births among the said age group had decreased to 178,000 in 2019 from 201,000 live births recorded in 2016. However, he said the lower number still meant almost 500 teens giving birth a day on average.
He also stressed that teenagers who had given birth and were living with their partners were especially vulnerable to repeat pregnancies.
“They have less access to family planning services, so the likelihood of repeat pregnancy rises. That’s why we also worry about repeat pregnancies,” he said.
Perez said around 166,000 families in the country were led by teenage mothers below 18 years old.
He said teenage women who were unable to finish high school due to pregnancy lose lifetime wage earnings of around P33 billion.
“The effect of pregnancy on young people who do not finish high school is that when they want to look for a job, they face a decrease in income by almost 6 percent,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the observance of “Linggo ng Kabataan,” the Department of Health, Commission on Population and Development and National Youth Commission have joined together to enable conversations among Filipino youth centered on pressing issues currently affecting them, particularly those concerning teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and mental health problems.
The celebration, which culminated in a joint virtual event Thursday, serves as a platform for Filipino adolescents and youth to engage with each other, along with experts and medical professionals, in accessing appropriate health information, training, and services enhancing their abilities to come up with informed decisions on their health and other development concerns.