PH tops teenage pregnancy in SEA

TEENAGE pregnancy cases in the Philippines  rose by 70 percent in the past 10 years.

This was revealed by Percival Cendaña, Commissioner of the National Youth Commission (NYC) in Cebu last Saturday.

Cerdeña was referring to the study  conducted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) that ranked the country first in terms of teenage pregnancy in Southeast Asia.

Ceredeña  also  cited the NYC’s National Youth Assessment Study that revealed that unplanned pregnancy was one of the main reasons  young people do not complete their education.

The UNFPA study indicated the rate of teenage pregnancy in the country at 53 out of 1,000 Filipino women aged 15 – 19.

“We are not surprised with these figures because for the longest time we don’t have a policy about  educating the youth on reproductive health,” said Cendaña.

“Teen pregnancy is a broad issue and its strongest impact is on the young mother whose future will be jeopardized because she needs to take on the responsibilities of  motherhood at a very young age,” said Cendaña.

The youth official is recommending “Age-appropriate reproductive health education” to address is problem.

Though they are pushing for the passage of the RH bill in response to the growing cases of unplanned pregnancy and risky behaviour of teens, Cendaña said that they are also  pushing for values education and age-appropriate RH education. /Correspondent Tweeny M. Malinao