Herbosa: DOH mapping out initiatives to prevent teen pregnancy

Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa —RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa is considering making “modern methods of contraception” accessible to younger age groups to prevent unwanted pregnancies that could compromise the health of the mother and the unborn child.

In a Palace briefing following a sectoral meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday, Herbosa explained that teenage expectant mothers are more likely to neglect their pregnancies because these are often unplanned.

READ: Pass teen pregnancy prevention bill now, PH government urged

Women who plan their pregnancies, on the other hand, are more likely to be proactive about their own and their child’s health.

“For the childhood pregnancy, my thinking is if I am able to make modern methods of contraception available, I can half that; I can half the mortalities due to childhood pregnancies,” Herbosa said.

“If the pregnancy is planned, proper nutrition will surely be ensured, right? Prenatal checkups will be done, and the diet will be monitored. But it’s the unplanned pregnancy that gives us the low birth weight, small-for-gestational age, or low birth weight. These babies are born underweight right from birth,” he also said.

He cited implantable kinds of contraception as something that can be made available to adolescents.

“We already have the Reproductive Health Law. I just have to make it available in clinics and probably for people to ask for it. We are having a problem here because it seems like some parents and some sectors want parental consent for minors to get access to these reproductive health products,” Herbosa explained when asked whether he will push for the institutionalization of a program that will make contraceptives available to adolescents.

“Huwag na tayong maglokohan, because they have sex anyway, so hindi ko naman sila mahinto to have sex, right? So, probably give them protection for safe sex that will not go unplanned,” he added.

(Let’s not kid ourselves—they’re going to have sex anyway, and I can’t stop them from doing so, right? So it’s probably better to provide them with protection to ensure safe sex and prevent unplanned pregnancies.)

According to the Commission on Population and Development, a total of 3,135 girls younger than 15 years old gave birth in 2022.

This was a 35.13 percent increase from the 2,320 recorded in 2021.

READ: Popcom ‘deeply concerned’ about rise in teen pregnancies

With that, population and development advocates called for the urgent passage of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill to curb rising teenage pregnancies.

The United Nations Population Fund, Commission on Population and Development, and Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development made their appeal on World Population Day 2024, emphasizing that the proposed measure would empower social justice and provide comprehensive action to address adolescent pregnancy in the country.