“We can prevent cases of teenage pregnancy if all of us will act and talk about sex education as adults.”
This according to Laguna 3rd District Rep. Sol Aragones as she emphasized the need to establish an inter-agency national policy to prevent teenage pregnancies and to institutionalize social protection for teenage parents.
“A poor understanding of reproductive health can have adverse affects on the lives of our youth.”
Aragones, the Chair of the House Committee on Population and Family Relations in the 17th Congress, lamented that reports of teenage pregnancies remain alarming as she revealed that she had re-filed House Bill (HB) 2297, or the Prevention of Adolescent Pregancy Act of 2017, with Albay 1st District Representative Edcel Lagman as co-author.
“Underaged and unmarried youth continue to have limited access to sex education and adolescent sexual and reproductive health services. We have to provide them proper information because a poor understanding of reproductive health can have adverse affects on the lives of our youth,” said the third-term legislator.
HB 2297 enjoins cooperation between the Sangguniang Kabataan and national agencies including the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, National Youth Commission, Commmission on Welfare of Children, Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, Population Commission, and local government units to spearhead the education and information drive and faciliate the overall implementation and regulation of preventing adolescents’ involvement in activities that are facilitative of sexual engagements.
“It may be our responsibility as adults to guide the youth, but we must ensure that their voices are heard in the protection and advancement of their own rights,” said Aragones.
“Teenage pregnancy perpetuates the cycle of poverty and inequality.”
According to the lawmaker, teenage pregnancy has serious consequences on the lives of the young parents and their children.
“Teenage pregnancy perpetuates the cycle of poverty and inequality, as it does not only negatively impact the lives of young parents and their children, but also disenfranchises them from economic opportunities as adolescent pregancy forces a majority of teenage parents to abandon their education.”
According to the Population Commission (POPCOM), 24 babies are born to teenage mothers every hour and almost 200,000 Filipino teens get pregnant annually, most of them from ages 15 to 19.
POPCOM added that Filipino teens who were exposed to vice or the internet at an early age usually end up with unplanned pregnancies.