Senator Win Gatchalian is calling for a more aggressive government response to prevent young girls from being pregnant and falling in the trap of “intergenerational poverty.”
The chair of the Senate basic education committee issued the statement in response to the Commission on Population and Development’s (POPCOM) report that pregnancies among minors aged 10-14 was up by 7 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year.
Gatchalian also warned that the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to further increase the number of adolescent pregnancies, citing experiences from past calamities and disasters.
When Typhoon Yolanda struck, 23.5 percent of teenage girls in Eastern Visayas got pregnant, according to a study by the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP).
Gatchalian said curbing the surge of adolescent pregnancies requires reproductive health education with a grassroots approach, which will mobilize schools and barangays in reaching out to girls and their parents.
Keeping girls in schools, he said, is the best strategy to prevent teenage pregnancy, where they can access information and sexuality education.
“Bago pa tumama ang pandemya sa ating bansa ay isang krisis nang maituturing ang pagdami ng mga kaso ng teenage pregancy sa bansa,” he said.
“Sa ating pagtugon sa krisis na ito, kailangan nating tulungan ang mga kabataan at ang kanilang mga magulang sa pamamagitan ng mga mas pinaigting na programang pang-kalusugan at edukasyon,” said Gatchalian.
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
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