CALAMBA CITY (PIA) – Empowering the youth to make informed reproductive health choices has helped reduce teenage and adolescent pregnancies in CALABARZON, according to the Commission on Population and Development (CPD).
In an interview with the Usapang PIA radio program, Regional Director Marilyn Ogaya said CPD CALABARZON implements information dissemination drives and programs targeting the youth with the help of the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd), and various local government units.
“We are empowering the youth, their teachers, parents, and the entire community, including the SK (Sangguniang Kabataan), to make informed choices. We provide training to all of them to help avoid early pregnancy and engaging in sex at a young age,” Ogaya explained.
In its latest data, CPD CALABARZON reported that Laguna logged the highest number of teenage pregnancy cases among the region’s five provinces. Meanwhile, Tanza, Cavite, ranked first among the 20 local government units with the highest number of pregnancy cases for girls aged below 15 years old.
“Although there are still many girls aged below 15 years, whom we call ‘very young adolescents,’ getting pregnant, the number of 15- to 19-year-olds who have become mothers is decreasing,” Ogaya explained.
“This decline can be attributed to the massive information dissemination efforts by the Commission on Population and Development, along with our partner agencies like the Department of Health, DepEd, and the local government units who helped implement our programs,” she added.
Citing the 2021 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality study by the University of the Philippines’s Population Institute, CPD CALABARZON’s chief explained that adolescent pregnancies are the result of a combination of socioeconomic factors, including migration, social media, and lack of parental guidance. Urbanization and technology have also influenced the sexual behaviors of adolescents and young adults.
The same study also found that young women aged 15 to 24 have very little access to information (39 percent) on reproductive health and sexuality, gathering material from social media (31 percent). Meanwhile, 26 percent of young men gather their information on sex from social media, or have no access at all (44 percent).
Ogaya noted: “There are more opportunities, such as access to technology, and the current generation of youth is different from our generation in the past.”
“Youngsters get curious, and sometimes parents cannot watch over their children, what they see online, and how they use their gadgets. And because kids are curious, they experiment,” she added.
The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012—more commonly known as the RH Law—became instrumental in providing women and girls with universal access to methods of contraception, fertility control, sexual education, and maternal care.
Other issuances, such as Executive Order 141 signed by then-President Rodrigo Duterte, provided CPD the opportunity to mobilize government mechanisms to address the rising number of teenage pregnancies in the country.
In 2022, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that 10.1 percent of registered births were to mothers aged between 15 and 19 years old, which are considered high-risk pregnancies due to complications during pregnancy and labor that may result in higher morbidity and mortality for both mother and child. (PB/PIA4A)