Teen Pregnancy: The Downfall of the Filipino Youth By Alessandra Isabelle So Gazo

Ragged breaths echo around the room, the musky scent of sweat accompanied by the constant banging of the headboard to the adjacent wall. Cries of pleasure resonate throughout the four walls of the dilapidated bedroom. Two beings synchronized in an unpredictable yet rhythmic pattern, naïve to the possible consequences. Yet nine months later, she holds a miniature hand in her palm, but no one to hold hers. She’s only fifteen. 

Teenage pregnancy is the biggest problem women and girls face in the Philippines. Based on data from the World Bank, as seen in the United Nations Fund for Population Activities' (UNFPA) January 2020 Policy Brief on Eliminating Teenage Pregnancy in the Philippines, there are “47 annual births per 1000 Filipinas (aged 15 - 19)” with the global average being 44, and “everyday 500 adolescent girls are either getting pregnant or giving birth.” 

These girls are usually coming from lower income households, as statistically adolescent girls from higher income households are at lower risk for experiencing a teenage pregnancy. These girls are already struggling financially due to the situation they were born into, a victim of a lack of quality education due to the inherently flawed public school system, now add a child into the mix. A child they had no choice but to carry to term because abortion is still illegal in the Philippines. How do you care for a child, if you are a child yourself and all the odds seem to be pitted against you? 

Having a child so young could rob these adolescents of a better future. Filipinos strongly believe in owning up to their own problems. If these girls unfortunately have no support system who would be willing to help them raise the child, they could be thrown out or forced to stay home and care for the child. These girls would be told, “Problema mo, ikaw mag-ayos” which means “It’s your problem, so it’s your responsibility to fix it.” They’re likely to drop out of school which leads to having no diploma thus being immediately disadvantaged when applying for jobs in the corporate world. They might resort to illegal means, such as prostitution and drug pushing just to make ends meet, and it is a struggle, close to nearly impossible, to see the light at the end of the tunnel as the cycle of poverty repeats itself once again. It’s not only the parents’ lights who dim, but also the child’s. 

The problem of Philippine’s teenage pregnancy issue roots from the lack of sex education and the age of consent. As a predominantly Catholic nation, it is expected that one saves themselves for marriage;

so, discussing sexual intercourse otherwise known as the “birds and the bees talk” is not something Filipino children and adolescents normally get from their parents. The fear of “discussing sex” results in the lack of quality information in sexual education (SexEd) subjects. Sex education curriculums in schools have only been implemented roughly 7 - 8 years ago coinciding with the passing of the Reproductive Health and Responsible Parenthood Act of 2012 (RH Act). However, these classes are still at their beginning stages and are usually not heavily required, so a lot of Filipinos are still uneducated about the proper use of contraceptives, and essentially safe sex. Due to the country’s values being heavily Catholic-based, the discussion of contraceptives and abortion is hindered because it goes against what Catholic doctrines teach. 

The Philippine age of consent, since 1930, is 12 years old. How could a child consent to sex when according to research, their brains won’t reach maturity until the age of 25. The extremely young age of consent allows for older people to prey on experimental adolescents, thus grooming them, and potentially even impregnating them. 

To address the lack of sex education and extremely young age of consent is vital for more young women to have the life they deserve. Currently, lawmakers are lobbying to increase the age of consent, but we the people should be more vocal in holding these lawmakers accountable, so they won’t keep on pushing this issue to the backburner. As for the lack of sex education, there must be an active push to normalize talk about sex. Misconceptions on how sex education encourages the youth to engage in premarital sex should be debunked as the lack of sex education leads to more uninformed choices with undesirable consequences. 

Teenage pregnancy will not be an issue, someone will finally be there to hold her hand, and not let it be her downfall.