Let Children Be Children: Pregnancy in Poverty by Hannah Talusan

As the eldest of 3 girls in my family, I have always felt protective of my sisters. Despite how much they can get on my nerves, their safety and well-being is important to me. I have been blessed to be in a position where my safety and well being, as well as those around me, have never been threatened–it has always been a given–as it should be. But I was reminded that this, unfortunately, is not the reality for everyone. I was shattered when I read about 13-year-old Joan Garcia who got pregnant so early on in her life that she had to grow up and drop out of school to take care of her daughter. 

Joan was the same age as one of my sisters when she got pregnant. As a minor, she was denied any medical or child support in raising her child. She lives on “a small raft of bamboo poles and scavenged wood, tied to a broken cement pylon, bobbing behind a row of steel shipping vessels docked in Manila's fish port” (Almendral, 2020). She lives with 16 other relatives, none of which have found any stable jobs nor have any of them graduated from high school. Her family is often left starving and thirsty, getting by by begging sailors for food and water. Already struggling to survive, having to take care of a child makes it all the more difficult. 

Unfortunately, this is the reality many young girls face in the Philippines. According to the NNC, the Philippines has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in ASEAN. The reason for such a high rate is due to the lack of awareness surrounding sex and reproductive health in the country. The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country and as such, many Filipinos have conservative values. The Catholic Church also holds significant power in legislations that are passed and implemented. Bills such as the Reproductive Health law that aimed to mandate sex education and provide minors access to health facilities and contraceptives were deferred due to the objections of religious groups (Cunanan, 2021). The Catholic Bishops Council of the Philippines deemed it as "a major attack on authentic human values and on Filipino cultural values" (Almendral, 2020). 

The Department of Education has also been pushed to include sex education as a part of the curriculum in schools, but while training teachers on teaching sex, several of them had to be excused. They couldn’t control their laughter when discussions on sexual organs came up, complaining that related terminologies were too vulgar to say out loud (Cunanan, 2020). This combined discomfort and limited training in teaching makes it difficult for sex education to be included in the curriculum. 

Teen pregnancy continues to be a source of suffering for many young girls. Bearing a child at such a young age poses many health risks such as maternal mortality and premature birth among others because their bodies are not yet ready to carry a child. They are also likely to develop anxiety and depression as a result of the judgement and rejection they may experience from their family, friends, and their community as a whole. 

As most teen pregnancies occur in marginalised communities, there are also economic ramifications of having a child at such a young age. Teen mothers usually drop out of school in order to

take care of their baby. Being unable to complete their education limits their job opportunities and in turn makes it even more difficult to escape poverty. Intergenerational poverty becomes prevalent and traps them in a vicious cycle they struggle to survive in. 

Different organisations in the Philippines continue to push for awareness on teenage pregnancy and reproductive health. The Commission on Population and Development together with the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development and other government agencies and NGOs have launched the No More Children Having Children campaign pushing Congress to pass bills that will give adolescents access to sex education, health facilities, social protection, and family planning methods. 

All children have the right not only to safety and well-being, but to the enjoyment of their childhood. No one should be forced to bear the responsibility of raising a child by themselves, while they themselves are still children. Awareness and education is where it starts. We must strive to overcome the stigma surrounding sex education in order to protect and guide young girls in making informed decisons, and perhaps one day, they will be ready to become a mother.