THE House Committee on Youth and Sports Development chaired by Isabela Rep. Faustino Michael Dy III on Thursday approved several measures on adolescent pregnancy prevention.
Approved subject to style and amendments were House Bill 79 authored by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman; HB 2062 by Rizal Rep. Juan Fidel Felipe Nograles; HB 2524 by Calamba City Rep. Charisse Anne Hernandez; HB 3211 by Samar Rep Stephen James Tan; HB 5559 by Quezon City Rep. Patrick Vargas; HB 6901 by La Union Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega; and HB 6964 by KABATAAN Party-list Rep. Raoul Danniel Manuel.
The measures seek to provide for a national policy on preventing adolescent pregnancies.
Meanwhile, House Resolution 288 by Valenzuela City Rep. Rex Gatchalian was taken into consideration during the approval of the said bills.
In his opening remarks during the meeting, Rep. Dy shared that in 2019, the Philippines was the Southeast Asian country with the second highest adolescent birth rate at 5.9 percent of teenage pregnancy rate in girls aged 15 to 19 years old.
Laos was first at 6.33 percent. He noted that back in 2019, some 2,411 girls with ages 10 to 14 gave birth, observing a continued surge of teenage pregnancies over the past 11 years.
Rep. Dy cited the 2020 World studies which showed the Philippines has 47 births annually for 1,000 women aged 15 -19 years old which was higher than the average adolescent birth rates of 44 percent globally and 33.5 percent in the ASEAN region.
In his sponsorship remarks, Lagman pointed out that adolescent pregnancies and childbirths account for the high rate of maternal mortality, adding that, “Adolescent mothers should be fixtures of the past but until today, teenage mothers still abound even in progressive and developed countries.”
The Commission on Population and Development, Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) were among the government agencies that gave an update on the trend of teenage and adolescent pregnancies.
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