ACCORDING to a recent survey, 59 percent of Filipinos find teenage pregnancy the most pressing problem facing women today. The number was highest in Mindanao — 67 percent — possibly reflecting the fact that by the time they turn 20, female Mindanaoans are more likely than women of the same age in the Visayas and Luzon to have experienced childbirth.

The survey was conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and commissioned by the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom). Popcom is urging President Rodrigo Duterte to declare the problem of teenage pregnancy a national priority.

Indeed, pregnancy is a serious concern due to adverse effects on the health of the mother and the baby and the socioeconomic costs associated with dropping out of school and additional economic burden faced by the family, according to Maria Paz Marquez of the University of the Philippines (UP) Population Institute. Marquez and her colleague, Elma Laguna, were resource persons in last week’s “Teenage pregnancy: Should it be a national priority?” webinar organized by the Philippine Center for Population and Development and the UP Population Institute.

The two professors’ extensive research shows the difficulties facing women who get pregnant at an early age. However, they also expressed the opinion that the data — the number of teenage pregnancies — does not support making the issue a national priority. They noted a decline in teenage pregnancies over the years indicating that at least some interventions are working. Majority of respondents in the SWS survey likewise found government efforts to address teenage pregnancies adequate. Marquez was concerned that any declaration of teenage pregnancy as an emergency now would take away scarce resources from more grave emergencies confronting the Philippines, namely the Covid-19 pandemic, and the loss of jobs, poverty and hunger as a result of the lockdowns.

Incidentally, at least one new program addressing teenage pregnancies was launched during the pandemic: the foreign-funded The Challenge Initiative, launched in November 2020, is helping local government units (LGUs) address teenage pregnancies. Cagayan de Oro City and Dipolog City in Mindanao and Puerto Princesa City comprise the first batch of LGUs to roll out this project.

While the absolute number of babies born to teenage mothers is relatively modest and declining — from 203,085 in 2016 (United Nations Population Fund or UNFPA) to 180,916 in 2019 (Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA) — the Philippines “has one of the highest adolescent birth rates among the Asean member states,” with 47 births annually per 1,000 of 15-to-19-year-old females compared to the average of 33.5 (UNFPA, November 2020).

UNFPA also pointed out that while about 11 percent of live births were by mothers below 20 years of age, “only 3 percent is fathered by men of the same age group.” Yes, it is normal that the woman is younger than the man, but when the female is a child and the man is older, pregnancy could “be the result of coercion and unequal power relations between girls and older men.” Marquez’s research likewise revealed that a substantial number of births by teenage mothers had no information about the father, suggesting the latter are married men or worse, close relatives.

And this made me wonder how many teenage pregnancies are undocumented and not counted in the statistics. We hear in the news about newborn babies and fetuses being found dumped or hidden away. Girls who are ashamed and scared, with no one to turn to, have been known to hide pregnancy altogether, and give birth, suffer a miscarriage or abortion alone, nobody ever knowing about the pregnancy.

When the fetus or baby is found — sometimes dead, sometimes alive — society is quick to condemn the mother who left her baby to die. We never ask about the father. We never ask what kind of society this is where such a tragedy could happen. For every unwanted teenage pregnancy that ends up with a girl being alone and abandoned when she gives birth or miscarries we have failed big time.

Adult women, too, are victims of inadequate reproductive health information and family planning services. This is evidenced by the continued existence of clandestine abortion clinics. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) recently filed charges against four persons involved in two such clinics in Metro Cebu. According to the NBI, one “clinic” offered abortion at P30,000 while the other dispensed abortion pills. A male suspect had posed as a female ob-gyn doctor, getting patients through a Facebook account. The patients were then brought to the clinics. A friend told me that abortions have also been happening in remote, rural areas for some time and it seems that the government’s responsible parenthood program has been abandoned.

The pandemic with its stayhome orders, curfews and restrictions in movements may have reduced sexual encounters of teenagers, thus preventing at least some pregnancies in this age group. However, such gains are likely short-lived.