EDITORIAL - Teenage mothers

It’s good that the Duterte administration is giving priority to the implementation of the Reproductive Health law, which has been stalled by restraining orders issued by the Supreme Court after it upheld the validity of the RH measure that had been debated to death in Congress.

Several avowed “pro-life” opponents of the RH bill in Congress, in the great tradition of political butterflies, have transformed overnight into staunch proponents of the death penalty, aware that its revival is a priority for President Duterte. Capital punishment may be revived with the SC still sitting on the RH Law.

While the SC hems and haws, the United Nations Population Fund has reported that the Philippines is now the only country in the Asia-Pacific where the number of teenage pregnancies has gone up in the past two decades. The UNFPA said girls aged 15 to 19 make up 10 percent of the Philippine population, and one out of 10 of those girls have become mothers.

The UNFPA issued the statement ahead of today’s observance of World Population Day, which focuses on providing support for teenage girls. In picking the theme, “investing in teenage girls,” the United Nations points out that the lack of access to information about their health, human and reproductive rights has left teenage girls around the world vulnerable to illness, injury and exploitation.

The vulnerability is heightened among marginalized girls, including those belonging to minorities or living in poverty or in remote communities, the UN said in its message for this special day.

Reproductive health for all is among the UN Millennium Development Goals that the Philippines has committed to attain. Filipino women with the financial means and sufficient education have enjoyed RH services for a long time, spacing their pregnancies and planning the size of their families as they please. The RH Law was passed to make reproductive health services accessible even to the marginalized.

That commitment should be renewed on World Population Day. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message addressed to governments, businesses and civil society, everyone deserves “a life of security, dignity and opportunity.”