EDITORIAL - Teenage mothers

From 2000 to 2010, the number of teenage mothers in this country went up by 4.6 percent  and so did teenage maternal deaths, which increased by 5 percent, according to the National Statistics Office. The NSO figures were released in the run-up to World Population Day on July 11, with the United Nations focusing this year on preventing adolescent pregnancies.

The UN estimates that every year, 16 million girls worldwide under age 18 give birth, with another 3.2 million undergoing unsafe abortions. Many of the girls give birth, according to the UN, not due to informed choice but as a consequence of sexual coercion, rights violations including child marriages, inadequate education and discrimination.

The teenage maternal death rate in the Philippines is among the highest in the world. Many of those young lives could have been saved simply with sufficient information on reproductive health. The same information can bring down the maternal death rate among adult women.

For many years, however, national leaders who courted the support of the Catholic Church froze even programs to provide universal access to information on family planning and reproductive health. The galloping birth rate rendered meaningless even the best economic growth rates that previous administrations could achieve. Limited resources simply could not keep pace with the needs of a booming population.

Under a president whose political survival does not hinge on Church support, the previous Congress finally passed the RH law. As expected, the law was elevated to the SC, where it now awaits the final word from the tribunal. So far, no new arguments have been presented. Every point raised during the protracted congressional debates on the issue, including several blatantly misleading ideas, had been argued ad nauseam, starting with the issue on abortion, which is not sanctioned by the RH law. What the measure promotes is contraception: how can you kill a life that has not been conceived?

The people’s voice has been heard, and not just through elected congressional representatives. Surveys by different pollsters have consistently shown overwhelming public support for the passage of the RH law. That law has been enacted, showing that this republic is a democracy, not a theocracy. The RH debate need not be prolonged more than necessary.

As World Population Day was observed, the UN expressed hopes for a world where “every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is safe.” Those international goals can be achieved through the promotion of women’s right to reproductive health.