“Pass the Teen Pregnancy Prevention bill now!” is the call of four hundred civil society organizations and government agencies to the Senate, as the bill remains stalled despite being a national priority since 2021 due to the rising number of adolescent pregnancies. “Nanawagan talaga tayo sa mga colleagues sa kabilang chamber sa Senado na i-prioritize na ang batas na ito [We are really urging our colleagues in the Senate to prioritize this bill],” Raoul Manuel, Kabataan Partylist representative said in his opening statement during a media conference on the Teen Pregnancy Prevention bill last Thursday. Despite the Teenage Pregnancy Prevention bill, or House Bill (HB) 8910, being approved in Congress with a landslide vote of 232-0 on its third and final reading, the Senate version of the bill remains pending.
There are only a few session days left before the adjournment from September 28 to November 3. “Each passing day without the enactment of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Bill leaves young girls vulnerable to an array of dire consequences, such as sexual abuse, infections, high-risk pregnancies, and mental health struggles,” Child Rights Network (CRN) Philippines said in a statement. The delay of the bill continues amid the rising number of live births among minors aged 10-17, increasing from 50,790 in 2021 to 56,574 in 2022, according to the data of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics.
More than 25,000 live births, including second, third, fourth, and even fi.