Rise in teenage pregnancy ‘due moral values breakdown’

A PRIEST said Monday that the increase of teenage pregnancy cases is due to the breakdown of moral values.

Msgr. Rey Monsanto, Jesus of Nazarene Parish priest and Archdiocese consulter, said the surge of teenage pregnancy, especially to those who are still in high school and college, in the country is alarming.

He said the schools, parents and religious sector probably did not impart proper values to the children.

“Maybe the exposure of youths in media like in films, particularly television shows in the international scene, did not give proper values,” he said. “It is really a show of a breakdown of moral values. The solution would be on the moral grounds since morality is being questioned.”

Monsanto said contraceptives like condoms, pills and other means is not a solution to the surge of teenage pregnancy and moral breakdown.

“In fact, it would increase moral breakdown since the youth will become dependent on contraceptive use,” he said.

Monsanto said he was sent to New Mexico in relation to teenage pregnancy problem and that some would no longer enter in schools.

“The community and the local government unit in the area were alarmed and so they put up a school in order for the youth to undergo schooling. The youth were allowed to bring their children to schools for breastfeeding in proper time,” he said.

With this, he urged the youth to understand and know moral values because it is important.

“The schools should also impart right moral values,” he added.

Earlier, the National Youth Commission expressed alarm on the surge of teenage pregnancies in the country, based on the report of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

According to the UNFPA, teenage pregnancy in the Philippines increased by 70 percent over the past 10 years.

It added that the country ranks first with a pregnancy rate of 53 in every 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 among Asean’s six major economies.

In the NYC’s National Youth Assessment Study, it was revealed that unplanned pregnancy is one of the main reasons why young people do not finish their education.