CAGAYAN de Oro City Councilor Jocelyn Rodriguez is pushing for the passage of an ordinance addressing the increasing cases of teenage pregnancy in the city which for her is alarming.
In her special report Monday, December 9, Rodriguez said Northern Mindanao is second in the entire country with the most number of teenage pregnancies, citing a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in its National Demographic and Health Survey in 2017.
The data showed that 15 percent of young women within the 15-19 age bracket is bearing a child, compared to the 9 percentage in the national level.
Rodriguez also learned that in 2017, Cagayan de Oro had a total 13,405 deliveries, and 79 women who gave birth are between the ages of 10 to 14 years old, while 1,763 of them are 15-19 years old.
In the first six months of 2018, 14 of the 6,998 total deliveries were women aged 10-14.
"This is alarming. I will submit a proposed ordinance called Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Ordinance," she said.
The lady councilor said the rise of teenage pregnancy cases is more than just a personal and character problem.
"Our most common perception, it is a health related, personal, or character problem. But several studies show that it is not only a health problem, but a social problem largely contributed by gender inequality," she said.