(Message of REP. EDCEL C. LAGMAN at the “Balitaan sa Hotel Rembrandt” on 28 September 2007)
With close to 20 million adolescents in the Philippines today, the current adolescent population is the biggest in our history. This age group of 10-19 year olds comprises a whopping 22.5% or almost a fourth of the entire Philippine population of 88.7 million.
Verily, the health concerns of this population, which includes adolescent reproductive health, should be an indispensable and integral component of public health.
Adolescence is a time of both diverse physical and emotional changes in a young person. Moreover, adolescence is also characterized as a period fraught with vulnerability and insecurities even as it is also a time when a person is most receptive to new ideas and values.
It is during this period that young people are most likely to engage in risky behavior typical of the young but at the same time, it is also the period wherein they naturally progress towards physical and psychological maturity and thus develop their adult identities and solidify their belief systems. Clearly, this is a time when young people need an environment that encourages them to seek information and guidance.
Experts assert that although this is generally a period of good health for most young people, “many adolescents often are less informed, less experienced, and less comfortable accessing family planning and reproductive health services than adults.” They are also most likely to meet resistance or even outright hostility and opposition from adults when they do try to seek reproductive health information and services.
Therefore, they are exposed to an increased risk of unplanned pregnancy, contracting HIV-AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted sexual overtures and other problems which may have health consequences that could affect their future.
It important to underscore that adolescent girls face grave reproductive health risks primarily because of their age. Maternal deaths account for 14% of all deaths among women and because young girls’ bodies are not ready for pregnancy and childbirth, 75% of all these deaths happen to girls aged 14 to 19 years old. Out of every 100 pregnant women in the Philippines, 30 are adolescent girls (SPPR 2004). It is alarming that almost 10% of all Filipino women aged 15-19 have already given birth even as this age group also has the lowest prevalence of contraceptive use (NDHS 1998).
If these data were not disturbing enough, according to the Department of Health (DOH), not only is it more probable that women below 20 years old will die from pregnancy and childbirth related causes, children born to these women are also more likely to die before they reach the age of five.
Young men are also at greater risk of contracting STIs not only because peer pressure may force them to take on the services of sex workers but also because they are ignorant of methods that can protect them from disease and protect their partners from unplanned pregnancies.
Programs and projects that can ensure access to reproductive health services, provide accurate information and help adolescents develop life skills are fundamental to the future of adolescents. Such programs will not only make certain that that their health needs are met, these guarantee that their reproductive health rights are protected and fulfilled.
This is precisely what House Bill 17 or the “Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development Act of 2007” aims to ensure. Section 3 (j) of the proposed measure clearly states that “respect for, protection and fulfillment of reproductive health rights seek not only to promote the rights and welfare of adult individuals and couples but those of adolescents’ and children’s as well”. Adolescent and youth health is also one of the 11 elements of reproductive health under the bill [Sec. 4(g5)].
HB 17 also mandates the teaching of courses on reproductive health and sexuality from Grade V to Fourth Year High School. These courses shall be taught in an age-appropriate manner by adequately trained teachers and shall include, among others, the following topics: (1) reproductive health and sexual rights; (2) responsible parenthood; (3) responsible sexuality; (4) modern and traditional methods of family planning; (5) proscription and hazards of abortion and post-abortion complications; and (6) abstinence before marriage.
According to the United Nations Population Fund: “it has been repeatedly shown that reproductive health education leads to responsible behavior; higher levels of abstinence, later initiation of sexuality, higher use of contraception and fewer sexual partners.”
Research also shows that it is not incongruous to teach simultaneously both contraceptive use and abstinence before marriage. “Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy”, a report released by the US National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in 2001, concluded that: “(1) sexuality and HIV education do not hasten sexual activity; (2) education about abstinence and contraception are compatible rather than in conflict with each other; and (3) making condoms available does not increase sexual behavior”.
Moreover, in The Hidden Epidemic: Confronting Sexually Transmitted Diseases published by the National Academy Press states that the most effective reproductive health and sexuality education programs include the following components: “stressing the importance of delaying sexual activity, providing contraceptive information, addressing social and media influences, and building communication and negotiation skills.” Again, this shows that teaching the youth about contraception together with abstinence is not contradictory.
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a review of 1,050 articles on sex education programs and it asserts that there is no proof to buttress the contention that sex education encourages sexual experimentation or increased sexual activity. It concludes that “if any effect is observed, almost without exception, it is in the direction of postponed initiation of sexual intercourse and/or effective use of contraception."
An effective reproductive health education program does not only instill consciousness of freedom of choice but responsible exercise of one’s rights. Our failure to provide adolescents with appropriate, accurate and timely information and services concerning reproductive health will be a disservice to the youth because keeping them ignorant and misinformed is tantamount to putting both their health and future at risk.
We should protect the health of our children, not put their wellbeing in jeopardy. We must educate our children, not keep them ignorant. We must ensure for them a bright future, not diminish their chances of leading productive lives.
Through the passage of HB 17 we can help ensure that young Filipinos are not deprived of the necessary information and services that will secure their reproductive self determination and guarantee good health for them and their offspring.