Philippines - Teenage Pregnancy Has Increased 70% in 10 Years

lol pato, dont they come with sizes? probably just didnt know their right size :-)

 

They do: small finger size, thumb size, middle finger size.

 

wow pat0 that big ? im out

 

And here all this time she thought she was the "only one"!

I married a 24 year old virgin 10 years ago. She is Christian but not Catholic, went to private schools here in Dumaguete, and was supervised nearly 24 hours of each day up until the time she climbed on the back of my motorcycle at age 24.

There are other virgins in her extended family who are considerably older than that. I have personally known several more from other families both prior to and since that time.

Does abstinence work for everyone? No, obviously not. Does it work for a few with good values? Yes.

Larry

 

I'm Filipino and yes, I too think that overpopulation is the single biggest problem the Philippines is facing. The Philippines has a little less of the land area of the UK, and yet we have like a third of the population of the United States. That's insane, to put it mildly. It's the real reason behind the poverty, the pollution, the abysmal education system, and the rapid environmental degradation of the islands since the 1950s. When you look at Malaysia or Indonesia for example, they still retain almost all of their forest cover, and have relatively higher standards of living on average than the Philippines (although their governments tend to be far more authoritarian).

However, I believe teenage pregnancy has nothing to do with it.

The real reason is either old-time values and/or a lack or ignorance of contraceptives. I myself come from a family of 6 kids. My mom comes from a family of 8. My father a family of 7. Thing is, these were all conceived within marriage. Our families are small-scale sugarcane and tomato farmers, and are first and second generation immigrants to Northern and Central Mindanao. At the time of our grandparents, our town was still a sleepy little mountain village where the nearest city was a trip of several days to the coast. They certainly didn't have contraceptives, nor much in terms of amusing themselves on rainy days. Those only came later when our area rapidly developed after highways became paved and universities nearby started attracting more students. My parents meanwhile, though educated and had access to contraceptives, had 6 kids simply because it was the norm. It was what the church taught them and more kids meant they could expect more hands to help the family later on.

I'm a bit hopeful though that most of my friends my age (late twenties) seem to have learned from this already. Some of them did get pregnant out of wedlock in their college years (hormones of course), but all of them (including the married ones) have plans for (or already have) only 1 or 2 children and no more.

The problem is, we're a minority overall. We all came from middle class families and are highly educated. A large majority of the working class, however, still live in pretty much the same situation as my grandparents did due to poverty. And given that poverty tends to encourage faith, they do take to heart what the church still teaches them. That a good Christian's main mission on Earth is to have as many babies as possible. And that's exactly what's happening.

Several of our farm workers are around my age. They come from poor and/or indigenous families. Families that are invariably large. And they're trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty because they simply have no idea what a condom even is, and even if they did the local priest explicitly told them they were evil. They didn't get education because their families were too large for their parents to afford it. So they end up only being employable in menial jobs. They then do exactly the same mistakes their parents did - go on and have an entire litter of kids. Kids that in turn don't get an education either and are barely supported by the minimum wage jobs of their parents who work themselves to death. Kids whose future prospects are just as grim.

Abstinence has never worked. Ever. But then again, what else did you expect from taking reproductive advice from celebate clergy? The only way it will work, other than siring an unusually intelligent and responsible bunch, is if you raise your kids completely ignorant of everything in the real world and deathly afraid of sex.

And most importantly, abstinence is a false solution. As an argument, it would only really apply if you were concerned about single parents. But definitely not for overpopulation, where the main perpetrators are people who already have all the legal and moral blessings to boink as much as they want to, by virtue of being married.

 

Good post. However, the original topic was teenage pregnancy, not the exploding populace. Abstinence can work to prevent teenage pregnancy, to a certain extent, but it comes right back to depending on the education/poverty issue that you raised. However abstinence will not help in terms of population control for the reasons you listed.

Larry

 

Well.. the OP did bring up the RH Bill. :P

Anyway regarding abstinence in terms of teenage pregnancies, I'd agree with you actually that upbringing can do a lot to prevent teenage pregnancies (most of my friends who got pregnant early came from rather dysfunctional families). But I also think mere abstinence is not going to cut it for the simple reason that it's extremely unfair to women. Women are sexual creatures too.

While adult virgin women are not exactly rare in the Philippines – and I still find it mildly insulting when foreigners tend to confuse Filipinas with the Thai sex industry, mostly because you guys tend to only come in contact with the igatan (shamelessly flirty) and the "semi-pro" bar girls LOL – I don't really find it a virtuous thing to be forced to remain a virgin simply because society frowns on adult women having sexual urges (remaining a virgin by choice is another matter, one I respect). Men are not only not restrained by such rules, but they are expected to not be virgins anymore by the time they're 25. So why should I judge women for that criteria?

Unintended pregnancy, by contrast, is a big deal. A far bigger deal than simply retaining virginity. One which not only has life-ruining consequences for the mother but also for the child. The father may abandon her, her family may disown her, they could be forced into a miserable marriage, etc. When you consider this into the equation, I'd much rather they know their options, know not only that they can say no but that if ever they say yes for whatever reason (because like SteveB said - hormones can be a very persuasive thing, not to mention puppy love), there is a way for them to still choose to stay safe. Not only from unwanted pregnancies but also from STDs.

Also hi. This is just my second post. I came upon this forum by accident (I'm not even a Dumagueteño) while looking for a place to vent my frustrations on SmartBro's latest d*** move. LOL I must say, it's fun reading the experiences and opinions (both negative and positive) you expats have of the Philippines. Two of my sisters married foreigners, and another is an NZ citizen, so I can relate somewhat.

 

What does "fair" have to do with it? I think it is more unfair for a woman to have a child out of wedlock. Unfair to herself, and unfair to the child.