Pre-teen pregnancies are rising in the Philippines - critics blame the Catholic Church

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Pre-teen pregnancies are rising in the Philippines – critics blame the Catholic Church

Kessa was just 13 years old when she became pregnant with her daughter. A “taboo topic” in the Philippines, she hadn’t felt able to ask anyone about sex and received no education about it in school.

A year later she had another child, a son, and today, at 17, has forfeited her studies in order to provide for her children. “It’s hard to be a young mum because you need to sacrifice everything for them,” she says.

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However, experts are increasingly theorising that the Catholic Church – and the culture of “prevailing conservatism” it’s created in the Philippines – could be partly responsible, by erecting barriers to contraception and sex education.

Almost 90 per cent of the population adhere to a form of Christianity, including Catholicism, which discourages sex before marriage and the use of condoms or the pill.

This has made it very difficult for schools and campaigners to educate young children about sex and emphasise the need for protection, such is the Church’s hold and influence on civic life in the Philippines.

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Felie Mae Ferman, an adolescent health and development coordinator with the local government in General Santos City, meanwhile told of how her team has to censor sex education in certain schools, removing any mention of contraception.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pre-teen-pregnancies-are-rising-in-the-philippines-critics-blame-the-catholic-church/ar-BB1kei2j