Responsibility: Too Much, Too Soon

In this day and age where fitting in seems to be the custom, and torn hymens is in, teenagers are all the more faced with many pressures. These transpire at home and in school but the most common pressure that teenagers come up against leaving them unable to make right decisions is peer pressure. The industrial revolution is not the sole radical transformation the world has been beset. Along with it came the sexual revolution that has marshaled in the trend of needing to have enough sexual experiences so as to go with the current fad and be considered in the bandwagon.

More often than not, teens do certain things only because the rest of the world, or at least, all the members of their clique are. Indirectly, they are led to a complacency supported by the lie that it is all right; after all, everybody is doing it.

One of the most recurrent circumstances teenagers get themselves into is becoming a parent at a young age, presumably, as a result of pressure to engage in pre-marital sex from their peers.

Teenage pregnancy is a story that is not at all pleasant to be heard, but one that is relayed all too often. In the ultimate sense, teenage pregnancy is a live birth, fetal death or abortion occurring to a female under 20 years of age. The term in everyday speech usually refers to women who have not reached legal adulthood, which varies across the world, who become pregnant.

In some places like sub-Saharan African countries, it is often seen as a blessing because it is a proof of the young woman’s fertility. In the Philippines, however, it is seen as a disgrace to the family to which the teenage mother belongs. For the parents, knowing that their unmarried child is expecting at any age, can be down right terrifying let alone knowing that their teenage daughter is. The pregnancy can give a feeling of embarrassment, shame, fear and disappointment to the parents and to the expectant mother as well. Worse, the pregnancy, in a way, appraises the society as to what kind of person she is.

Over the years, the rate of teenage pregnancy in the country has been quite alarming. In the article I have procured from the Philippine Daily Inquirer website, almost 30 percent of Filipino women become mothers before reaching their 21st birthday. Consequently, these young mothers whether quit school to focus on rearing the child or find a job to support the needs of their families.

In the same article, I have known that medical studies likewise showed one of every five babies born to teenage moms die because of various causes. These happen simply because girls who become mothers are not yet emotionally ready, nor physically and mentally capable to nurture a child of their own.

Although this occurrence is quite familiar to the society, its adverse effects are somewhat taken for granted. These effects, albeit quite alarming, are turned a deaf ear to.

Why alarming, you ask? Teenage pregnancies are usually unknown to parents. Hence, teenage moms-to-be lack sufficient knowledge on their gestation and do not have enough resources on their own to give the baby the proper pre-natal care. Teenage pregnancies also pose the risk of having cervical cancer later on. One who starts to engage in sex at an early age usually go through a number of sexual partners before finally settling down. Ergo, the likelihood of exposing one’s self to acquiring sexually-transmitted diseases is high. Since teenage pregnancies are more often unwanted, young pregnant women resort to a more destructive context that is abortion. And one thing may lead to another. Statistics bring to light the fact that every year, 64, 000 teenage girls have abortion, a rate that is considerably high, coming from a country where abortion is illegal and the majority are Catholics who claim to have a high regard for life.

The rate of teenage pregnancy in the country is at an all time high but surely, there is still hope. While premarital sex has become prevalent among the youth in our midst, Filipino families have remained conservative when it comes to sexuality.

Parents are most unlikely to talk about issues like these to their children and it is almost a taboo for families to openly discuss pregnancies among themselves. Filipino teens are more exposed to the Internet, television, magazines, movies and other media than they are to proper sex education. The information they obtain from these media is frequently mishandled, and as a result, the input they get leads them to doing things their way. Pretty much, teens are left to consulting other teens about matters that parents know better. Inevitably, “barkadas” share among themselves opinions or beliefs on sexuality and sexual activity. The problem arises because friends have a more earnest influence on teens than parents do and they employ pressure and expect the teen to conform to the rest of the gang. Generally, females who belong to a circle whose members engage in sexual activities are more likely to do so than those who look at sex negatively.

One might conclude that teenage pregnancy is merely a result of the young parents’ gratification of their sexual desires, and that the pregnancy should have been avoided, had they been aware of the consequences, had they kept themselves protected, had they prioritized their studies over their relationship and had there been no premarital sex.

In a nutshell, we cannot change the fact that ours is a conservative country. We cannot change the grim fact that there exists pregnancy among Filipino teens either. Be that as it may, we should all be open-minded about the issue on how to counter these circumstances. I believe the improvement on the access to education and information about sexuality and reproduction can contribute to addressing properly this issue. Furthermore, intensification on the dissemination of information about contraceptives and reproductive health will be a considerable help to teenagers who do not want to have too much responsibility, too soon.

Thank you and good morning.