Health Minister Joe Phaahla says while teenage pregnancy is not a new phenomenon seen in society, unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are unacceptable.
Phaahla was participating in a debate on teenage pregnancies in the National Council of Provinces.
The theme of the debate was “Taking Decisive Measures to Deal with Teenage Pregnancies and the Rape of Young Girls in our Communities”.
Phaahla says efforts are needed to prevent teenage pregnancies to enable girls to complete schooling.
He says, “We know that teenage pregnancy is not a new phenomenon in our society, with the South African Health and Demographic survey of 2016 finding that 16% of adolescent girls and that is between 15 and 19 years of age have become of having children. However, to re-state that unwanted and unplanned pregnancies are not acceptable and that we need to work tirelessly to prevent these pregnancies so that girls can complete their schooling to avoid having teen moms and teen dads who cannot take care of a child because they themselves are still children.”
Social behaviour change
In September, the Government Communication and Information System and social partners hosted a webinar on social behaviour change to reduce risky sexual behaviour amongst the youth and create awareness on the prevention of statutory rape.
The webinar revealed that 70% of teenage pregnancies during the COVID-19 pandemic were not planned.
Activist and Founder of MB Teen Lifestyle, Nkeletseng Tsetsane speaks about Activist and Founder of what solutions came out of the webinar stop teen pregnancies:
