More Teens Get Pregnant, Lawmakers Dawdle on Sex Ed Bill 

A women’s health advocate is calling on the Philippine Congress to pass an adolescent pregnancy prevention law, saying punitive measures have fallen short as births among unmarried teens continue to climb.

A LEADING women’s health organization in the Philippines is pressing legislators to act on a long-stalled bill targeting adolescent pregnancy, warning that existing laws have not kept pace with a worsening crisis and that a recent rollback of evidence-based sex education in schools is making things worse.

In a press statement released on Tuesday, the Likhaan Center for Women’s Health said the Philippines has the tools to prevent early and coerced pregnancies among young people, but lacks the political will to deploy them.

“The strategies to help adolescents prevent early and coerced pregnancy are already known,” Likhaan said. “But a key question remains: will legislators provide the enabling law?”

The statement comes as the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill — known as House Bill 8910 in the lower chamber and Senate Bill 1979 in the Senate — remains stuck after a wave of opposition derailed it in early 2025. 

The House passed its version unanimously in September 2023, but the Senate counterpart, authored by Sen. Risa Hontiveros has yet to reach a floor vote. Several senators pulled their support after a misinformation campaign falsely claimed the bill would expose young children to graphic sexual content. United Nations agencies have disputed those claims. That misinformation campaign was organized by the National Coalition for the Family and the Constitution, through its Project Dalisay, in which former Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno was a leading voice.

Likhaan pointed to striking data underscoring the urgency. Despite the passage of the Anti-Child Marriage Law in 2021 and the existing Family Code, which both bar marriage before age 18, births among unmarried women have surged — rising from under 10% in the 1990s to 60% in 2024, Likhaan said. Informal live-in arrangements, increasingly common among adolescents, are driving much of that rise, the group said, and current policies do little to address it.

The numbers are especially alarming at the youngest ages. The Commission on Population and Development reported 3,343 births to girls aged 10 to 14 in 2023, up from 2,411 in 2019. In 2019, the government declared pregnancies in that age group a national social emergency.

Likhaan also flagged a policy setback in schools. In 2025, the Department of Education scrapped its curriculum grounded in Comprehensive Sexuality Education, or CSE — a globally recognized approach that research shows delays sexual initiation, reduces risky behavior, and increases contraceptive use among sexually active youth. The department replaced it with a framework that critics say prioritizes parental control over student empowerment.

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“With the scrapping of CSE in schools, it remains to be seen if the new ‘Reproductive Health Education’ policy can inculcate life skills in adolescents,” Likhaan said.

The group cited World Health Organization recommendations dating to 2011 that lay out four evidence-based strategies: reducing child marriage, lowering pregnancy rates among those under 20, expanding access to contraception, and preventing sexual coercion. Those strategies, Likhaan argued, require not just punitive laws but supportive policies that treat sexually active adolescents — particularly girls — with dignity rather than judgment.

“Without such support, these young women must battle stigma, judgment, and rejection just to access essential services,” the group said.

The UNFPA Philippines and the Commission on Population and Development have also called on the 20th Congress to act, noting the Philippines still ranks among the highest in adolescent birth rates in Southeast Asia, with an estimated economic cost of 33 billion pesos annually from early pregnancies alone.

Likhaan said a broad ground-level coalition — including adolescents, parents, health workers, teachers, and faith communities — is already working on solutions. What’s missing, the group said, is the law that would let those efforts scale. (Rights Report Philippines)