With the support of the Government of the Dominican Republic and Canada, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), together with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) organized a regional meeting to address the issue of pregnancy in girls and adolescents.
The meeting “Accelerating the reduction of adolescent pregnancy in vulnerable populations in Latin America and the Caribbean“, headed by the Minister of Health, Victor Atallahand the first lady, Rachel Arbajebrought together authorities, experts and young leaders, who discussed strategies practices that seek a solution integral to this problem of public health.
The representative of Unicef in the country, Carlos Carrerastated that one in five girls and teenagers Dominicans become mothers before reaching the age of 18 years old.
“This has many impacts on their own health and their life plan,” he added.
“He pregnancy teenager, in addition to placing the teenagers and girls in situations of vulnerability preventable such as maternal and neonatal deaths, school and university dropouts and early unions, has consequences “socioeconomic,” said Mario Serrano, representative of UNFPA.
Reduction of 26.58%
For her part, the first lady, Rachel Arbajeindicated that there has been a notable reduction in the number of pregnancies teenagers and that, although the statistics are encouraging, there is still a long way to go to dismantle the structures social and cultural that favor the pregnancy early.
“So far, our statistics indicate a significant drop in pregnancy in teenagers of 26.58% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2023, and this is the result of the Policy for the Prevention and Care of Early Unions and Adolescent Pregnancy presented to the country in November 2021 by President Luis Abinader,” he said.
“Significant progress has been made in the country, but we must continue working,” said Minister Atallah.
Second rate of fertility highest
Meanwhile, the representative of the PAHO in the Dominican Republic, Alba Maria Roperostated that, “although there has been significant progress since the adoption of the Goals of Sustainable Developmentwith a 20.9% reduction in adolescent fertility between 2015 and 2021, inequalities persist.”
He reported that the rate of fertility in teenagers In the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, the poverty rate is the second highest in the world, and remains “unacceptably high,” with large inequalities between and within countries. The estimated number of pregnancies unplanned births in girls between 15 and 19 years old in LAC in 2021 was 1,636,000.
Ropero highlighted that, in many cases, “it is observed that the pregnancy In girls under 15 years of age, it very often results from violence sexual, including the incests and rape.”
The event concluded with an agreement to develop a report regional meeting that will detail the commitments made and the strategies discussed.
