[Policy Brief] What We Owe Our Teens: Addressing adolescent pregnancy in the Philippines

Key Points:

• The high rate of adolescent pregnancy in the Philippines and increasing number of babies
  born to younger mothers come at high social, economic, and development costs.
• The current legal framework to prevent adolescent pregnancy is characterized by
  adolescent’s limited access to reproductive health services, weak implementation of
  comprehensive sexuality education, and declining budget for the Reproductive Health Law.
• Fulfilling what we owe our teens necessitates strengthening coordination between duty-bearers and increasing budget allocation, implementing comprehensive sexuality education and providing access to SRH, creating social protection mechanisms, and involving and listening to the adolescents themselves.