SARAWAK has set itself a target to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies in the state by 10% annually, as part of a solution to the problem.

This KPI was set by the one-stop teenage pregnancy committee at its first meeting of the year on Tuesday.

The committee – which is under the Sarawak Ministry of Welfare, Community Well-being, Women, Family and Childhood Development – only meets twice a year.

Minister Fatimah Abdullah, in her virtual media conference today, said even though statistics showed the number of teen pregnancies had dropped between 2014 and 2017, from 3,401 cases to 2,130, the number has not changed much since then.

In fact, last year, a total of 2,099 cases were reported, up from 1, 967 the previous year.

The statistics also showed teenage pregnancies were more prevalent in small rural towns rather than in major urban areas.

Kapit, the last major town close to the head of Rajang River, recorded 13.2% of teenage pregnancies in the state.

Sri Aman recorded 9.8% of state-wide teen pregnancies, with Sarikei not far behind with 9.1%.

By comparison, teens in Kuching only make up 4.5% of teen pregnancies reported last year, with Sibu (7%), Bintulu (7.1%) and Miri (6%) returning lower figures than rural townships.

The majority of the pregnancies, 65.5%, were young women aged 18 to19 years-old, while 28.3% were 16 to 17 year-old girls.

The youngest pregnancy recorded last year was a 10-year-old.

Fatimah said free mixing of the sexes, drugs and substance abuse, raped or incest, poor parental control, poverty, coming from broken family, the desire for a life of luxury, uncontrolled exposure to the social media and poor sex education were the major causes for the teen pregnancies.

She added that 58.9% of pregnancies did not end in marriage.

She also said 4% of the teens drop out of school after finding out they were pregnant.

“It’s because of the social stigma. The embarrassment and shame felt by being pregnant outside marriage is still strong in our society,” Fatimah added.

That inexplicably, she said, was the main cause of baby dumping. – January 29, 2021.