South Africans recently reacted to the current high rate of teenage pregnancy in South Africa, on twitter. The current teenage pregnancy rate in South Africa is at 90 037. This number is accounted for by the number of births by teenagers aged 10-19, from March 2021- April 2022. This is according to the adolescent pregnancy data released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
According to the World Health Organisation data (WHO), South Africa is one of many countries in the world, that have a high teenage pregnancy rate. One out of four teenage girls in South Africa fall pregnant.
These shocking stats sparked a debate amongst Twitter users, on what could be the root cause of this high teenage pregnancy rate in South Africa.
“The only Reason is that we no longer have sports and all other facilities such as choirs and drama/stage play in our communities. The blame should solely be directed to Department of art, sports and culture.”, says @letsoapo on Twitter.
“I blame government for removing corporal Punishment and rights given to children, most children do as they please because they can’t be punished. The use of cell phones gives them a chance to meet sugar daddies on social media.” Says @legasamollo on Twitter.
The topic of high teenage pregnancy in South Africa is a very sensitive and yet complex topic, that has a lot of contributing factors. Factors such as elevated poverty levels, substance abuse, gender–based violence, poor accessibility of contraceptives, gender inequalities, broken family structures in households, as well as the stigma of abortion in South Africa.
The teenage pregnancy rate in South Africa tripled within just three years, with nearly 35 000 births recorded of teenage mothers aged 17 years and below in 2020. Within the 35 000 births, 499 children aged 10- 13 years gave birth in 2020.
Teenage pregnancy can have a huge impact towards teenage parents, because they are now forced to take on the role of being a parent at a very young age, and in most cases, they are not financially, emotionally and physically ready to take on this role.
So far, the current South African government’s intervention of eradicating or preventing teenage pregnancy in the country has proven to be ineffective, as teenage pregnancy number continue to increase.
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Written by: Prince Neo Mokwena
Images: BioMed Central & News365
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