Thailand’s Ministry of Health Sets Aggressive Target to Reduce Teen Pregnancy

The pregnancy rate among girls aged from 10 to 19 had now risen to 15 percent of all pregnancies in Thailand.

According to the information of the Health Department in 2015, there were altogether 104,289 teenage pregnancies or an average of 286 cases each day, representing 15 percent of all pregnancies.

Also, sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) among female teenagers, complications from unsafe abortions, abandonment of new-born babies by teenage mothers are on the rise, said the minister.

“We cannot solve the problem of teenage pregnancies by one organization. We need cooperation from all stakeholders, the private sector and civil society. We aim to reduce (teenage pregnancy) by half within 2026,” said Dr Piyasakol.

He pointed out that the fact that Thailand had enacted a law to prevent and solve teenage pregnancy problem did not mean that the problem had been take good care of. He said that it was important that parents were to be brought in to deal with the problem.

Meanwhile, Dr Supreda Adulyanont, manager of Thai Health Promotion Foundation, said teenage pregnancy carries high risk of health. To deal with this problem, he disclosed that, in the past three years, ThaiHealth, in cooperation with its networks in 20 provinces had helped educate female teenagers so as to prevent pregnancies among them.

Source Thai PBS