December 20, 2024
BANGKOK – Pregnancy in young Thai teenagers (aged 10-14 years) in the past five years (2020-2024) has been recorded at 0.9 person per 1,000 population, with the tally in 2024 rising to 0.93, the government’s committee on teenage pregnancy prevention reported on Wednesday.
Since 2017, the committee has been working with public and private partners to prevent teenage pregnancy and address the attendant problems to achieve its target of reducing pregnancy among teenagers to under 0.7 person per 1,000 population.
During the committee meeting on Wednesday, deputy public health minister Dech-it Khaothong noted that all provincial public health offices have been working with partner networks to tackle the teen pregnancy problem, especially among those under 14.
He said the ministry has been promoting sexual education literacy and life skills, as well as access to youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, in a bid to reduce teenage pregnancy and prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
A support and protection system has been established for pregnant students to ensure they receive care, assistance, and protection of their educational rights and social welfare, he added.
Dr Amporn Benjaponpitak, director-general of the Department of Health, said that this year a total of 46,893 persons, or about 128 persons per day, had contacted the department’s hotline 1663 and facebook page, which offer consultations on teenage pregnancy.
She reported that 96.3% of pregnant teenagers were provided with government subsidies for new-born babies, and 90.4% were satisfied with the benefits.
In the past year, the department and the Children and Youth Council of Thailand have organised 414 activities to provide sex education to teenagers and prevent teenage pregnancy, she added.
Amporn said the number of pregnant teenagers has progressively risen over the past few years, especially among those aged 10 to 14 and that this was probably due to two factors: Lack of sex education and awareness, and increasing cases of sexual assaults.
“More sexual assault cases have been reported each year, and all indications are that they will further increase in the future. The total damage from these cases, in terms of treatment and rehabilitation costs, has crossed 40 million baht each year,” she said.
The meeting resolved to prepare a detailed teen birth report to provide a comprehensive understanding of the situation. It tasked the Thai Health Promotion Foundation with collecting data on this topic, as well as designing preventive and problem-solving strategies through a one-stop service model, which includes the allocation of state welfare, access to sex education, vocational training, and other forms of assistance.