They are doing it. You know they are because approximately 50 teen girls are getting pregnant EVERYDAY. In Malaysia. That works out to 1500 teen girls a month and a whopping 18,000 girls a year. In Malaysia.
And these are just the numbers for teen girls who seek medical attention at government health clinics. What about those who don’t go to government health clinics, seek out medical attention at all or those who go to back lane “medical practitioners”?
Even more alarming than the data above is the fact that only 25% of the 18,000 teen pregnancies was out of wedlock! That means we have approximately 13,500 teen girls who are married and getting pregnant “legally” every year!
To put the gravity of this matter into perspective, the legal age for marriage in Malaysia is 16, and under shariah law, Muslim children under the age of 16 are permitted to get married under certain conditions.
This means we have girls, barely out of primary school, being put into position where should they get pregnant, marriage is the only solution. How did we get here?
In 2012, the Global School-based Student Health Survey found that 50.4% of the 8.3% of Malaysian teens between the ages of 13 and 17 who have had sex experienced their first sexual intercourse before they turned 14. And only 32.2% of the teens had used a condom the last time they had sex.
For a country that espouses abstinence and purity as the only acceptable approach to sex education, it is not surprising that an abysmally low number of teens who are sexually active use protection. This is just not a “young people” problem.
When there are no conversations or available information on safe sex practices, unless a person takes the responsibility to educate themselves, it is very likely that they would not have any concept of safety, protection and responsibility in terms of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Sex is still going to happen, and it will happen in unsafe, unprotected and irresponsible circumstances that puts all parties involved at risk for contraction of sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and a whole host of mental and emotional issues.
And that is how we come to where we are – 18,000 teen girls getting pregnant every year and 13,500 out of them are married, and therefore have “legally endorsed pregnancies”.
We do not know how many of those girls are getting impregnated by boys their age and how many are by boys or men far older than them. Just as frightening, we do not know how many girls are married to boys or men who are much older than them.
Yet, that does not seem to worry the government of Malaysia. Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor went a step ahead and boldly declared on an international platform that child marriages were rare in Malaysia – because we have good education and low poverty.
If we are unfazed by child marriages, then what is it about teens engaging in sex, or specifically teen girls having sex that worries us?
According to Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, the mention-worthy fears of teen pregnancies besides the mother’s health are health risks to the babies, premature death and abandoned babies.
Even in a conversation on high teen pregnancy rate, we can’t seem to talk about the girls and why are we enabling a system that disadvantages young girls to the extent that underage marriage is preferable rather than safe sex.
What needs to give before we address the issue of teen pregnancy head on instead of taking protectionists method such as the Generasiku Sayang homes for unwed teen girls or moral policing through counselling for unwed women who seek contraception at government health clinics?
They are doing it, and they are doing it young. The only way we can protect them is by equipping them with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions on their bodies, sexuality and giving access to tools and resources to protect themselves. That means comprehensive sex education for all and easy access to contraception. – November 1, 2015.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
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