COVID CAUSING SURGE IN TEEN PREGNANCY

COVID CAUSING SURGE IN TEEN PREGNANCY AROUND THE WORLD

By Teresa Nam Marissa McCollum

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak across the world has called into action numerous measures to mitigate the extremity of its exposure. National lockdowns, quarantining, and social isolation have been at the heart of the potential cure to this wildfire-like outbreak. To help the containment effort, schools all across the globe have shut down, resulting in “nationwide school closures in 194 countries, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners—over 90 percent of the world's school-going population,” forcing students to stay at home with a newly-improvised remote education system. With students forced to stay home, there is now a new societal issue at hand: teen pregnancy.

School shutdowns proved to be a complication for many low-income students that depended on the education system for food and resources. Many of these students are now lacking a safe haven, no longer able to run away from existing problems in their home lives. This proved to be especially true for girls, who are more at risk of spending time with adult male figures and engaging in risky sexual behavior without the protection of school. Those with ongoing sexual abuse and exploitation at home are now even more vulnerable to this atrocity. With COVID-19, homes have now become the most dangerous place to be for many of these girls.

Developing countries such as Kenya and Africa have been especially seeing this increasing trend in teen pregnancies, with girls at risk of never returning to school again. In a town of Lodwar in Kenya, the reported number of teen pregnancies seen at the International Rescue Committee aid was seen to nearly triple to a staggering 625 pregnancies from June to August, compared to 226 in the same length of time the previous year. This jump in teen pregnancies was seen in neighboring refugee camps as well, caused

by girls being out of school due to the outbreak. Child marriages, which many girls below the age of 18 fall victim to, are expected to increase as well, with the numbers expected to reach an extra 13 million marriages in the next ten years according to the UN. Child marriages directly connect to adolescent pregnancies and a full dependence of these young girls on their husbands, taking them out of the education system for good. With education for girls in developing countries known to provide a plethora of benefits including better employment, later marriage, healthier lifestyle and children, and less exposure to sexual violence, this issue proves to be largely harmful to their futures.

With teen pregnancies now increasing more than ever, more attention than ever is needed to meet the growing demands for care. Yet these needs are not being met, with valuable resources taken up by the pandemic. The health system has been fully devoted to treating COVID-19, and has slowed down care regarding reproductive health, with many such centers even closing down. As pregnancy is the leading cause of death among girls aged 15-19, such a lack of attention during these unprecedented times has been more detrimental than ever. Young girls are already at a disadvantage with the societal stigma surrounding teen pregnancies. However, with COVID-19 entering the scene, it makes them ever more susceptible to pregnancy complications and dangerous abortions.

A healthcare system that is both more welcoming and more protective warming of pregnant teens is fundamental in handling this growing societal issue. However, during these times a solid development and full implementation of a system that allows for female students outside of the education system during this outbreak to safely return to their studies should be implemented. Nevertheless, it is clear that the ongoing pandemic has been causing much social distress with its far-reaching effects, impairing vital areas of the healthcare system.

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