Advocacy on Free Access to Contraceptives to Young People

I. Cause
Teenage pregnancies in the Philippines have now skyrocketed due to the
lockdown in the pandemic. On June 25, 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte has ruled
teenage pregnancy an 'urgent national priority' as Executive Order (EO) No.141
adapts implementation to measure and address the root causes of the rising number of
teenage pregnancies. As of now, over 70,000 families in the Philippines are led by
minors, which has already decreased from 2016 but still is a large number.

The rising number of teenage pregnancies deeply relates to how we are deprived
of sex education. Sex Education would have helped teenagers in knowing what the
rights and wrongs are and how they would be able to redeem their actions if ever
they, as an underaged minor, ever made one. Not only are the minors held
accountable, but the adults should also have a say on how to make sure the adolescent
population doesn't make a mistake that they would end up regretting; the most
overlooked solution that we have is free access to contraceptives. The Allen
Guttmacher Institute claimed that one of the major causes of teenage pregnancy is
when teenagers live in an environment or community with low level of education,
employment, and income, thus proving the point that stripping the right to access
contraceptives would lead to an endless cycle of poverty and lack of awareness by
overpopulating. Contraceptives not only keep the population at bay but also help in
keeping diseases in check such as breast disease, anemia, ovarian cysts, ovarian and
endometrial cancers, and HIV/AIDS.

Also, denying this medium and having to force teenagers with an accident of
conceiving a child could cause casualties where the family would end up in poverty
or have to abort the child. Poverty in the Philippines has reached over 16% of the
population living below the poverty line with many resorting to crimes and illegal
involvement. And on the other side, abortion, abortion is okay if done safely,
 however, since it is illegal in the Philippines, it is considered an unsafe practice with
no definite course of action to be taken with its casualties. According to the study
Psychological Consequences of Abortion among the Post Abortion Care Seeking
Women in Tehran (Pourreza, 2011) women under the age of 20 who have undergone
an abortion suffered the most psychological side effects such as decreased self-
esteem, nightmare, guilt, and regret, and most of all, depression.

The main objective here is that we should be focusing on the most convenient,
and safest option of maintaining not only the population increase but also the safety
of our environment and people. Having to use contraceptives should not be
considered taboo, because living life for yourself is not as hard as living as an
innocent person suffering from the consequences of your actions. And there is the
part of the adolescent minority who are not ready mentally, emotionally, and
financially, those who don't look forward to parenthood, and those whose beliefs
differ from them.

II. Objectives
Our advocacy aims to:
 Prevent unwanted pregnancy
 Prevent sexually transmitted disease
 To protect women’s health and rights
 Prevent population growth
 To help reduce abortion
 To help and educate young people about safe sex
III. Audience

The following are the target audience for this advocacy campaign:

Young people. This campaign is designed to educate every youth from ages 10 to 24 years old to
have an awareness of the importance of contraceptives. Since young people typically begin to
ask questions about sex and intimacy and begin to be more curious about those things, they’re
more really at risk of pregnancy which leads to unwanted and teenage pregnancies.

Public. This campaign can also serve as an awareness not just for the young people but also for
the adults. Contraceptives also help with having the right family planning that applies to every
adult couple. It also educates the public to support and encourage the youth to access
contraceptives.

IV. Concept

V. Tagline
Contraceptives equals to proper education and proper mindset

REFERENCES:

 https://popcom.gov.ph/executive-order-141/
 https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2376/Risk-Behaviors-TEEN-PREGNANCY.html
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3395931/
 https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/contraception-birth.html#:~:text=Combination%20birth
%20control%20pills%20have,and%20ovarian%20and%20endometrial%20cancers.