Ulyao G.

Diokno 11- Hebron Oral Communication

Hello, good evening, everyone. My name is Ulyao G. Diokno and I'm from 11- Hebron of HUMSS. Today I
will talk about a very specific problem of our country, teenage pregnancy. First of all, what is teenage
pregnancy and why does it cause poverty in our country? Teenage pregnancy is basically pregnancy of a
female below the age of 20. Teenage pregnancy usually happens because of lack of knowledge in sex
education or in general lack in education. It can also be caused by false information and peer pressure
from the people around us and can also be caused by curiosity. Teenage pregnancy rate increases when
girls under the right age are denied the right to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive
health and well-being.

So, why is the teenage pregnancy rate in our country high? Filipinos are told to be smart but why is it
that our teenage pregnancy rate is high? The Philippines has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates
among the ASEAN member states. More than 500 adolescents are becoming pregnant and giving birth
every day in the Philippines, and in the post lockdown era in the Philippines, our country has the highest
teenage pregnancy rate in Southeast Asia. So, our main question here is why is this issue not much
looked out for or sometimes it feels irrelevant to the people of our country? Teenage pregnancy is one
of the causes of poverty in our country. Teenage girls can’t handle childbearing at their age properly, not
to mention taking care of them when they come out. Teenagers can’t always be financially stable
already in their early ages. Most cases of teenage pregnancy are leaving the other individual dependent
of their son or daughter because of not being able to take care of them because of lack of guidance and
knowledge on how to take care of a child. But even if they still take care of their child, it will be hard for
them if they don’t have someone or a job to rely on financially. That’s why in most cases teenage
pregnancy leads to poverty and hunger.

So, how can teenage pregnancy be avoided, and will it possibly help decrease poverty and hunger when
we have decreased teenage pregnancy rate? The simple answer to avoid teenage pregnancy is gaining
knowledge about our reproductive and sexual health. Most schools in the Philippines doesn’t teach too
much or less about sex education and mainly our reproductive health, and most reasons are because of
lack of seriousness in learning and teaching this topic. Our country must focus on this topic because it
affects teenagers when it comes in the early stages of their lives, by learning about this topic more and
being less sensitive about this topic it should help decrease the teenage pregnancy rate in our country
and also decrease poverty and hunger rate in the Philippines.

But this isn’t always the reason for teenage pregnancy, it can be caused by unwanted sex or also
unprotected sex. Some people are evil minded or are not even using their minds when it comes to
human decency. But always remember, it isn’t always your fault that you are stuck in a situation that
you didn’t want to be in and had no choice but to take care of a child that you’re not ready for. Abortion
sometimes can sound evil, but it is a solution you can resort to whenever you have an unwanted unborn
child or have not even planned about it carefully.

This speech is to tell you that a major problem can be solved bit by bit by doing your own thing. Have
yourself educated about sexual and reproductive health to prevent mistakes that can take your whole
life away. This speech is also to teach you that preventing teenage pregnancy helps us prevent poverty
and hunger in our country, and the main lesson in my speech is to gain education about the problems
that happens in our country and not be careless about it, it may not affect us now, but it may affect us in
the long run. We must also spread information that helps us to know more about sex education and
persuade people to use condoms for safe sex whenever curiosity hits them and to prevent having a
major problem in their life. My name is Ulyao G. Diokno and thanks for listening to my speech.

“Dream without a plan is just a wish”