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Teen pregnancies occurring at younger ages: group

A significant number of teenagers under the age of 16 have sought assistance via the national teenage pregnancy counseling hotline or its Web site over the past year, indicating a trend in which teenage pregnancies are occurring at younger ages, the non-profit Garden of Hope Foundation said yesterday.

Since June the group has been contracted by the Ministry of the Interior to operate the 0800-257-085 toll-free hotline and the www.257085.org.tw Web site.

Over the past year, 1,312 requests for help have been made through the hotline and 141 others through the online mailbox provided by the Web site, which has seen 16,602 visitors so far, foundation CEO Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) said.

While more than 50 percent of callers were girls in the 16-19 age group, 10 percent were under 16, Chi said.

In terms of those seeking help online, 30 percent were under 16, with more than 10 percent under the age of 12, she said.

Chi said her foundation discovered that the online service was especially popular among teenagers wishing to maintain their privacy and that most teenagers were turning to the hotline or the Web site because they did not know how to tell their parents.

Also, there was a serious imbalance in terms of the gender of the persons seeking assistance, Chi said, adding that four times as many girls called the hotline.

Meanwhile, 76 percent of those asking for help online were girls, and only 13 percent were boys, she said.

Chi urged the authorities to expand the reach of their publicity on teenage pregnancy prevention to students in senior grades of elementary school and to introduce legislation emphasizing the responsibility of men in teenage pregnancy.

Also, parents should pay close attention to their children’s sexual development and react rationally in the event of their teenage children getting pregnant, she said.

The foundation has estimated that the number of teenage pregnancies annually is approximately 30,000, with around 25,000 teenagers seeking abortions and 4,000 to 5,000 births recorded per year.
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