The Philippines' Baby Factory | 101 East

[Music] in the Philippines biggest maternity hospital a baby is born every few minutes and often the new mothers are just children themselves with the legal age of consent just twelve teen pregnancy is on the rise here prompting many to turn to a shadowy underworld for help I'm Steve Chow on this episode 101 East investigates the impact of church and state on a nation dubbed the baby factory [Music] it's late afternoon in an area locals call happy land on the outskirts of the Philippine capital Manila amongst the shaggy dwellings 13 year old Mei Mei is playing a jumping game Chinese garters with her friends [Music] watching on high from sniffing paint solvent is heard 22 year old boyfriend at just 11 she became pregnant to him but she was seven months along before she even realized I didn't know I was pregnant I was even playing Chinese gotta when I was jumping the gutter I felt something in my stomach then I suffered a miscarriage local health workers say her boyfriend taunts her for losing their child but may main doesn't mention that she just blames herself it was painful it's also an affront to the Lord why did I commit such a sin that I played gutter I cried hard because it was painful to lose a baby may Mays pregnancy was not by choice and it seems neither was the first time she had sex hurt it was painful I was just forced to do it with a father in prison and her mother in a new relationship she lives here with her boyfriend's family why are you staying here with your boyfriend because they feed me well Meimei is just one of the growing number of young Filipino girls who find themselves pregnant it's really a tremendous problem not just for in terms of the health of the actual teenagers themselves who are becoming parents at some such young ages and for the children that they then have but it's also costing the government and the country a lot in so much is so much money lost in productivity and in terms of them being unable to join the formal economy because they haven't finished high school it's really a very very big problem for the country the province of Palawan in the west of the Philippines is a pretty part of the world but it belies an ugly reality hello has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies anywhere in the country one in five teenagers is either pregnant already has a child and the vast majority of them live in very poor communities like this one in this slum on the edge of poland's capital port-au-prince s er we find 15 year-old Terrell with her family the baby she's holding isn't one of her three siblings it's her daughter she says she knew little about sex when she met the child's father soon after her 14th birthday more Langly at first I didn't want to do it I was scared but after a week I agreed when it came to protecting herself against pregnancy Terrell's says she knew nothing and her mother never talked about it a magazine the Iguana meant something I felt awkward giving her advice about contraceptives because she was too young I also wasn't sure whether she was allowed to use contraceptives at her age in the Philippines girls under the age of 18 need their parents permission to get contraception or an HIV test but the age of consent is much lower just twelve one of the lowest in the world the father of Terrell's baby says he's 28 but local health workers believe he's at least 10 years older than that I feel proud that I could beautiful wife you know even if I'm so much older Redell already had four children when he met Terrell his eldest just a couple of years younger than her he claims he didn't know Terrell was only 14 until she got pregnant mr. Bhushan after a year of being together she told me she was pregnant so I chose her over my wife because I was scared a case might be filed against me [Music] under Filipino law even though Terrell was above the age of consent because she was still under 18 and he was over Redell could have been charged with coercing her to have sex with mineral Moussa I was so scared I went to a parents house and told them that I will take responsibility for the baby they gave that consent my parents were concerned that he might not be able to make a living for us but now they see he's trying his best to put food on the table and to support our daily needs they don't say anything anymore we reported him to the Department of Social Welfare and development but the girl didn't want to press charges because she's in love her parents didn't want to press charges because as far as they were concerned she's being taken care of by her boyfriend now she's living with him one less mouth for them to feed and they didn't want to interfere Amina Evangelista Swanepoel is one of the founders of Apple and women's health NGO roots of health something troubling that we've also seen among the groups that we work with is that a lot of young girls are in relationships with much older men and I think technically via the law you should be able to press charges even without the cooperation of the girl and of the parents on the other side of town 23 year old Angela has four children - two different fathers the youngest child is just a week old she says her first sexual experience was when she was 14 and her boyfriend 19 all I knew back then was hard to play Chinese garters that's all I wanted to cry I was pushing him away but he said he would take responsibility and that he loved me I was scared that other guys wouldn't accept me anymore I thought whoever took my virginity should be the one Angela's aren't threatened to file a case against him for coercing her into having sex that's why his mother and father decided to make us live together and make him take responsibility for what he did to me at 15 Angela got pregnant but miscarried at 7 months at 16 she gave birth to a baby boy and then within a few weeks was pregnant again they said contraception had side effects they said it damaged a uterus so I got scared after her second child was born her boyfriend left her for another woman taking their two kids with him she now has two more children with a new partner he's at work today but they all live here with her family he wanted me to get pregnant I agreed because he accepted me for what I am unlike others but there are times when he tells me I should be thankful he accepted me sometimes I cry because my children are suffering and sometimes they have nothing to eat Angela believes things would have been very different if she'd known more as a teenager it's better to be educated about what contraceptives are available and what sex is about that's better than being ignorant here in halal one we have a government that doesn't spend very much money on teen pregnancy prevention programs they don't a lot very much funding or any at all to contraception and so this really ties the hands of the provincial health office they can't really do very much without the budget to to have activities and programs we visit the Vice governor of the province Dennis Socrates to ask him why this is the case I think the solution lies in a more intensive information and education campaign to tell young people that sex is good but it has to be within the context of a loving and indissoluble marriage and it must be open to life to parenting which is the natural consequence of the marital act so abstinence to married yes that's right a member of the extremely conservative Catholic group Opus Dei he's very against all forms of contraception all human life is good even life that is helpless even life that we lost a poor family even human life is unwanted by the mother but the United Nations says that it's a woman's right to be able to plan a family what do you say to that I disagree with the UN proposition or the the UN idea and I would like to think that that could be overturned in the future with more than 80% of Filipinos Catholic the church wheels enormous influence over national policies particularly when it comes to family planning it's five years since the government passed a reproductive health law guaranteeing sex education in schools and access to free contraception but with fierce lobbying from the Catholic Church and other pro-life groups it still hasn't been implemented and having no access to contraception can have tragic consequences the Black Nazarene Church in Manila has come to be known as a place of despair many mothers leave aborted fetuses here in the hope their child's soul will be saved theirs is Damned not only by their God but also by the law in the Philippines abortion is illegal in all circumstances even rape [Music] but right here in front of this church is an abortion supermarket where women desperate to get rid of unplanned pregnancies come for wearing a hidden camera we send one of our team in undercover to see if she can buy abortion treatments within a few minutes she finds a stall willing to help she tells the woman she's four months pregnant and that no questions asked she pays $75 for the remedies how did you go yeah we were he once again wow it didn't take you very long she was sold to treatments one a hurdle and route concoction the lady said that you you take that the concoction when you're up to two months along but then when she found out that I was more months pregnant she offered pills offered if I wanted further operations the pills are an illegal also medication known to induce abortion anyone caught selling or using them can face up to six years in prison in a back street of a poor urban community an abortionist says a prayer fearing prosecution she doesn't want to be identified Duncan Dana I like to candle for the fetus because it's already a human being also ask for forgiveness from the laws for the sin I committed then you need enough for mother [ __ ] Lee I'm scared that the police will come for the loosely but I muster all my courage because I really need the money Manny the woman tells us she's performed more than a thousand abortions most of them on teenagers who are about five months pregnant she charges them up to $80 depending on how advanced their pregnancy is she says she uses a combination of the illegal also drug and deep massage to push the fetus out I see somebody call function we see Java I tell them if you shout you did that in pleasure don't complain no if I see that there's a sudden gush of blood that means something has ruptured inside that's when I ask them to run to the hospital they're on their own I don't go with them I just stay here at the house because we already had a deal every year it's estimated that more than half a million women resort to abortion in the Philippines about a hundred thousand almost half of them teenagers end up in hospital due to complications and many die so this is warrant for here at dr. Jose favela Memorial Hospital in Manila one of the busiest maternity hospitals in the world there's a ward dedicated to post abortion patients most patients are reluctant to tell us that they have had an abortion so there are telltale signs that they have aborted and if it's infected or septic they come in here heavily bleeding without a blood pressure without a pulse and you do not have any choice but to treat them or else they will die obstetrician and gynecologist dr. panelio asunción sees teenage abortions as a serious health issue and believes the alarming numbers of teenagers getting pregnant needs to be addressed urgently I would say it's a crisis because a lot of teenagers are getting pregnant and without finishing their school the cycle of poverty they were broken she says each year the hospital delivers 13,000 babies more than 2,000 to teenagers most of them ending up in this cesarean ward there are a lot of complications for teenage pregnancies like preterm labor and usually they would undergo cesarean section because their pelvis around tested hypertension is a problem hemorrhage is a problem so you had your baby just yesterday a leha is just 15 years old little boy is now in intensive care with respiratory problems a common issue for babies born to teenage mothers Alley Haas says she got pregnant to her first boyfriend but there the 25 year old left her soon after hello Jelena on the other side of the ward is 18 year old Jelena is this your first baby second baby Nepal and what about your first baby what happened premature Deepa gonna develop young young loves she says after her first pregnancy she had a contraceptive implant but had it removed when her 21 year old partner wanted a baby I think really the education is key for solving the problems here like having a curriculum in reproductive health and sexuality our stand is to let the teenagers have options regarding contraception but with no comprehensive sex education curriculum in schools the Catholic Church has a loud voice when it comes to what's taught to teenagers Joey Villas is an arm of one of the country's most powerful church organizations Couples for Christ Foundation and works in partnership with the education and social welfare departments [Applause] [Music] today there at this middle-class Catholic High School just outside Manila [Applause] [Music] after a song the lesson begins with self-worth can you thought the person beside you that the person you are amazing then comes the difference between the sexes every microphone is a meal because it has fits just like a meal a meal Oregon this one is a female because just like a female Oregon it's like that that's my only a man in a woman can be one but it all goes back to one message abstinence is the only way woman gives herself and not only yourself but also her fertility the reason why we as a movement we don't believe in from the septums you know that white as me why because we believe in our innate capability to control ourselves everybody sees say yes so say it louder say yes say yes yes what happens today was amazing because at this age our curiosity this triggering we're starting to be thirst serious starting to starve for things that shouldn't be done by us at these the students endorsement of live pure is one thing but their curiosity has many of them turning to social media and pornography because because I'm incapable of doing sad to say that it's normal for us to know that a man is much so he's pornography where you learn about sex when it comes to contraception the jury is still out well natural contraception has a higher risk of pregnancy yes but what about you two girls like if you did have sex what do you think you would use to protect yourself for me I will never use contraceptives or any birth birth control because I'm a Catholic person I do agree in contraception I think it should be um but because not all of us not everyone of us can control ourselves there I know there are people who are weak back in Palawan there's help for those teenagers who some consider weak in the war room of the local NGO roots of health a team of youth advocates prepare to battle the teenage pregnancy epidemic I think we need to talk with a us forget the contraceptives because I have a lot of experience that most of the young people doesn't want to avail that contraceptives because their partners doesn't want to get their weapons contraceptives and sex education taking to the streets they visit a popular teenage hangout in port-au-prince Esser I look in my cell above 6 pour this over my baby oh let me not buying a muna so familiars appears Helena min ago Montgomery amperes [Music] not far away at home in her stilt community thanks to roots of Health Terrell is now protected from another pregnancy I mean I got an implant for three years because I'm scared of giving birth again she's also hoping to start vocational education classes having only got to grade six at school I want to work hard for my baby that's all I want to raise her well I will try my best to send her to school so she won't be ignorant so she won't end up like me who got pregnant at a young age and 23 year old Angela will not be having a fifth baby she too has turned to contraception getting an IUD from roots of health yes this will be the last one I don't want more kids I might die if I give birth again but for thirteen year old may may living in a Manila slum with her 22 year old boyfriend the risk of another pregnancy is high health workers say her contraception injections have lapsed and fear shall become yet another of the hundreds of thousands of young Filipino girls whose lives are jeopardized every year by unplanned pregnancies [Music] you

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 4,761,511

Rating: 4.6926084 out of 5

Keywords: al jazeera, aljazeera, al jazeera english, 101east, philippines, 101 east, The Philippines, Baby Factory, Manila, The Philippines' Baby Factory, teenage pregnancy, 101 east al jazeera, factory, al jazeera 101 east, philippines baby factory, the philippines baby factory, 101 east philippines, al jazeera philippines, Sanggol ng Pilipinas, 101 al jazeera, Ang Pabrika ng Sanggol ng Pilipinas, philippines news, philippines documentary, abortion documentary, abortion in philippines

Id: 8ipzwxXjAcA

Length: 25min 45sec (1545 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/barriekansai]

See that Catholic abstinence-only sex ed is working out just fine.

[u/easilypersuadedsquid]

oh god this is awful, especially that 22 year old who got an 11 year old pregnant (and raped her). As if it wasn't bad enough he's completely wasted on solvents too. Ugh poor girl.

[u/IncitefulInsights]

These people are living worse than animals. Spay & neuter your dogs, cats. But humans should just breed uncontrollably?

11-year olds getting pregnant?