The Mexican Government estimates that adolescent pregnancies will increase 12% due to confinement

A young mother is treated at the “Mónica Pretelini Sáenz” Maternity Hospital in June 2020.Crisanta Espinosa / CUARTOSCURO

Mexico is the country with the highest rates of adolescent pregnancies, around 73 out of every 1,000 deliveries correspond to mothers between 15 and 19 years old.

And even younger.

The Government has been facing this problem since 2015 with a national program that is finding itself in serious trouble due to the confinement decreed against covid-19.

The latest estimates by the Executive indicate that between 2020 and 2021 the total number of adolescent pregnancies will reach 191,948, about 22,000 more than expected, which represents an increase of 12% compared to 2019. The calculations of the National Population Council (Conapo ) have been carried out taking into account the difficulties observed in accessing contraceptive services during the pandemic.

Although they remain open, according to the Government, the scenario they handle is that their consultation has been reduced by 20% for fear of contagion, which translates into an increase in unwanted pregnancies.

If to this are added the real difficulties in accessing an abortion in many states of the country, the outlook is not rosy.

The age of first sexual intercourse in Mexico is low in many areas, usually rural or depressed, and information on sexual and reproductive health is scarce, to which must be added the drama behind many of these pregnancies: 10% of them are the result of sexual violence, the vast majority (80%) attributed to relatives, neighbors or acquaintances of the victim.

As is logical, a confinement at home can stop the infections, but it does not help to stop sexual crimes.

The director of the National Institute for Women, Nadine Gasman, is aware of this problem.

"Confinement increases sexual and family violence, that's there," he says.

He is also concerned about the access of these adolescents to information on sexual and reproductive health, something in which schools that are now closed participate, although some of these materials, he says, have been promoted virtually.

In the Catholic Organization for the Right to Decide (CDD), which develops a whole work to prevent these issues, they are aware that "with confinement many girls will find complications because violence is the order of the day," says Minerva Santamaría, member in the State of Mexico of this organization.

"We know the concern of the Mexican government and the efforts they are making to eradicate this," he adds.

They also know how difficult it is for these girls to make decisions about their pregnancy, which sometimes leads to late abortions or unwanted births.

Overcrowding in many neighborhoods and indigenous communities is a risk factor for adolescent girls, who sometimes share a bedroom with their brother, grandfather and other relatives.

"In these contexts, many girls are going to have problems," adds Santamaría.

With the schools closed, the matter becomes more acute.

"The absence of school life due to the pandemic and the economic crisis favors informal unions and early pregnancies", says Mariana Pría, coordinator of Political Advocacy at Save the Children.

“Women are still seen as the property of someone who directs their destinies and controls their actions and desires.

Girls also grow up thinking that they will not be complete women without union with a man and motherhood.

All this is favored by the abandonment of studies.

Although child marriage is prohibited, it does not prevent them from joining informally, ”he adds.

And confinement abounds in all of it.

The emergency response to the pandemic is diverting health resources, according to some of the experts consulted, which may, in turn, lead to an increase in maternal mortality, given that these deliveries are the second leading cause of death among adolescents Not to mention the risks to the fetus or baby.

In desperate circumstances, risky abortions are used, which also endanger the life of the pregnant woman.

“It is true that in Mexico there is a program for the prevention of these pregnancies, but there are no priority actions.

All this is going to delay us in the purpose of stopping this problem ”, warns Verónica Esparza, researcher at the Information Group on Elected Reproduction (Gire).

"A comprehensive, secular and scientific sexual education is needed so that the youngest girls understand the implications of an early pregnancy," he adds.

98% of adolescents know contraceptive methods, but only 21% say they have used them and 13.45% do not know how they are used.

The government speaks out on this issue often.

The Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, has pointed out on occasions that pregnant women under the age of 15 must be considered victims of sexual violence.

To all of them.

Or social violence, because in some indigenous communities, it is understood that if at 19 you have not married, you will never do it, that is why girls are mothers very soon, sold, sometimes, for arranged marriages.

In the State of Mexico there were more than 500 pregnancies of girls under 15 years of age in 2019, according to Save the Children data.

The director of Inmujeres, affirms that they have redoubled their efforts, deriving funds that were destined to civil organizations.

"More than 80 million pesos (4 million dollars) have been dedicated to the implementation of the national strategy for the prevention of these pregnancies," says Gasman, who recognizes that "we must strengthen sexuality education for young people."

The uneven incidence by territories.

Valentina Jazo, from Catholics for the Right to Decide, works in Oaxaca and she has seen some of those cases that are not forgotten.

“We had a 10-year-old girl, we could never determine if she was raped by her father or on the street, but the mother noticed that her belly was growing and that she was not menstruating.

When it came to us, it was almost 20 weeks.

He only said that something had happened to him, but that he did not see his face.

The girl ended up having an abortion in Mexico City, ”he explains.

Abortion is legal in Mexico when it is the result of rape, but gestation periods are not always regulated and some find the doors of clinics closed for that reason.

In the year of the pandemic, some of Hannah Borboleta's midwives "have seen an increase in requests," says this woman, from the Morada Violeta midwifery home.

And he criticizes the "fall in prenatal consultations, resources have been diverted to covid."

In another similar organization, Luna Maya, Magali Fabila works as a midwife in Chiapas.

She talks about the treatment that indigenous women receive in hospitals, where their language is not spoken and where "they are violent and hurt, nobody explains anything to them."

They usually turn to midwives from their community.

“They don't usually express their feelings, what they want, what they need.

They are used to having neither voice nor vote, ”says Fabila.

Thus, quietly, there was that 17-year-old girl who attended in a humble house on the outskirts of San Cristóbal de las Casas, the capital of Chiapas.

The delivery went well, but the pregnancy was not wanted.

Mexico faces complicated statistics on sexual and reproductive health that the pandemic is worsening.

Like cherries, teenage pregnancies will drag school dropouts with them in an undesirable spiral where there is no line to pull to untangle the skein.

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