WILLEMSTAD - The Famia Plania (Planned Family) foundation, which is engaged in, among other things, teenage pregnancy prevention, is concerned about the number of abortions committed by young mothers and is questioning why the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) does not reimburse contraceptives.
As a result, young people cannot obtain contraceptives free of charge from the foundation and a small fee must be charged for this. “Reimbursement by the SVB would help enormously in reducing healthcare costs.
Not only does it prevent costly or illegal abortions that pose a health hazard to the pregnant teen, it also prevents a baby from being born in less than ideal circumstances. Because such a child has an increased chance of developing into a problem for society,” says Famia Plania.
Figures show that the number of teenage pregnancies is decreasing. The foundation hopes that this is partly due to greater awareness among teenagers. On the other hand, the foundation states:
"Safe sex" is not something that really lives in society. We also often hear that young people are increasingly more likely to have abortions. Sometimes this is done with self-taken measures that are not without danger, but we are increasingly hearing from doctors who perform the abortions. It is better to use contraceptives that are available at Famia Plania for a small fee to prevent pregnancy.”
Famia Plania has analyzed some figures from the population register, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and its own observations. “From the years after 2017, the population register does not keep the ages of the mothers, so it is not known whether they are teenage mothers or not,” the foundation notes.
Figures from Central Bureau of Statistics show that the number of teenage pregnancies fell each year between 2011 and 2019 from 199 and 201 in 2011 and 2012 to 114 and 116 in 2018 and 2019. Percentage wise, there has been a decrease every year since 2011, of 10.1 percent teenage mothers on the total number of births in 2011 to 6.8 and 7.3 percent in 2018 and 2019.