Publication: Unleashing Aspirations While Ensuring Opportunities Could Help Reduce Teenage Pregnancy in Latin America and the Caribbean
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2024-06-27
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2024-06-27
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Teen pregnancies are common in Latin America and the Caribbean and pose risks for the mother and her future family. Though it has fallen, the region has the second highest teen pregnancy rate in the world (55 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19), after Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank 2023a). Teenage pregnancy poses risk of health complications and can lead to lower educational achievement and fewer job opportunities (Azevedo et al. 2012; The Economist 2019; World Bank 2023a).
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“World Bank. 2024. Unleashing Aspirations While Ensuring Opportunities Could Help Reduce Teenage Pregnancy in Latin America and the Caribbean. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41793 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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However, the direct and indirect effects of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and other emergencies threaten to stall and even undermine these achievements. To promote continued progress towards reducing maternal and child mortality and ensure equitable access to sexual and reproductive health services, Rwanda may consider prioritizing initiatives that ensure a steady provision of those services with a well-informed population to maintain and increase the demand of these routine health services, particularly in the context of the unexpected.
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