It is 10 times more than in Spain and similar to Mexico and Haiti

14ymedio, Havana, July 9, 2024 — The rate of adolescent pregnancies is one of the figures Cuba reports in its Public Health data, which has always boasted of its universal and efficient system. In 2023, 18.9% of births were to girls between the ages of 12 and 19. The figure was published in the umpteenth article that the official press dedicates to the subject, which shows how, far from solving the problem, it continues to increase. The number has risen by more than two percentage points since 2019, when 16.7% of deliveries were to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19. The following year the figure was 17%; in 2021, 17.1%; and in 2022, 17.9%.
In terms of adolescent fertility – also between 15 and 19 years of age – for every 1,000 girls in that age range there were 51.5 (2020), 49.2 (2021) and 50.6 (2022) births. The data from Cuba are far from those of other countries such as Spain, which in 2022, for that age range, reported a rate of just 4.61 births. The statistics of the Island are more similar to those of Mexico (60.3) for example, or those of Haiti (51.2).
For those interviewed by Cubadebate, these numbers represent a “dysfunction” or, as explained by psychologist and demographer Matilde Molina, “the largest disconnection present in Cuban fertility,” especially when compared to the fertility rate of women between 20 and 24 years old (the highest among the age groups), which is not very that much higher with 82.9 births per 1,000 women.
The number has risen by more than two percentage points since 2019, when 16.7% of deliveries were to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19
Other alarming numbers are those of very early pregnancies, between 12 and 14 years of age. In the first half of 2023, 5.4% of adolescent pregnancies correspond to girls of those ages, a high number compared to the figure of 2018, when it was 3.8%.
These are just the global figures, exceeded in many cases, the authorities warn, by the number of pregnancies in certain territories, starting with the eastern provinces. Provinces such as Las Tunas (22.7%), Holguín (21.3%), Camagüey (20.5%) and Granma (20.3%) have the highest percentages of teenage pregnancies in the country.
Molina relates cases of early pregnancies to various aspects of the social and family context of adolescents. According to the authorities, who defend a position that mainly blames families, it is the parents themselves who often “incite” adolescent girls to maintain relationships with adult men or to have children, and the family experience influences their decisions. “The daughter of a teenage mother often ends up also being a mother at an early age of life,” Doctor of Sciences Antonio Aja said in July 2023 in front of Parliament.
“Young women tend to repeat the learned patterns of early family formation, either through formal or informal unions, which often involve early pregnancies,” Molina clarifies. Being black or mestizo, unemployed and living in conditions of “vulnerability” are other characteristics that, as defined on other occasions by the authorities, make up the profile of Cuban teenage mothers.
There are cases of adults up to 50 years old who have relationships with girls under 19 years old
Another situation, which enhances the inequality between adolescents and their partners, is the age difference. For girls who are between 10 and 14 years old, their partners are on average 8.9 years older. However, the newspaper recognizes that there are cases of adults up to 50 years old who have relationships with girls under the age of 19. “As the age of the teenager is younger, that distance becomes greater and greater,” says the media.
Molina points out that, in addition to the fact that they are “girls” and not adult women, teenage pregnancies often bring situations of disadvantage, gender violence, power and freedom imbalances, and child marriages.
“Teenage pregnancy limits inclusive development, increases inequalities and social disadvantages, and aggravates gender gaps and heterogeneities between territories,” says the specialist, who sees with concern that in 2014 the median age for the first marriage was 15.4 years old. The recent Code of Families placed the minimum age for marriage at 18 years – before it was 14 years for girls and 16 for boys with parental consent – but many informal unions continue to happen “outside the law,” Cubadebate admits.
In 2022, 15 adolescents age 14 or younger were married, while in the group of 15 to 19 years old, the figure rises to 3,987, according to the Demographic Year of Cuba of 2022. For its part, the latest Survey of Multiple Indicators by Conglomerates, published in 2019 by the Ministry of Public Health, estimated that 6.2% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 had married or lived with men before the age of 15.
In 2022, 15 adolescents under the age of 15 married, while in the group of 15 to 19 years old, the figure rises to 3,987
“When girls become mothers, they are much more likely to have more children in adolescence, which increases the risks for their personal development, but also for their offspring, the family and the community,” adds Molina, who explains that 75% of girls who have a child before the age of 15 are pregnant again before they are 20.
Molina adds, finally, other variables, such as the early onset of sexual relations, before the age of 15, the lack of education along with the low perception of risk and, ultimately, the “marked deficit of contraceptive methods, which increases the unsatisfied demand of this population.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.