Fewer babies born to teens, with youth more savvy on contraception

The number of babies born to teenagers has halved in the past decade, and counsellors say this is largely because today's teens are a lot more savvy about using contraception.

- Theresa Tan

In 2022, 218 babies were born to teens aged 19 and younger.

This is fewer than half of the 487 babies born to teenagers in 2013, according to the Report on Registration of Births and Deaths 2022 published by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority. The 2022 figures are the latest available.

Meanwhile, when The Sunday Times asked the Health Ministry about teen abortions in the past decade, a spokesman said the incidence rate of abortions has remained largely unchanged at about two in 1,000 teens from 2018 to 2022.

The issue of teen pregnancy came up during a recent court case where a 15-year-old girl became pregnant after having sex with a 14-year-old boy. Concealing the pregnancy from their parents, they tried to abort the foetus on their own.

Their methods, which they found online, included the girl inserting a clothes hanger into her body in an attempt to pull the foetus out, taking abortion pills, and having her abdomen punched and kneed by the boy.

The girl gave birth to a stillborn son in 2021.

In December 2023, the boy was found guilty of sexual penetration of a minor and abetting the girl in concealing the birth by burying the child. The boy, who is now 18, is awaiting sentencing.