Every Hour Three Adolescent Girls Are Becoming Pregnant in El Salvador

UN has released a recent report highlighting social pressures in El Salvador, the country which bans abortion. It stresses upon the worrying trend where nearly one in three pregnancies in El Salvador are to girls under 19.

In 2015, 30 percent of the 83,500 pregnancies in El Salvador were to "adolescents aged between 10 and 19," the study by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said.

‘UN Population Fund reported that 30 percent of the 83,500 pregnancies in El Salvador were to adolescents aged between 10 and 19 in 2015.’

An average of 69 girls or adolescents become pregnant each day in the country, amounting to around three pregnancies an hour, it added.

Health Minister Violeta Menjivar called the figures "extremely worrying."

Some 1,500 girls aged 10 to 14 were included in the pregnancy statistics, which "theoretically means 1,500 people raped," she said, presenting the report in a news conference alongside UNFPA representative Hugo Gonzalez.

She called for changes to laws that currently stipulate 40-year prison sentences for women who abort, even in cases of complications during pregnancy.

Source: AFP