The number of pregnancies in girls aged between 10 and 14 in Bogota has begun to decrease, breaking a 10-year long pattern of increasing teen pregnancy.
According to the district Health Secretary Jose Bernal Conde, the figure went down from 573 reported pregnancies in girls under 14 in 2009, to 515 in 2010.
Conde said that the decrease in pregnancies means “we have broken the tendency towards increases that we have seen in the last 10 years.” Teen pregnancy in Colombia has been on the increase for the last 20 years, with President Juan Manuel Santos recently saying that teen pregnancy had doubled in that time.
There was also a noticeable decrease from January to June 2011 with only 251 registered cases, while the same period in 2010 recorded 308 pregnancies, resulting in a decrease of 18.5%.
Pregnancies in girls aged 15 to 19 also decreaesd, from 20,675 pregnancies in 2009 to 19,325 in 2010, resulting in a decrease of 6.5% on the year before.
The reduction of early pregnancies is directly attributed to improved access to methods of contraception and reporodcutive health for young people in Bogota.