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Peter Matika, Online Desk
At least 700 hundred underage girls are reported to have fallen pregnant and given birth in 2022.
This is according to statistics provided by the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency, in a parliamentary report.
Posing a question in parliament, the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health, Dr Ruth Labode quizzed:
“I am making reference to the Zimbabwe Statistics. Disaggregated data on the Distribution of Births by Age of Mother released during the launch of the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (Zimstat) Vital Statistics Report shows that 700 girls aged 10 to 14 gave birth in 2022. What does this say about this country? Could the Minister of Health and Child Care bring a Ministerial Statement and tell us what strategy they have to curb this scourge of teenage pregnancies? A ten-year-old is not a teenager but a baby.”
The minister of information, publicity, and broadcasting services, Honourable Monica Mutsvangwa responded to the inquiry, sayin the issue was heartbreaking.
“The issue of teenage pregnancies is an issue which the whole country is seized with… To have 700 young girls aged 10 to 14 getting pregnant is very sad. A ten-year-old is a child and what has gone wrong with our people? This is an issue which is not going to be just dealt with by the Ministry of Health alone but by inter-ministerial strategy,” said minister Mutsvangwa.
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