Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694847852776.pdf (Uganda)
u\*r\* TEENAGE PREGNANCIES LEADIND CAUSE OF MATERNAL MORTLITY AND MORBIDITY IN UGANDA Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world.

The 2076 Uganda Demographic Health Survey indicates that 69oh of Uganda's population are young people below the age of 24.

About 25oh of adolescent girls become pregnant before the age of 1,9, this is one of the highest rates in Sub Saharan Africa.
Young people are sexually active (either by choice or as result of sexual violence), with the age of first sexual encounter estimated at 15 years.

High levels of underage and forced ^verage marriages have led to higher morbidity and mortality rates for both mothers and their babies.

Gitls as young as 10 years have had unsafe abortions, contributing to the high maternal mortality ratio of 336 per 100,000 live births.
Uganda has one of the highest rates of unsafe abortion in Eastern Africa with an estimated rute of 54 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age, which is far higher than the average of 39 abortions per 1,000 women in East Afuica.

Overall Teenage pregnancies contribute 25oh of maternal deaths in Uganda.

\il7omen and girls are at risk of acquiring STIs including HIV, UNAIDS estimates that 500 girls are affected by HIV every week.
The New Vision of 15'h March 2018 published a story of a 1.6-year old girl that was about to be wedded to z 1.9-yezr old young man in a I(isoro church.

In another story, a young girl in I&mbimbiri village, Mukono district was married off at the age of 13 and has had 38 children to- date.

She became a gtandmother at the age of 37.

The Sunday Vision of 2lstJanuary 2018 also showed that women and girls were being raped under the guise of providing legal abonion services.
Unscrupulous people are taking advantage of our desperate girls and women by advertising falsely that they provide "legal" abortion services.

I believe that lack of policies and clear guidelines regulating abortion are some of the major challenges to improving maternal health in Uganda and to fighting teenage pregnancies.

Not to mention those who end up losing their uteruses while others suffer from fistula.
The Maternal and Perinatal Death Review found that unsafe abortion is the biggest contributor to maternal morbidity and mortality in Uganda.

Lack of access by the sexually active adolescent girls to SRH information and services has led to unplanned, unwanted pregnancies and maternal deaths including complications from pregnancy like obstetric fistulae.

Or.Jy 21,oh of sexually active girls aged 15-19 years are currently using contraceptives with unmet need for FP at 30%.
Unsafe abortion places a huge strain on the public health system.

Government of Uganda spends approximately 7.5 billion shillings on providing post-abortion care to treat complications because of unsafe abortion, yet this money can be allocated to other areas of health to improve health service delivery.

I would like to inform you that every day we lose 16 women due to preventable causes of maternal mortaliry like unsafe abortions.

This is equivalent to a fully loaded commuter taxi crushing.
Evidence shows that for every dollar spent on family planning, \ye save 5 dollars spent on treating complications from unsafe abortions.

You are that the budget for health continues to shrink, last FY it was 8.5% this FY 7.4o/o.

Let me remind you of our obligation as Parliament to approprizte 1.5o/o of the total national budget to Health in line with commitmenrs made under the Abuja Declaration.
^w^re If we are to harness the Demographic Dividend, young people must be healthy, skilled and economically empowered.

It is therefore imperative for us Parliamentarians to have a paradigm shift in the way we appropriate resources by investing in the health of young people who make up the biggest percentage of our population if we are to reap from the benefits of thc demographic dividend.

From the above concerns, I would like the Ministry of Health to clari$, on the following: 1,.
In absence of regulations on SRH, what are the specific strategies in place to address the escalating teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortion in Uganda.

2.

What is the status of the SRH guidelines that were withdrawn from the House last year?

What is the Ministry using currendy to guide young people on SRH?

3.

Can the Ministry inform Parlament why the policy on Adolescent Health is not yet operationalized?

4.
4.

What is the plan for the Standards and Guidelines to Stop Maternal Morbidity and Mortality due to Unsafe Abortion?

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