Motherhood in Childhood

access to sexual and reproductive health services,
including contraception, while the community or
family may oppose girls’ accessing comprehensive
sexuality education or other information about
how to prevent a pregnancy.
This model shows that adolescent pregnancies
do not occur in a vacuum but are the consequence
of an interlocking set of factors such as
widespread poverty, communities’ and families’
acceptance of child marriage, and inadequate
efforts to keep girls in school.
For most adolescents below age 18, and especially
for those younger than 15, pregnancies
are not the result of a deliberate choice. To the
contrary, pregnancies are generally the result
of an absence of choices and of circumstances
beyond a girl’s control. Early pregnancies reflect
powerlessness, poverty and pressures—from
partners, peers, families and communities. And
in too many instances, they are the result of
sexual violence or coercion. Girls who have
little autonomy—particularly those in forced
marriages—have little say about whether or
when they become pregnant.
Adolescent pregnancy is both a cause and
consequence of rights violations. Pregnancy
undermines a girl’s possibilities for exercising
the rights to education, health and autonomy,
as guaranteed in international treaties such as
the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Conversely, when a girl is unable to enjoy basic
rights, such as the right to education, she becomes
more vulnerable to becoming pregnant. According
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
anyone under the age of 18 is considered a
child. For nearly 200 adolescent girls every day,
early pregnancy results in the ultimate rights
violation—death.
Girls’ rights are already protected—on paper—
by an international, normative framework that
requires governments to take steps that will make
it possible for girls to enjoy their rights to an
ADOLESCENT BIRTHS
95%
95 per cent of the
world’s births to
adolescents occur
in developing
countries
NATIONAL
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