More than 47,600 births were registered to mothers aged under 20 in Argentina in 2022, the most recent date for which information is available.
Over the past decade, adolescent pregnancies in Argentina have fallen by 60 percent. But while the national rate today is below the Latin American average (which exceeds 66.5 per 1,000), it remains above the global average (46 per 1,000) and higher than neighbouring Uruguay and Chile.
Since 1980, the teenage fertility rate (ages 15-19) has dropped from 80 per 1,000 to 56.7 per 1,000 by 2003, according to the data from the former Ministries of Health, Education and Social Development.
There are regional variations – for example, in 2017, the rate was 20.24 per 1,000 in Buenos Aires City, but significantly higher in provinces such as Formosa (82.5 per 1,000), Chaco (81.4 per 1,000), and Misiones (81.4 per 1,000).
Nationwide, a downward trend was confirmed in 2017, around the time that the government introduced the Plan para la Prevención del Embarazo no Intencional en la Adolescencia, or Plan ENIA.
Over the following five years, teen pregnancy rates significantly dropped. In 2018, seven out of 10 adolescent pregnancies (ages 15-19) were unintended.
By 2021, this figure had dropped to five out of 10. Between 2018 and 2021, the adolescent fertility rate for those aged 10 to 19 was nearly halved (decreasing by 49 percent).
The 2022 census confirmed the trend, showing a 50 percent reduction in the number of adolescents with children.
Silvina Ramos, a sociologist and researcher at the Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES), who was the first coordinator of Plan ENIA, says it was an “exceptional” initiative, unique in Latin America.
Feminist campaigner and doctor Mabel Bianco, the founder of the Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer (FEIM), highlighted that the iniative linked health services with schools, providing on-site medical support for appointment without prior reservation.
However, the plan is now at risk due to a 70 percent reduction in funding for 2025, part of wider austerity imposed by President Javiver Milei’s government.
By September 2024, only 15 percent of the budget allocated for adolescent pregnancy prevention had been spent, say the organisations involved.
The chicken or the egg?
A 2014 study by CONICET investigators Georgina Binstock and Mónica Gogna found that more than half of teenage mothers (55 percent) in Argentina had exited the education system at the time of their first pregnancy.
In addition, UNICEF reported that only 20 percent of 19-year-old mothers had completed secondary school studies, compared to 56 percent among those who hadn't given birth.
Six out of ten adolescents who were still in school at the time of pregnancy dropped out. The reasons given include lack of interest in studying and fear of discrimination (either real or anticipated).
Teenage motherhood is the leading cause of school dropout among under-19s. Only 40 percent of young mothers complete secondary school, according to data from the Fundación Huésped NGO.
The relationship between school dropouts and teenage pregnancy appears to be both cause and effect. Dropping out of school increases the likelihood of becoming pregnant in adolescence, and teenage pregnancy leads to abandoning studies.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, only one percent of those who had children during their adolescence go on to attain a university education, compared to five percent for adult mothers.
The gap is even wider when it comes to tertiary education, education for those over school age — three percent for adolescent mothers versus 10 percent for adult mothers.
Reproducing poverty
Teenage mothers often fail to complete secondary education and therefore have limited opportunities of entering higher education. This, in turn, leads to less quality and more precarious jobs and greater inequality — an issue that already affects women, who often bear the burden of childcare from a young age.
"The reproduction of poverty, especially among those from already impoverished households, is a reality," says political scientist Melisa Centurión, a member of the No Sin Mujeres network.
The potential negative impact on a young woman's life, such as condemning them to a lifetime of poverty, will extend to the child as well. Often, the teen father usually also drops out of school, adds Dr. Bianco.
Dropping out means these young women will be disadvantaged in the labour market, typically securing low-paying jobs with no social security coverage.
Among young people who neither work nor study, the majority are young mothers, while young men are often involved in drug use or also father children at an early age, explains Bianco.
"Preventing a pregnancy gives these teenagers better opportunities for personal development and skills to defend themselves," says Ramos.
Women who become mothers in their teens face 25 percent less labour market activity than those who become mothers in adulthood, according to a recent United Nations Population Fund study.
The report adds that this economic disadvantage not only affects mothers – the state loses out too, through lost tax revenue due to the income gap between adolescent and adult mothers. In 2018, the state is estimated to have lost the equivalent of US$66 million in potential tax income.
Unintended
Another consequence of adolescent pregnancy is early cohabitation of partners. In a study based on four provinces in Argentina, more than 60 percent of respondents who were in relationships had ended up living with the father of their child, according to the Education Secretariat.
However, this is sometimes intentional. Studies show that for some young women, pregnancy is often a way out of the family home, especially those living in the most vulnerable sectors of society.
In cases where the father takes responsibility, the young mother often becomes part of his family, says Centurión.
Fundación Huésped reports that 70 percent of pregnancies in 15- to 19-year-olds in Argentina are unintentional. The NGO’s survey found that only 20 percent of adolescents who became unintentionally pregnant had been using contraception consistently.
Unintended pregnancies are often linked to the absence of a comprehensive sexual education policy, lack of knowledge about contraceptive methods, or difficulties accessing them, explains Centurión.
Age differences
In pregnancies among those under 15, the situation is different and often associated with sexual abuse in family environments, according to Ramos.
In indigenous communities, the adolescent pregnancy rate is 3.8 percent higher than the national average for those aged under 15.
Experts highlight the distinction between pregnancies among girls aged 15-18 and those aged under 15. In the former group, consent may be present, though not always. For the youngest, the situation is different. The majority of international law assumes that girls this young are incapable of consent, and any pregnancy is considered the result of sexual abuse, Bianco explains.
"I remember a case in Tartagal [in Salta Province], in 2021, where a 12-year-old girl arrived at the hospital with a complicated pregnancy and died. The boy she became pregnant by was 16, from the same community," Bianco recalled in an interview, citing an example.
Upon notification at the hospital, authorities attempted to arrest the boy, which sparked a strong reaction from the local community. An indigenous leader defended him, arguing that the union was considered consensual by all families involved and that the couple had lived together.
Such agreements often involve an economic pact between families, but results in the union being poorer than either family, notes Bianco.
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