In 2021, Polish teenagers gave birth to 5,900 children, compared to 7,100 in 2020 and a staggering 8,300 in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
Experts attribute the decrease in adolescent pregnancies primarily to the restrictions on social interactions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Lockdowns, the shift to online learning, and the intermittent bans on leaving home altogether reduced the opportunities for teenage pregnancies,” said Professor Piotr Szukalski from the University of Łódź.
But the pandemic doesn’t seem to be the only explanation, as Szukalski posits that the decrease in teenage pregnancies is a by-product of the reform to the education system in Poland.
As of 2017, the Ministry of Education was phasing out three-year junior high schools until in 2019 they were fully replaced with eight-year primary schools and four-year high schools.
A similar trend in pregnancies has also been observed in other EU countries, such as the UK, where during the first coronavirus lockdown, the number of children born to young mothers among fell by over a quarter.
Similarly, in France, the number of births among teenagers dropped in 2019, yet overall fertility rates increased.
(pjm)
Source: Dziennik Gazeta Prawna
