KUCHING, Feb 26 — Sarawak recorded a 5.36 per cent decrease in teenage pregnancies last year, from 1,623 cases in 2021.
In revealing this, Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Datuk Sri Fatimah Abdullah said based on state Health Department statistics, such cases have been on a downward trend since 2016.
“The number of teenage pregnancies has gone down by 38.09 per cent between 2016 and 2022 — from 2,481 cases in 2016 to 1,536 cases in 2022.
“New antenatal cases of teenagers also show a decrease of 1.6 per cent from 6.4 per cent in 2016 and 4.8 per cent in 2022,” she said at ‘Wanita Calon Syurga’ talk held at the Islamic Information Centre here Friday.
On the breakdown of cases according to ethnicity, Fatimah said 49.3 per cent of teen pregnancies recorded in 2022 involved Ibans, followed by Malays (21.4 per cent), Chinese (7.3 per cent) and Bidayuh (7.2 per cent).
Meanwhile, she said there was a drop in the number of divorces among Muslims in 2020 at 1,053 cases compared to 2,998 in 2019, and 2,781 in 2018.
For Muslim marriages, there were 10,676 in 2018, 10,562 in 2019, and 10,912 in 2020, she added.
As for civil marriages, Fatimah said there was a steep drop in 2020 with only 6,998 marriages compared to 8,468 in 2019, and 8,054 in 2018.
Civil divorces also showed a decrease in 2020 with 1,261 cases compared to 1,408 the year before, and 1,078 in 2018.
For customary marriages, there was an increase in 2022 with 2,084 compared to 1,560 in 2021, and 2,134 in 2022. The divorce rate for this group was the highest in 2022 with 1,210 cases compared to 731 in 2021, and 1,149 in 2020.
Also present at the talk were Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) Sarawak director Hamdan Jaree. — Borneo Post
