About 12 million girls aged 15–19 give birth each year in developing nations, the Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health organisation has said.
Among the 12 million girls, at least 777,000 girls under 15 years give birth globally each year.
This comes at a time when the World population officially tops eight billion.
The pupation is considered to have the largest generation of young people in history.
A report from the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP2022) held in Thailand concluded that at least 10 million unintended pregnancies occur each year among adolescent girls aged 15–19 years in low and middle income countries.
They said pregnancy and childbirth complications are among the leading causes of death among girls aged 15-19 years globally.
The report indicated that 1.8 billion adolescents and youth aged 10 to 24 face unprecedented number of challenges to health and wellbeing.
Between 2003 and 2015, only 1.6 per cent of development health assistance supported adolescent programming.
The situation has been exacerbated considerably by the triple threat of conflict, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Due to age-related stigma, discrimination and unclear or restrictive laws, adolescents are particularly at risk of having unsafe abortions," the statement read.
Of the estimated 5.6 million abortions that occur each year among adolescent girls aged 15–19 years, 3.9 million are unsafe.
This contributes to maternal mortality, morbidity and lasting health problems.
Covid-19 has been the leading cause of the existing gaps in adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Covid-19 is estimated to have reduce adolescent access to modern contraceptives by 12 per cent and access to maternity care by 25 per cent.
The agenda on ensuring high quality sexual and reproductive care for adolescents and young people was also high in ICFP2022 at Pattaya, Thailand.
ICFP2022 is the world’s largest scientific conference on family planning and reproductive health and rights.
The conference attracted more than 3,500 delegates from across governments, parliaments, NGOs, UN agencies, youth organisations, private sector and academia.
