Deal with the root cause of baby dumping

Aug 3 marks the official launch of the National Baby Dumping Prevention campaign by Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to spread awareness about the problem as well as the Kasih Helpline for pregnant women in crisis with an unwanted pregnancy.

Twenty-four hours earlier in Muar, a baby girl was found, with the umbilical cord still attached, after she was abandoned at a factory. Luckily, she was still alive and was taken to the hospital.

Every three days, a baby is dumped in Malaysia with the majority found dead or macerated.

For years, the government has been in denial, skirting the issue and only paying lip service to this humanitarian crisis.

It is encouraging to note that the Pakatan government, led in this issue by Wan Azizah and Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh, has courageously acknowledged the problem and is serious in tackling the issue.

The multiple meetings initiated by the ministry with stakeholders and NGOs to really understand the problem, the launch of sexual education videos for primary school pupils and the campaign with helpline numbers in toilets across highways are among the strategies that have been implemented.

However, in order to really decrease the number of baby dumping cases, we need to bravely deal with the root cause. Behind every baby dumped is an unintended pregnancy. The prevention of such entails, of course, critical health education to our young, including sharing of pregnancy prevention methods.

Statistics from 2014 have shown that 4.8% of our teenagers are sexually active rising to 7.3% in 2017. Many of them do not use contraceptives. Acknowledging the fact that sexual activity happens in the young regardless of laws, and allowing access to contraceptives for those who are already sexually active as a harm reduction measure, go a long way towards effective strategies.

Malaysia criminalises consensual sex by anyone below 18 years old with the advent of the Sexual Offence Against Children Act and mandates police reports to be made by anyone with knowledge of such activities, including healthcare professionals.

Legal amendments must be instituted to tackle these barriers if we are to see any reduction in teenage unintended pregnancies, abortions or baby dumping. The pregnant teenage mother frequently faces the possibility of prosecutions by various acts, including religious laws, and until we can amend the punitive environment that these teenage mothers are faced with, minimal gains will be achieved.

On the whole, society, communities, the public and even those who are supposed to provide help stigmatise and discriminate against these mothers and drive them to shame and secrecy. Our social support for teenage mothers and teenage parents are far from ideal, falling short of what is needed to prevent repeat teenage pregnancies.

Minimal gain can be achieved from the various stop-gap measures that are being implemented until and unless, a young person can freely and safely access:

1. Contraceptives, if needed
2. Sexual and reproductive health services
3. A non-punitive support system that allows them to carry on their unplanned pregnancies
4. A non-judgmental community that embraces them when they are in trouble.
5. A legal framework that allows all the above to happen.

For the first time, we have leaders and government who mean business but they must be supported by all of us, the people, to do more and to have the political will to continue implementing fundamental changes that allow us as society to mature and better protect our young.

Dr John Teo from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, is an FMT reader.