NGOs in the South American country of Paraguay are issuing warnings about child pregnancies. According to the report by the Noticias Venevision news site, the Coordination Committee for Child and Adolescent Rights (Cdia) released a bulletin based on data from the Ministry of Public Health, Social Welfare Ministry, and other institutions.

In the bulletin published as part of the International Day of the Girl Child commemoration activities, Cdia indicated that there were 4,674 births among girls and adolescents aged 10-17 in 2023, meaning that 13 girls give birth every day in Paraguay. According to the NGO, 90.4% of the cases were recorded as first-time births among girls and adolescents, while 9.2% and 0.4% already had two or more children. The regions with the highest number of cases were Central and Alto Paraná (east), where 17.8% and 14.2% of live births among girls and adolescents occurred, respectively, due to being the most populous areas in the country.

Cdia also published figures from the Public Prosecutor’s Office for 2023, which recorded 3,956 girls and teenage women as victims of various forms of violence, with 2,517 cases being sexual abuse. The remaining 742 girls suffered mistreatment, and 609 girls were victims of rape. Additionally, based on data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), the NGO estimates that 302,070 girls and young women lived in poverty conditions in 2023, accounting for 33.2% of the total for this group.