Action Society says the revelation that 292 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 gave birth in the Western Cape between April and December 2025 should raise serious questions far beyond healthcare. The organisation believes every pregnancy involving a child should immediately be treated as a child protection case, with urgent efforts to establish whether abuse, exploitation or another criminal offence has occurred.
“Every child pregnancy is a protection failure. These are not ordinary teenage pregnancies. These are children giving birth. A child of 10 does not need better pregnancy services. She needed better protection long before she ever arrived at a maternity ward. The Western Cape has told us how many children gave birth. It now owes the public another number: how many perpetrators have been brought to justice?” says Juanita du Preez, National Spokesperson for Action Society.
Action Society says the figures expose a critical accountability gap.
“We know that 292 children gave birth. But how many criminal investigations followed? How many perpetrators were identified? How many arrests were made? How many convictions were secured? Until those questions can be answered, these are not only pregnancy statistics. They are accountability statistics.”
According to Action Society, pregnancies involving children this young often point to sexual abuse, grooming, coercion, exploitation or other circumstances where adults have failed in their duty to protect a child.
“The responsibility can never rest with the child. Our first question should never be why she became pregnant. It should be why she was not protected.”
Action Society says children should be equipped with age-appropriate knowledge about body safety, healthy boundaries, recognising grooming and where to seek help.
“Protecting children from abuse is fundamentally different from encouraging sexual activity. Silence has never protected children. It has protected perpetrators.”
The organisation further says that every pregnancy involving a child should trigger a coordinated response to ensure the child’s safety and determine whether criminal offences have been committed.
“If the system records another child giving birth but never identifies the person responsible, then it has failed that child twice. Every child deserves protection long before she becomes another statistic.”
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