The United Nations has called for more services to support pregnant teenagers in the Pacific – with rape suspected in some cases.

Although the number of pregnant young women across the region as a whole is falling, the The UN Population Fund (UNPFA) says there is still cause for concern.

It says Marshall Islands is recording 85 pregnancies for every 1000 teenage girls in the community, while the teenage pregnancy rate in Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu is between 6 and 8 per cent.

The UNPFA’s Pacific director, Dr Laurent Zessler, has told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat programme some measures are being taken.

“There’s a need and we work with the countries in the Pacific to have friendly services for young women, you know, where they can have access to information, where they can have access to contraceptives,” he said.

Dr Zessler says teenage girls need to be better educated about reproductive health to stem high rates of pregnancies.

“We need to make sure that at the school level, at the college level, young women have what we call comprehensive sexuality education, that in the classroom, professors and teachers explain to them about biology, about reproductive health, so they’re fully informed,” he said.

He says there are also some unreported pregnancies resulting from rape.

“It could be possible that sometimes they are related to rape but sometimes we lack the data as to the exact nature of the violence,” he said.

“This is why we are also working with the countries, and the countries are addressing gender-based violence against women, in particular concerning young girls.

“You need to have the proper police setup where the young woman can go to report the case. We need to have, you know, health professionals that can answer, that can be ready to accept the women, and also the judicial system to implant the law and enforce the law that exists in many countries.”

Dr Zessler says there are also culture factors involved in influencing the decisions of young women to continue or terminate their pregnancies.

“What we are advocating is safe abortion should be made available so, you know, let’s say that a younger woman has been raped and is pregnant, she could have access to safe abortion,” he said.

“This is a very controversial matter in some Pacific island countries but, you know, countries have answered to this issue and they do answer to this issue, sometimes through the community response, through the village council and also the authorities are taking action in case such a thing happens.”

He is also concerned cultural acceptance in communities may be playing a part in a possible link between cases of abandoned babies and teenage pregnancies.

“We see that young women could be stigmatised, you know, when they become pregnant, especially at a very young age, so sometimes this could lead to abandonment of the child,” he said.

“Of course, these things are linked. We need to have the services from the government, from the ministry of health, ministry of social affairs.

“They are answering, but of course sometimes some cases escape the system.”

While many countries are responding to the situation, Dr Zessler says further support is needed from different actors across the Pacific.

“We also need the support of the religious leaders, they have to understand and address these issues when you talk to the community, especially when doing services and so on,” he said.

“I think it’s a situation that needs changing because we see that there is a political will in many countries to address this issue.”