site.btaAuthorities Step Up Efforts to Curb Early Childbirth and Child Marriages

A total of 33,159 children have been born to underage mothers in Bulgaria over the past decade, Labour and Social Policy Minister Borislav Gutsanov said at a roundtable on the prevention of early marriages and adolescent births in Sofia on Monday. He described the trend as incompatible with the values of a modern society and called for stronger joint action by state institutions to protect children’s rights and ensure access to education and healthcare.

Citing two recent cases of violence involving minors, Gutsanov linked early childbirth to social exclusion and poverty. “Early childbirth condemns children to poverty, denies them access to education and healthcare, and increases the risk of violence,” he said, adding that education is key to overcoming harmful practices wrongly perceived as cultural traditions.

The forum, organized by the State Agency for Child Protection (SACP), brought together representatives of government institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the prosecution service. The initiative is part of the Agency’s national campaign against child abuse - Be Brave, Be Kind!

SACP Chair Teodora Ivanova said an action plan has been drawn up to target the cities with the highest number of children born to minors, including Stara Zagora, Pazardzhik, Sliven, and Plovdiv. Health mediators in these communities will assist the Agency’s outreach work. Ivanova stressed that effective prevention depends on local engagement and political will. “The children are not to blame, we, the adults, are,” she said, noting that intergenerational patterns of early childbirth must be broken through education and dialogue rather than punishment.

According to data presented by Kalina Serafimova, prosecutor from the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office, 289 people were convicted in the first half of 2025 for sexual relationships or cohabitation with minors. During the same period, prosecutors opened 49 pre-trial proceedings for sexual contact with a person under 14 and 301 for cohabitation with a minor, while two cases involved parents or relatives accepting payment to allow such relationships.

Gutsanov, who launched the SACP campaign, said the issue demands urgent attention across all institutions. “We cannot allow children to give birth to children in modern Bulgaria,” he said.