Colombia’s “medieval” approach towards sex education and the taboo of discussing sexual health at home are the main causes of the country’s high teen pregnancy rates, said an expert.
Despite Cali recently reporting a 15% decrease in teen pregnancy in 2014, Colombia in general continues to struggle with high levels of teen pregnancy due to Colombia “having one of the most powerful medieval administrators in Colombia, Attorney General Alejandro Ordoñez, not providing true, complete, and reliable information on sexual and reproductive health for women,” according to sociologist Dr Glory Saavedra.
MORE: Colombia teen pregnancy worst in Latin America: Santos
Teen pregnancy is “one of the main causes of poverty in the country” according to a statement by Simon Gaviria, president of Colombia’s House of Representatives with an estimated 90 out of every 1,000 Colombian girls aged 15 to 19 become pregnant every year in Colombia, bringing with it large socioeconomic inequalities and personal development issues.
Sexual education became obligatory across Colombia in the 1990s in the hope that young people would discuss any worries and have a place to discuss what they perceived as a social taboo – talking about sex. However, parents, shocked by the content of the classes protested against them with the creation of groups such as the “Red Families” urging other parents to denounce the lessons as they thought teachers were encouraging homosexuality.
vacuum
MORE: Colombia aims to combat teen pregnancy with regular check‐ups
Additionally
However, what efforts there have been to provide education and free contraception have been met with fierce attacks from the Catholic Church in Colombia. For example, when organizers of the Barranquilla Carnival decided to make condoms free and easily accessible at the event to “prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies” they were denounced by the Church as being “irresponsible” for promoting the idea of sex.
However methods such as these must begin to be implemented in order to lessen the rate of teen and unwanted pregnancy.
According to Dr Saavedra “the drive towards peace in Colombia is not just about ending the armed war per se, but about rescuing much of Colombian society from the cultural abyss it has been dragged into, including the establishment of respect, equality and non-discrimination.”
Sources
- Estrategica sanitaria nacional de salud sexual y reproductiva (Ministry of Heath)
- 222 millones de mujeres no tienen acceso a la planificacion familiar en el mundo (United Nations)
- Que es el aborto? (ProFamilia)
- Planificacion Familiar (UNFPA)
- La planificación familiar es un derecho humano (Centro de Derechos Reproductivos)
- Educacion Sexual responsabilidad de todos (Ministry of Education)