Paraguay’s Draconian Abortion Law Punishes Rape Survivors

Strict abortion prohibitions do not stop women and girls from having abortions; they just force them to have unsafe abortions, putting their lives and health at risk.

Tamara Taraciuk Broner, Santiago Menna – Human Rights Watch
January 5, 2022

In mid-November, a Paraguayan government hotline received a report of suspected sexual abuse against a 13-year-old Indigenous girl in a community near the border with Brazil. The case was assigned to Roselí Echeguren, a lawyer in a government office for the protection of children’s rights in Paraguay.

Echeguren told Human Rights Watch that community members had noticed that the girl had started to wear a girdle. Echeguren went to see the girl and took her to the hospital, where doctors confirmed that she was pregnant. The girl told her she had kept silent “out of fear.”

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/05/paraguays-draconian-abortion-law-punishes-rape-survivors


Sexual violence and abortion restrictions in Paraguay are fueling an epidemic of childhood pregnancy: Amnesty

By Kara Fox, CNN
Wed December 1, 2021

(CNN) An epidemic of childhood pregnancy in Paraguay is being fueled by widespread sexual abuse and restrictive abortion laws, according to a new Amnesty International report.

At least 1,000 girls aged 14 or younger gave birth in the country between 2019 and 2020, the report says. It adds that more than 12,000 teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 gave birth in 2019.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/01/americas/paraguay-pregnancy-child-abuse-sexual-violence-intl/index.html


Protecting and promoting SRHR of adolescents and young adults

20 October 2021
FIGO, Committee for Contraception and Family Planning

Early and unintended pregnancies put at risk the health and lives of young women and girls. Around the world, complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death and the third highest cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost for 15–19-year-old girls. Pregnant adolescents also face a higher risk of severe conditions such as eclampsia than women aged 20 to 24 years.

A health care conversation with a young person is incomplete if it does not mention sexual health, including safe, consensual, pleasurable sex, contraception and infection prevention. Yet despite this, so many young women and girls do not have access to the education or information they need to make safe and informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, including on abortions.

Continued: https://www.figo.org/news/protecting-and-promoting-srhr-adolescents-and-young-adults


Study Shows That India’s Teen Pregnancy Has Been Dropping Steadily For The Past 20 Years

By Mahima Negi
December 9, 2020

A population-based study was published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health aimed to document ‘trends and inequalities in the prevalence of adolescent motherhood across low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).‘

The results of this study will help in supporting the adolescent sexual and reproductive health target in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Continued: https://edtimes.in/study-shows-that-indias-teen-pregnancy-has-been-dropping-steadily-for-the-past-20-years/


Jamaica’s Teen Mother Crisis Gets Government Attention.

By Jonathan Mason
November 30, 2020

KINGSTON, Jamaica–November 29th,2020–HIV/AIDS Officer at the United Nations Population Fund Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean, Dr. Denise Chevannes, is urging interested parties to focus on adolescent pregnancy prevention, as one of the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She noted that COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem of adolescent pregnancy and has left more girls susceptible to teenage pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/jamaicas-teen-mother-crisis-gets-government-attention/


Vietnam promotes reproductive health care for adolescents, youths

Providing young people with knowledge about sexual and reproductive health combined with life skills education is a necessary and urgent issue, a top health official has said.

VNA Wednesday, November 04, 2020

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Providing young people with knowledge about sexual and reproductive health combined with life skills education is a necessary and urgent issue, a top health official has said.

Many Vietnamese youths have limited knowledge of sexual intercourse or pregnancy, Nguyen Duc Vinh, director of the Department of Maternal and Child Health, Ministry of Health, said at a recent workshop on sexual and reproductive health for adolescents and youth in Hanoi. The recent national survey on sexual and reproductive health by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Vietnam and the Ministry of Health showed 15 percent adolescents and young people have premarital sex before marriage.

Continued: https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-promotes-reproductive-health-care-for-adolescents-youths/189813.vnp


Malaysia – LETTER | Reduce adolescent pregnancy, uphold sexual and reproductive health

Federation of Reproductive Health Associations Malaysia
Published 9 Sep 2020

LETTER | We, leaders and representatives of civil society organisations, professional societies, scientific associations, faith-based organisations, government agencies and departments, private for-profit entities, non-governmental, non-profit organisations, and citizens of Malaysia, are united to reduce unintended adolescent pregnancies in Malaysia.

We desire a society where every person below 18 years of age enjoys health and well-being, is treated with love and respect, and is capable of realising their fullest potential. However, we are concerned with the reported rising rate of unprotected adolescent sexual activity, of which the health and social impacts include unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortion or miscarriages, disrupted education, child marriage, social stigma, and further victimisation.

Continued: https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/542003


Nigeria – High rate of unwanted pregnancy among adolescent: group urges PHCs to scale up

Isaac Eranga
September 2, 2020

Benin City: A youth-led non-governmental organization known as the Connected Advocacy for Empowerment and Youth Development Initiative (CAEYDI) has called on Primary HealthCare Centers (PHCs) to improve on their youth friendly reproductive health services in order to reduce the high rate of unwanted pregnancies prevalent among adolescent and youth in Edo State, saying adolescent are more vulnerable when it comes to unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion.

Continued: https://nigerianobservernews.com/2020/09/high-rate-of-unwanted-pregnancy-among-adolescent-group-urges-phcs-to-scale-up/


India – We Need To Talk About Unsafe Sex And Our Dilemmas Around Using Contraception

By Pragya Roy
September 2, 2020

As much as our country fears conversations around the word and the act of sex, especially outside the institution of marriage and/or for pleasure, the liberal and feminist circles which do widely dicusss sex, sexuality and the common anxieties around them, often tend to overlook one of the most prominent and anxiety-inducing notions—‘unsafe’ sex. In 2013, it was revealed that unsafe sex was the “second riskiest behaviour for boys and the greatest single risk to the health of girls,” in the worldwide risk table.

Although this particular study projected its findings solely on adolescents, unsafe and unprotected sex impacts other age groups too. Institutions of marriage, education and family, entwine with each other whereby factors like child marriage, lack of sex and sexuality education in schools and misogynistic structures engender diverse sexual and sexually violent episodes, especially for women and marginalised groups.

Continued: https://feminisminindia.com/2020/09/02/unsafe-sex-dilemmas-around-using-contraception/


Nigeria – Prioritise sexual reproductive health for adolescent girls, Kaduna State govt told

August 19, 2020
By Sola Ogundipe

The Kaduna State Government has been urged to scale up, prioritise and protect adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive health and services in the state in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state and in Nigeria at large.

Experts who spoke during a media roundtable organised by the Kaduna State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, KSPHCB, in collaboration with the Kaduna State COVID-19 Task Force with strategic support from the Society for Family Health, SFH, said the menace of unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion could be effectively checked through the enabling of financial empowerment of adolescent girls.

Continued: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/08/prioritise-sexual-reproductive-health-for-adolescent-girls-kaduna-state-govt-told/