Malawi – Youths struggle to access Sexual and Reproductive Health Services

Oct 08, 2023 
Francis Tayanja-Phiri 

Girls and women struggle to access Sexual and Reproductive Health services in health facilities. Journalist Francis Tayanjah-Phiri discusses some of the challenges the youth face with the Executive Director of Young Voices Kenneth Mtago

What are the challenges youth face as they access Sexual and Reproductive Health services?
Mtago: The challenges are many including those that on socio-economic, cultural, and environmental conditions. Most youths are not financially independent and it is difficult for them to access quality services. Furthermore, some health facilities do not have youth friendly services, forcing the youth to shun hostile service providers with staff who have negative personnel attitudes. Imagine a youth seeking condoms from a health worker who remarks: Inunso mwayamba za chiwerewere? (Have you resorted to promiscuity?). The other challenge is lack of comprehensive sexuality education, resulting in the youth failing to understand their bodies. Due to low levels of knowledge on contraceptives availability, unsafe abortions are another problem haunting many girls and women.

Continued: https://malawi24.com/2023/10/08/youths-struggle-to-access-sexual-and-reproductive-health-services/


How the Supreme Court’s Abortion Decision Left Many Youth Behind

BY ALEX BERG
DECEMBER 20, 2022

After having an abortion two years ago, B (whose name is withheld for privacy) didn’t think much about her experience with the procedure. As a 17 year-old at the time with a couple of months to go before her high school graduation, she “put it out of sight.” That was until June 24, 2022, the day the Supreme Court issued a decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in the United States.  

“It really snapped me back into reality from it,” B, now 19, tells Teen Vogue.

Continued: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-the-supreme-courts-abortion-decision-left-many-youth-behind


New Zealand: Abortion rate drops to lowest in 25 years

Abortion rate drops to lowest in 25 years
19 Jun, 2017

Abortions have dropped to the lowest rate in over 25 years.

The general abortion rate - abortions per 1000 women aged 15-44 - was 13.5 per 1000 women in 2016, down from 14.2 in 2015.

Statistics NZ reported that the abortion rates for younger women have fallen significantly in recent years whereas the rate has stayed the same for older women.

Continued at source: New Zealand Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11879064


Ethiopia: Choices & Consequences: An edutainment drama about youth sexual and reproductive health

Choices & Consequences: An edutainment drama about youth sexual and reproductive health

Published on Aug 12, 2016

This edutainment drama, produced in north-western Tigray, Ethiopia, aims to initiate discussion on youth sexual and reproductive health in the case of contraceptive use and abortion. The six main characters, the secondary school students Solyana, Kibrom, Azeb, Tedy, Helen and Teamrat, make different choices that have consequences for their future lives when entering puberty. The drama addresses gender norms that influence youth sexuality in a context where reproductive options, in the case of different contraceptive methods and safe abortion services, are in fact legally available for them. Knowledge about these options is low, however, and the silence around youth sexual and reproductive health issues prevails. When sexual abstention before marriage is reinforced by the female virginity ideal, it also becomes difficult for girls to be prepared and protect themselves if it “just happens”. This short edutainment drama also asks whether other options for being a responsible man are thinkable. The drama is financed by Norwegian Research Council/NORGLOBAL through the University of Bergen-based research project: “Competing discourses impacting girls’ and women’s rights: Fertility control and safe abortion in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia”. Research data will be generated from the discussions of the drama with youth, parents, teachers and other community members.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQFe-3JBYFY