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Summary: Young people's needs for information
about sexual and reproductive
health are not being met in most
countries around the world, despite
a rapid increase in sexually
transmitted infections (STIs) among
those aged between 15 and 24,
according to a new report
Young people's needs for information about sexual and
reproductive health are not being met in most countries around
the world, despite a rapid increase in sexually transmitted
infections (STIs) among those aged between 15 and 24,
according to a new report.
The report, released Friday by Population Action International
(PAI), a Washington-based advocacy and research group, profiles
policies and programs in seven different countries and calls on
governments, social and religious institutions, and parents to do
more to fill the knowledge gap.
"Meeting the reproductive health needs of young people means
ensuring they have accurate information--and someone to talk to-
-about sexuality, family planning, childbearing and disease; it
means ensuring their access to the meeans to prevent disease
and unintended pregnancy," according to Amy Coen, PAI's
president.
Coen added that the United States--which, under President
George W. Bush (news - web sites), is focusing increasingly in its
funding and policy initiatives on "abstinence-only" education--is
failing its youth. "It's a shame that our young people are still
denied such basic support," she said.
The 72-page report, 'In This Generation: Sexual and Reproductive
Health Policies for a Youthful World,' is being released just before
the United Nations (news - web sites) Special Session on
Children, which is expected to draw as many as 80 heads of
state to UN headquarters in New York May 8-10.
Reproductive rights and sexuality are expected to be the most
contentious, and therefore the least-addressed, issues to be
raised at the conference, which was postponed from its original
date in mid-September.
"Concepts of morality and tradition and the taboos associated
with sexuality prevent the kind of healthy exchange of
information and open communication that young people
desperately need to educate themselves," according to Dr.
Margaret Greene, the report's main author.
"It is unfortunate that some in the international community are
bound by the same taboos, as it is young people who pay the
price," she noted, adding, "It's time to stop looking at
reproductive health as a sex issue and start looking at it as a
health issue."
The report details practices and programs in the U.S., Iran, the
Netherlands, Mexico, India, Ghana, and Mali. It found that, of all
seven, only the Netherlands was meeting the needs of its young
people. It also found that the Islamic government in Iran was
providing more comprehensive educational materials, explicit pre-
marital counseling, and education for boys and young men, in
particular, than in much of the U.S.
While almost all U.S. states require or at least encourage some
form of sex education in public schools, the report found
enormous variation from state to state. In Iran, by contrast,
liberal interpretations of Islamic law had been used by the
government to provide age-appropriate materials and detailed,
open counseling for youth.
At the same time, PAI found that traditions in some Iranian
communities still pressured women to marry early and bear many
children. Despite major efforts by the government and
nongovernmental organizations to provide youth-focused
reproductive health programs, 70 percent of 19-year-old women
were either pregnant or already had a child, while one in five
women were married by age 15.
In Ghana, fertility rates were significantly lower and contraceptive
use higher, but actual access to information and services
remained "severely limited" due to the judgmental views on
sexually-active youth held by most parents.
While contraceptive and other reproductive health services are
expanding in India, sex education, treatment and diagnosis of
sexually transmitted infections, and services for young, unmarried
men are largely lacking.
In Mexico, where 57 percent of the population is under 25, the
government has committed itself to a far-reaching program of sex
education and family planning, but teachers have yet to receive
training on the subject and tend to limit discussion about it, PAI
said.
By contrast, the Netherlands had built an impressive variety of
programs on sexual and reproductive health for both girls and
boys, and parents were encouraged to talk openly about the
subjects. As a result, the Dutch had some of the lowest rates of
adolescent pregnancy and abortion in the world.
"There is a misconception that sexual and reproductive health
education will encourage sexual behavior and lead to higher
rates of abortion, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted
infections among youth," said PAI's Coen. "Dutch experience
proves that talking openly about sexuality and making services
available to young people does just the opposite."