It is time to speak honestly on teen pregnancy
By PD columnist, October 24, 2022There are countless stories of girls and young women who have undergone unsafe termination of pregnancies, and worse, some have ended up dying.
Each of these stories are from underserved communities in slum areas and rural localities. Unfortunately, Kenya has the world’s third highest teenage pregnancy rate, yet there is a general silence. Data indicates that nearly 100 girls contract HIV weekly.
Sadly, over 2,600 women and girls die annually from complications arising from unsafe abortion. Truth is, the heart of this issue is in a realm greater than even politics.
Often, it is an emotion-based, religious, spiritual, moral quandary with different sides fighting to uphold their values surrounding life – of a woman and unborn. The big question is, are we capable of peeling back our ‘righteous’ masks and having an honest, productive conversation as a society, on the dangerous levels of teenage pregnancies and the looming crisis that is girls and women dying from unsafe abortions? Under the Constitution, abortion is protected under the right to life, and is provided for if the life or health of the woman is in danger. Early this year, a High Court ruling in Malindi noted that post-abortion care is a fundamental right under the Constitution.
Consequently, it is illegal to arbitrarily arrest and prosecute patients and health care providers for seeking or offering safe post-abortion care services. It is important to note the court further confirmed that criminalising termination of pregnancy under the penal code without a constitutional statutory framework impairs girls and women’s reproductive rights.
Court further directed Parliament to enact necessary laws and a public policy framework that aligns with the Constitution. With the grim statistics and legal framework, many young girls end up risking their lives by finding themselves in the hands of unscrupulous scanty ‘health’ centres in dingy places.
However, the problem has deeper roots. What we are seeing, and now dealing with, are the fruits of a much deeper problem. We just do not talk to our young people about sexual and reproductive health.
With proper age-appropriate comprehensive sexual education on these issues, especially in underserved populations, we have the opportunity to raise informed teenagers who are empowered to make smart and informed decisions.
Almost a decade ago, in 2013, the government signed a declaration committing itself to ensuring the scaling of comprehensive rights-based sexuality education. On the ground, there have been numerous challenges surrounding implementation, and largely silence.
Actually, in most learning institutions, education on sexual and reproductive health issues have been one of the most popular topics of discussions generating quite a debate and engagement among the young population. The society’s deliberate silence in dealing with the root cause of these major problems we are facing has led to bankruptcy in knowledge dissemination on topics such as sex and the use of contraceptives.
Consequently, we are raising a generation of ignorant and clueless citizens navigating life while putting their lives at risk mainly due to lack of information, or even worse, misinformation.
In most African families and communities – Kenya among them, discussions around sex and reproductive health have often been considered ‘taboo’. This laid-back approach has had detrimental effects amongst our teenagers.
Notably, those from underserved communities and marginalised populations are increasingly excluded on awareness initiatives leading to adverse outcomes such as a high rate of teenage pregnancies and school dropouts.
— Belindar Kwamboka is Sexual and Reproduction Health Advocate