Global health organisations have argued that sexually active
adolescents and youth should have access to contraceptives as their
"right".
Representatives of the groups that included Marie Stopes
International, Population Service International (PSI) and USAID argued that
sexually active adolescents and youth aged between 10 and 24 should access
contraceptives such as injectable family planning, coils and implants.
They said the
family planning methods would not only prevent unwanted pregnancies until they
finish school and gain employment but will also "often decrease menstrual
flow and pain, can treat gynaecological conditions and reduction of
anaemia".
Speaking in one of the side events during the 4th International
Conference on Family Planning in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, one of the panellists,
Prof Chittaranjan Narahari Purandare from the International Federation of
Gynaecology and Obstetrics said "there is no medical reason to deny them
(teenagers) access to contraceptives."
He argued that countries have a responsibility to support, advocate and
accelerate access to quality products and services for all regardless of their
marital status.
INTERVENTIONS
Another panellist Ms Beth Schlachter of the Family Planning 2020, a
consortium of family planning and reproductive health organisations, said it
was sad that countries are ignoring the right of young people to information
and ultimately on family planning.
"Young people are entering the reproductive age but they are faced
with numerous barriers in accessing long acting reversible family planning
methods, because it is assumed that it will make them to want to have sex? That
is not true. Let them make their own decisions," she said.
In the statement also signed by Pathfinder International, UK-AID,
International Planned Parenthood Federation and the International Youth
Alliance for Family Planning, the organisations said policy makers, ministry
representatives, communities and families should have access to information on
the "safety, effectiveness, reversibility and cost-effectiveness of
contraceptives."
During the opening ceremony of
the forum on Monday, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged an additional
$120 million (Sh12.2 billion) over the next three years to improve access to
modern contraceptive methods for 120 million more women and girls across 69
countries, including Kenya, by the year 2020.
The money will be used for family planning advocacy, improving family
planning services in the private sector and expanding proven family planning
interventions.
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