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GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE

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World must focus on younger girls to eradicate teen pregnancy - report
un articulo por Thomson Reuters Foundation (abridged)

Governments and the international community need to rethink their efforts to tackle teenage pregnancy and improve their response to the specific needs of girls under 15, the most neglected and most at risk group, according to a report released on Wednesday. In this year’s State of the World Population report, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said some 20,000 girls under the age of 18 give birth every day in developing countries, nine out of 10 in a marriage or union.


Pregnant teenagers stand at the entrance of a maternity home in Jinotega city, some 160 km (100 miles) north of Managua October 24, 2013. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

click on photo to enlarge

“It is the human right of a girl not to become pregnant as a child,” Dr. Laura Laski, head of sexual and reproductive health at UNFPA, told Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview from New York. Teenage pregnancy perpetuates poverty and can put the health and life of teenage girls at risk, Laski said.

Every year, 7.3 million adolescent girls give birth in developing countries, 2 million of them under the age of 15, according to UNFPA. The number of pregnancies is even higher and about 70,000 adolescents die every year in the developing world of childbirth-related causes - about 200 a day.

Even though most adolescent pregnancies occur in developing countries, the determinant factors are the same in both the developed and developing world, the report said. Poor, uneducated girls from rural areas are more at risk of pregnancy than their wealthier urban counterparts and, despite a global commitment to end harmful cultural traditions such as child marriage, one in three girls in developing countries is married before she turns 18, the report said. . . .

Adolescent mothers are often powerless victims of a vicious cycle. They become pregnant because they are poor, uneducated and belong to communities where they are often forced into marriage and prevented from getting an education that would enable them to break the cycle. In many cases, adolescent girls get pregnant because they have been sexually abused or coerced into having intercourse by their peers, community, sometimes their family.

The report called for a shift from targeted interventions to a more far-reaching strategy that “builds girls’ human capital, helps them make decisions about their lives and offers them real opportunities so that motherhood is not seen as their only destiny” . . .

When a young teenager gets pregnant it also means they are less likely to finish high school, making it harder to get a job and break the cycle of poverty that many young mothers in Latin America and in other parts of the world face. . .

One key way of preventing teenage pregnancy is to ensure girls stay in school and do not drop out at an early age, while providing better and more widespread sex education in schools to young girls and boys and improving access to birth control methods.

[Note: Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.]

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What other resources can be utilized to give women more opportunities?,

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On their website, the United Nations Population Fund makes it clear that lack of access to family planning is a form of violence against women.

"Gender-based violence both reflects and reinforces inequities between men and women and compromises the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims. It encompasses a wide range of human rights violations, including sexual abuse of children, rape, domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment, trafficking of women and girls and several harmful traditional practices. Any one of these abuses can leave deep psychological scars, damage the health of women and girls in general, including their reproductive and sexual health, and in some instances, results in death.

Violence against women has been called "the most pervasive yet least recognized human rights abuse in the world." Accordingly, the Vienna Human Rights Conference and the Fourth World Conference on Women gave priority to this issue, which jeopardizes women's lives, bodies, psychological integrity and freedom. Violence may have profound effects – direct and indirect – on a woman's reproductive health, including:

Unwanted pregnancies and restricted access to family planning information and contraceptives
Unsafe abortion or injuries sustained during a legal abortion after an unwanted pregnancy
Complications from frequent, high-risk pregnancies and lack of follow-up care
Sexually transmitted infections, including HIV
Persistent gynaecological problems
Psychological problems
Gender-based violence also serves – by intention or effect – to perpetuate male power and control. It is sustained by a culture of silence and denial of the seriousness of the health consequences of abuse. In addition to the harm they exact on the individual level, these consequences also exact a social toll and place a heavy and unnecessary burden on health services.

UNFPA recognizes that violence against women is inextricably linked to gender-based inequalities. When women and girls are expected to be generally subservient, their behaviour in relation to their health, including reproductive health, is negatively affected at all stages of the life cycle.

UNFPA puts every effort into breaking the silence and ensuring that the voices of women are heard. At the same time, the Fund works to change the paradigm of masculinity that allows for the resolution of conflict through violence. . ... continuación.


Este artículo ha sido publicado on line el November 3, 2013.