They will learn to abstain, I will not give contraceptives to teenagers- CS Nakhumicha.
Health cabinet secretary, Susan Nakhumicha has reiterated that her ministry will not tolerate the issuance of contraceptives to underage girls.
Speaking at African Union Summit 2023 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the cabinet secretary said that this girls need to focus on things like the church instead of engaging in negative behavior such as underage sex.
She stated,”I am mama kanisa’, we have to teach our adolescents to abstain, I believe that with a firm Christian foundation, they will learn to abstain.”
This comes a week after The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) executive director Winnie Byanyima, opinioned that it’s high time the government starts issuing contraceptives to teenagers.
She stated that the brutality happening to girls in this century will scale up HIV/ AIDS and many unwanted pregnancies, hence contraceptives will come in handy.
She stated,”Two out of three people living with HIV are women while in 2021, there were still 1.5 million new HIV infections around the world and 650,000 HIV/Aids-related deaths.”
“The lack of access by so many girls and women to sexual reproductive health and more so contraceptives is the major reason why there are so many newer infections among girls and women than boys and men,”she added.
She added that the government needs to embrace contraceptives to teens since these sexual activities are already happening.
Winnie stated,”Increasing access isn’t just about putting clinics and making available contraceptives, it’s more than that, it’s about safe spaces where girls and young women can feel safe, have the privacy that they need and also have the choice of the method they want so as to protect themselves from infections, HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI’s).This is not happening for every girl and every woman.”
”If a girl is going to be exposed to situations where she is having sex, forced sex or consensual sex then she needs lifesaving protection. I wouldn’t want to see any child getting pregnant or getting infected just because of a moral argument that is not applicable and if it was really applicable would she be having sex?”She posed.
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