News / Health
'No condoms & birth control pills for 10 year olds,' says Parirenyatwa
24 Sep 2013 at 19:08hrs | Views
The government has refuted claims that there are plans to introduce a deliberate policy to give contraceptives to adolescents aged between 10 to 17 years.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care has refuted claims that appeared in the press implying that the ministry is pushing for the introduction of a legal framework to support distribution of contraceptives to adolescents between 10 and 17 years to reduce teenage pregnancy.
Health and Child Care Minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa told journalists in Harare that government has strategies to curb teenage pregnancy outlined in the National Adolescence Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy (ASRH) for 2010 to 2015 such as counselling and behaviour change education and does not subscribe to the idea of giving contraceptives to minors.
"We advocate for delaying sexual debut until after the age of marriage and in this country, the age of marriage is 16, but clearly regarding children at school, 10 year olds as an example, we absolutely say no to giving any contraceptives. What we however do is give education to the children as they grow up but that education is age related. We don't just give sexual and reproductive health education to a 10 year-old as we give to a 15 year old, so it is very age specific," said Dr Parirenyatwa.
When the ministry of health launched the ASRH 2010 to 2015 which was aimed at reducing teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey had shown that teenage pregnancies had increased from 21 percent between 2005 and 2006 to 24 percent between 2010 and 2011, but the ages of the girls who were falling pregnant was never pegged below 15 years to warrant young children as young as 10 years old to have access to contraceptives.
Dr Parirenyatwa said the ministry will continuously explore other strategies to lower the high rate of unwanted pregnancies that have been recorded in the country.
The World Health Organisation categorises those aged between 10 to 24 years as adolescents.
The blanket categorisation has caused some misunderstanding as some non-governmental organisations that deal with adolescents and sexual reproductive health issues include children as young as 10 in their programmes for adolescents.
In Zimbabwe, 18 years is considered as the legal age of majority but at 16 years, girls can be legally married.
Dr Parirenyatwa said there is need to harmonise the laws because they are conflicting.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care has refuted claims that appeared in the press implying that the ministry is pushing for the introduction of a legal framework to support distribution of contraceptives to adolescents between 10 and 17 years to reduce teenage pregnancy.
Health and Child Care Minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa told journalists in Harare that government has strategies to curb teenage pregnancy outlined in the National Adolescence Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy (ASRH) for 2010 to 2015 such as counselling and behaviour change education and does not subscribe to the idea of giving contraceptives to minors.
"We advocate for delaying sexual debut until after the age of marriage and in this country, the age of marriage is 16, but clearly regarding children at school, 10 year olds as an example, we absolutely say no to giving any contraceptives. What we however do is give education to the children as they grow up but that education is age related. We don't just give sexual and reproductive health education to a 10 year-old as we give to a 15 year old, so it is very age specific," said Dr Parirenyatwa.
Dr Parirenyatwa said the ministry will continuously explore other strategies to lower the high rate of unwanted pregnancies that have been recorded in the country.
The World Health Organisation categorises those aged between 10 to 24 years as adolescents.
The blanket categorisation has caused some misunderstanding as some non-governmental organisations that deal with adolescents and sexual reproductive health issues include children as young as 10 in their programmes for adolescents.
In Zimbabwe, 18 years is considered as the legal age of majority but at 16 years, girls can be legally married.
Dr Parirenyatwa said there is need to harmonise the laws because they are conflicting.
Source - zbc
