By SYLVESTER MWALE –
AS much as abstinence has been perceived to be the right route for some people, it is no longer a secret that many teens in Zambia today don’t want to wait to have sex until they’re ready to have a baby.
Apparently, to them puberty brings with it a lot of sexual feelings, and many choose to have sex for the first time during their teenage years.
But the consequences have been dire not only on individual teenagers but also on the wider society.
In addition to risks of contracting sexually transmitted infections like HIV/AIDS, early sex has instigated other social challenges such as teenage pregnancies of alarming levels in recent past.
It is hardly a secret that adolescents face higher reproductive risks than older women.
Research indicates that pregnancy is the leading cause of death for young women aged 15-19 worldwide with complications of childbirth and unsafe abortion being the major risk factors.
Health experts say teenage girls who are not physically mature are at greater risk of obstructed labour, pregnancy-induced hypertension and obstetric fistula (the creation of a hole between the birth canal and anal area during prolonged labour).
Several suggestions of possible solutions have been put forward to stop teenage pregnancies.
However, such proposed solutions appear to have little or no impact as the trends have become even more prominent in the news.
For instance, recent reports in Livingstone in Southern Province indicate that children as young as 10 years had been trooping to health centres to get contraceptives.
District medical office acting HIV/AIDS coordinator Habben Kolala said health institutions in the city were attending to girls as young as 10 years seeking family planning services.
“In the last quarter, health centres in the district recorded an increase in the number of girls aged between 10 and 15 years old seeking family planning services. Some of the girls actually request for the injection contraceptives,” he said.
Is giving out contraceptives and condoms to teenagers a solution? This was a question that was put forward to Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu during his recent visit to Zambia.
Archbishop Tutu, a renowned human rights activist said making contraceptives accessible to adolescents could minimise the effects of sex among teenagers.
“The ideal would be abstention until you are married. That is the ideal for all of us, but you know that for various kinds of reasons, there are very few who are able to [reach] that standard. So we are saying for the sake of the weak, [contraception should be encouraged],” said Archbishop Tutu in response to whether condoms and contraceptives should be accessed by teenagers during a press briefing during his recent visit.
While some may agree that contraceptives to teenagers could result into reduction of pregnancies, many will equally consent to the fact that taking such a route is legalising illegality.
“Moreover, letting teenagers access contraceptives is accepting that society has no morals left with it,” said Mary Banda of Lusaka, a mother of four teenage girls.
“For me, the solution is to make the children understand the dangers of getting into sex before marriage, and not giving them condoms as though we are happy with that.”
On religious front, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) said any attempt to distribute condoms and contraceptives to school-going children would be a direct promotion immorality.
“We the clergy in Zambia are not in support of calls to make contraceptives such as condoms accessible to our teenagers,” said EFZ executive director Pukuta Mwanza. “This will just promote immorality among the young generation.”
As a Christian nation Rev Mwanza noted that Zambia would be departing from the Christian values on which the country was built on.
Similarly, while the church fears for the country’s decaying morals among the young people, medical experts believe that administering contraceptives to teenagers could have dire health effect of the young ones.
“Administering contraceptives, especially pills, on children as young as 10 years is not age-appropriate and we strongly condemn it,” said Medical Association of Zambia (MAZ) president Aaron Mujajati.
“Most girls in that age would not have even come of age and this is very worrying. There is more to sex education than that.”
There is little doubt that teenage pregnancy is becoming both a social and health problem that needs to be addressed promptly to safeguard the future generation.
But there are several doubts as to whether allowing teenagers have access to condoms and contraceptive is one of the best solutions.
Perhaps it would be crucial to ensure that young people are provided with the information and skills that will enable them postpone their sexual debut until the right time and age.
There are admittedly many repercussions that come with early pregnancies – both social and health implications – and governments world over are busy looking for solutions.
It is important to note that pregnant teenagers are more likely than women who delay childbearing to experience maternal illness, miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death.
On the social front, research shows that teen mothers are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely than their peers who delay childbearing to live in poverty and to rely on alms.
Distributing condoms and contraceptives will not only amount to the promotion of immorality, but also an endorsement of decadence of the Zambian society that has pride itself as God fearing people.
In this case, responsible and medically accurate sex education could be the answer to the problem.
Nevertheless, this form of education should not only be accurate and responsible, but begins in kindergarten, and continuing during an age-appropriate manner through to maturing as one prepares to start indulging in sexual intercourse.
Sex education programmes that are balanced and realistic, could probably serve as the most appropriate solution to teenage pregnancies as it will help the young people to postpone sex until they are older.