* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Doortje Braeken is senior advisor adolescents and young people, International Planned Parenthood Federation. The opinions expressed are her own.
Girls all around the world are on journeys riddled with decisions about everything from education and employment to sex and marriage. Often, decisions about sexual and reproductive health are the hardest to make.
Do I have sex with my boyfriend? I’m HIV positive, should I tell my partner and how? I want to get married someday, but do I have to do it now? I do not want to continue this pregnancy, but what are my options?
As we approach International Women’s Day, millions of girls face these hard questions every day. Yet, most live in social, cultural or legal environments that obstruct their autonomous decisions-making.
As a result, girls are not provided with the information or support they need to inform their decisions or the services they need to turn their decisions into reality. The consequences are known all too well:
About 16 million girls aged 15 – 19 give birth each year, accounting for about 11 percent of births worldwide; adolescent girls aged 10 – 19 account for 23 percent of the overall burden of disease due to pregnancy and childbirth worldwide; about 2.5 million adolescents have unsafe abortions every year and account for 46 percent of deaths related to unsafe abortion worldwide.
In developing countries, more than 60 million women aged 20-24 were married or in a union before the age of 18.
Girls want to make their own decisions, and they have the capacity and the right to do so. Underlying all the barriers that prevent girls and young women from accessing information, support and services is the refusal to accept girls and young women as sexual beings who have sexual and reproductive rights and who have the right to decide.
Girls can decide when they are empowered with options, choices and agency that reflect their realities. Girls can decide when they have access to quality youth-friendly services, including confidential, non-judgemental sexual and reproductive health services and comprehensive sexuality education.
Girls can decide when they living in societies governed by rights-based policies and laws. A policy and legal framework must be in place and enforced to eliminate child marriage, end criminalisation of HIV transmission or exposure and remove parental or spousal consent regulations for sexual and reproductive health services.
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) believes it is critical to acknowledge and reinforce girls’ capacity to make autonomous decisions about their sexuality, health and well-being; and to ensure they have access to all the services they need to carry their decisions forward.
It is our obligation as a service provision and advocacy organisation to make sure that each and every girl who visits our clinics leaves feeling more empowered to implement the decision that she has made to have a healthy, happy and safe sexual and reproductive life.
This is why the International Planned Parenthood Federation has embarked on a journey to galvanise support for girls and young women through the Girls Decide initiative. Over the next five years, we will work hard to tackle injustice and ensure that all girls and young women are aware of their sexual and reproductive rights and are empowered to fulfil their potential. We hope you will join us on this journey.
Find out more at Girls Decide.
