International Women's Health Coalition - Youth Health and Rights

Youth Health and Rights

Secondary school girls in Benin City, Nigeria at an after-school session on health and body image led by IWHC colleague Girls' Power Initiative.

Working with young people has never been more important than it is today. Currently, 1.2 billion people are aged 10 to 19, the largest generation of young people in history. Thirty-four percent of new HIV infections occur in young men and women aged 15 to 24. Over the next decade, over 100 million girls will be married while they are still children. Every year about 20 million unsafe abortions are performed, 97% of which occur in developing countries and many among young women. More than 4.4 million 15- to 19-year-old girls seek abortions every year, 40 percent under unsafe conditions.

Here in the United States, the pregnancy rate is the highest in the industrialized world—ten times more than in the Netherlands or Switzerland. Of the 900,000 U.S. teenagers who become pregnant every year, 8 in 10 say their pregnancies were unintended. Girls who give birth often receive little or no prenatal care, are likely to drop out of school, and risk having low-birth-weight babies with subsequent health problems.

Despite these realities, a number of current U.S. policies deny adolescents their right to full and accurate information on sexuality and reproduction, and limit their access to the respectful, confidential, and comprehensive healthcare they require to reach adulthood in good health. These policies are endangering young people—and particularly young women—at home and abroad, sacrificing their health needs and human rights in favor of unproven programs that fail to recognize the realities of young people's lives.

Opposing Real Sex Ed at Home

Evidence has found that young people who receive comprehensive sexuality education become sexually active later than other teens, have fewer partners, and are more likely to use contraceptives when they do have sex. That's why 8 out of 10 U.S. parents support such quality programs for their children.

Yet, religious fundamentalists have continuously objected to the teaching of sex education. When they failed to sway the American public, they began pushing so-called "abstinence-only-until-marriage" instruction in place of the previously successful combination strategy of abstinence; relationship negotiating skills; and information on the benefits of contraception, including condoms, in preventing unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV/AIDS.

Initially, the federal government gave limited funds to the new and unproven abstinence-only approach, which withholds public health information from young people, and instituted a set of measures to assess the effectiveness of the abstinence-only programs. But the Bush administration, aided by allies in Congress, dramatically loosened the evaluation requirements, while consistently requesting significant increases in funding. After 10 years and $1.5 billion of public funds wasted, there remains no reliable evidence that abstinence programs delay the initiation of sex or reduce teen pregnancy.

A study on a Minnesota abstinence program found that over the course of one year the rate of those who said they were sexually active doubled and the rate of those who said they would probably have sex before finishing high school increased 7.5 percent. According to a November 2006 report by the independent Government Accountability Office, the government does not screen grantees to ensure that they produce medically accurate materials. A recent comprehensive study (Mathematica 2007) found that federal abstinence-only programs have no measurable impact in changing youth's behavior by increasing abstinence, delaying sexual initiation, or encouraging condom use. This and other research has so far prompted at least 25 states including California, Colorado, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, to reject federal funding for abstinence-only education programs.

Denying Lifesaving Information Abroad

Erasing real sex ed from the domestic policy agenda is harmful enough, but in the developing world, denying information can be deadly. In developing countries, half of the people infected with HIV/AIDS every day are between the ages of 15 and 24, and in many countries, pregnancy is the leading cause of death for adolescent girls. Comprehensive sexuality education and quality reproductive health care give young people the tools they need to protect their rights against violence and coercion, as well as from STIs and unplanned pregnancies.

U.S. delegations at UN meetings on a range of issues, including HIV/AIDS, sustainable development, and women, have repeatedly opposed young people's right to comprehensive sexuality education and reproductive health care in favor of an exclusive focus on abstinence. And under the President's $15-billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Africa, the Caribbean and Vietnam, at least one-third of all prevention funds are designated for abstinence-until-marriage programs. Such programs fail to help young women whose husbands are HIV-positive, or young women forced to trade sex for food in order to survive. Unless prevention programs reflect the challenges and realities they face, HIV/AIDS rates among young people will continue to increase.

The new global HIV/AIDS law did not fully address the needs of young people—in part by maintaining a version of the misguided requirement for funding abstinence-until-marriage programs.

What You Can Do

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Donate to IWHC. IWHC's partners worldwide are working in innovative ways to provide young people with the information and healthcare they need to reach adulthood in good health. We also support a number of organizations and networks led by young people themselves. By supporting us, you will strengthen our support for these groups.

This factsheet last updated in October 2008. For more information, contact Lori Adelman at 212-979-8500 or ladelman@iwhc.org.

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