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This year’s theme speaks loudly to us: “No Barriers, Just Choices: Contraceptive Access Now.”
In the last four years, we have had a quiet period of research and advocacy which came to a head with the High Court’s landmark ruling on July 23. Our abortion law is unconstitutional and must be modified.
The idea of World Contraception Day (WCD) is to remind us of the importance of access to reliable contraceptives – to spread scientific information about contraceptives and to address the mischief of misinformation about them.
WCD serves a simple purpose: to inform the public about the different groups of contraceptives – like (a) Barrier methods (condoms and diaphragms); (b) Hormonal Methods (pills and injections); (c) Long-acting reversible contraceptives (IUDs and implants); (d) Permanent methods (vasectomy and tubal ligation); and (e) Emergency contraception which can prevent pregnancy up to 72 and even 120 hours after sex.
Why is improving contraception important? Because the main driver of abortions is unintended pregnancy. Improve contraceptive usage, and we have fewer unplanned pregnancies and fewer abortions. Our real challenge is unplanned pregnancy, not abortion.
Across the Caribbean, among women attending public health clinics, 80% reported that their last pregnancies were unplanned. About 37% of those pregnancies end in abortions.
When we asked women who reported abortions how old they were at their first abortion, the result was shocking: 81% reported that they were teenagers. Even more alarming, 59% were not yet 16 years old. These data are hard to accept. But they point to the need for Dominica to join seven other Caribbean countries and lower the age at which adolescents can have access to healthcare without parental consent.
Reducing the age for lawful access to 16, as most Caribbean countries have done, merely fills an absurd legal gap between lawful sex and access to contraceptives without parental consent. To address the social problem of early sexual debut, there should be no age constraint. We must trust the professionalism of our health care workers.
Our situation is dire: The Caribbean has the highest abortion rate in the world, and the second-earliest age of sexual debut in the world.
While we insist on parental consent below 18; our laws permit children as young as 12 (twelve) to be held criminally responsible for theirn actions. Why is there a gap of six years between criminal responsibility and civil responsibility?
ASPIRE is a pro-motherhood, pro-family, pro-choice, non-governmental advocacy group registered in Dominica and five other Caribbean countries. It promotes research and dialogue with civil society and governments to advance fairness and justice in reproductive health.
