By Chioma Umeha
Following
rising cases of unplanned pregnancies among teenage girls, Nigerian Urban
Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) has called for the inclusion of
sexuality education in school curriculum to help curb it.
Modupe
Oluwatayo and Tella Oladipopu, NURHI representatives, made the call in Lagos,
noting that part of the factors responsible for unplanned pregnancy, especially
among teenagers is early start of sexual activity coupled with lack of
sexuality education in school curriculum.
Another
factor promoting the ugly trend according to the duo representatives of NURHI
is sexual violence which could be rape or coercive sex.
They
said; “6.4 million pregnancies occur every year in Nigeria and for every four,
one is unplanned, adding, “more than one- third pregnancies are unintended and
one in five end up in abortion. Reasons women resort to abortion is that they
are single.
“31
per cent of adolescent who are between 15 and 19 years cited being single as
their main reason of wanting to procure abortion. 49 per cent revealed that
they are too young to carry the responsibility of child bearing or they are in
school,” they added.
The two speakers lamented
that contraceptive prevalence rate is very low in the country and stood at only
10 per cent for modern method, while five per cent are using traditional
method, especially among youth and young adults.
They recommended that the
federal government should make sexuality education mandatory for all secondary
school across the nation as one of the measures to reduce unplanned pregnancies
and replicate the success recorded in Lagos State.
They also urged the
government to make reproductive health and family planning services available
to all Nigerian men and women of reproductive age at all health facility.
