AMERICA/GUATEMALA – 25% of children are born from teenage mothers, 19 year old women already have two children
Thursday, 11 May 2017
Internet
Guatemala City (Agenzia Fides) – Guatemala records one of the highest pregnancy rates among teenagers in Latin America, and this leads to bringing girls on the path of poverty instead of studying and finding a decent job. Government statistics show that over 5,000 pregnancies concerning 14-year-old girls were recorded in 2014; In 4 cases out of 5 they were sexually abused by a family member: father, uncle, grandfather. Activists calculate that 66,000 abortions are practiced every year in the country.
25% of Guatemalan children have adolescent mothers. Although sex education is taught in schools, human rights activists assure that it is often incomplete or irrelevant, as less than half of the girls in Guatemala go to school. Maternal and reproductive health services are expensive and often inaccessible to those who live far away from cities. The high rates of sexual violence against women and girls derive from the low social level of women. Every day, according to the United Nations, two women are killed in Guatemala. Most women in the country already have two children at 19 years of age. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 11/5/2017)
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Source link : https://www.fides.org/en/news/62258-AMERICA_GUATEMALA_25_of_children_are_born_from_teenage_mothers_19_year_old_women_already_have_two_children
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Publish date : 2017-05-11 03:00:00
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