We need to make sure that young people are getting tested if they have had unprotected sex, getting educated, and using the tools and resources available to them to prevent both STD transmission and unintended pregnancy.
Logic tells us that for the teen birth rate to go down without the abortion rate going up, fewer teens have to have sex or more teens have to use contraception. Data tells us that it's a little bit of both. But what policies, programs, social issues, and cultural shifts are behind this?
In the Dominican Republic, groups have been working to secure political and public support for reducing teenage pregnancy and ensuring access to youth-friendly health services and education. In the Dominican Republic, high rates of adolescent fertility and maternal mortality have attracted the attention of national authorities and civil society organizations.
As the State of Texas and Planned Parenthood take their fight for the Women's Health Program to court, Texas women are left wondering where they will get the health care they need--and when. This is just one woman's story out of 130,000.
In many regions of the world, women produce the majority of the food consumed by their families and communities, and make up the majority of the world's small-scale farmers, yet own the rights to almost none of the land. At AWID 2012, experts examined what is changing and how.
At AWID 2012, Burmese women's groups described the culture of fear, oppression, and abuse still rife within the country, and warned the international community not to celebrate just yet.
To argue that contraception, condoms, or abortion cannot be referred to or provided to young girls and women who have been sexually brutalized beyond imagination is an extreme point of view. These victims deserve more from us.
