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Family planning: New campaign targets teenagers

A league of civil society organisations has revealed plans to launch a family-planning methods for the “visible but hard to reach” groups—mainly teenagers—in efforts to…

A league of civil society organisations has revealed plans to launch a family-planning methods for the “visible but hard to reach” groups—mainly teenagers—in efforts to reduce high rate of unwanted pregnancies among teenagers and secure their future.

Up to seven in every 10 women who die from pregnancy related complications are teenagers below age 18, latest research shows.

At a media roundtable in Abuja, the chairman of the Association of the Advancement of Family Planning, Dr. Ejike  Oji, described teenage pregnancy  as an important public health problem that called for concern.

He said there was the need for teenagers to know how to guard against unwanted circumstances such as unwanted pregnancy to secure their future.

"Most parents live in denial. They believe that their teenagers are not sexually active. It’s important to recommended family planning for teenagers who are sexually active and to make them know the implications of sexual intercourse.

"It’s sad though the rate of family planning has increased, the rate of abortion is still at increase.

“So, we have to start educating them on time to have the knowledge of family planning so that when they find  themselves in such situations they will be able to prevent unwanted pregnancies,” he said.

He also said public enlightenment should be intensified on the benefits of making family planning accessible to teenagers in the society by first, educating parents who can take the message to their teenage children.

Representative of Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiatives II, Charity Ibeawuchi applauded the government for increased funding which has translated to increase in family planning from 14% to 20%.

Magrette Edison, deputy director for planning at the National Population Commission who noted that the agency was the first agency to convince the federal government to finance family planning, reiterated the commitment of the agency to continue championing the campaign of family planning in collaboration with the CSOs.

She also advocated for enlightenment in schools to help promote family planning campaigns.

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