COUNTRIES with laws that forbid adolescents from accessing Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) services without consent from their parents or guardians, tend to have higher HIV incidence and prevalence in young girls as compared to countries that have liberalized age of consent and opened up room for young people to make their own decisions.
By Michael Gwarisa
Zimbabwe is among the many countries that still have age of consent laws and according to the UNAIDS weekly report, many countries have age of consent laws in relation to sexual activity that are inconsistent with minimum age laws for accessing sexual and reproductive health information and services without parental permission
Sexual activity often starts during adolescence. This means that adolescents may legally have sex before they can legally access any information or services relating to safer sex practices or contraception, leaving them at greater risk of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unwanted pregnancy,” said UNAIDS.
They added that the removal of laws that require parental permission to access services for sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, testing and treatment has been shown to improve health-seeking behaviors.
“That effect is even stronger when schools can provide age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education to young people so they can protect themselves from HIV, STIs, unwanted pregnancy and gender-based and sexual violence.”
Forty countries reported to UNAIDS in 2021 that they have laws requiring parental/guardian consent for adolescents to access hormonal or long-lasting contraceptives, 108 reported that this consent is required for an HIV test, 43 for HIV self-testing, 92 for HIV treatment and 22 for PrEP. Among these countries, some provide exceptions based on demonstrated maturity: 10 for hormonal or long-lasting contraceptives, 15 for HIV testing, eight for self-testing and nine for HIV treatment.
