Law about access to contraceptive methods under 18 years old |10 November 2021
My name is Loréa Rassool. I am an independent midwife who works part time at the Ministry of Health.
Today in Seychelles by law a Sexual Assault: Penal code section 130 (3):
(3) A person does not consent to an act which if done without consent constitutes an assault under this section if -
(b) the person is below the age of fifteen years;
With this law it is admitted that the legal age of consent is 15 years old. The age to have access to a contraceptive method without your parents’ consent is 18 years old.
The number of teenage pregnancies in Seychelles is alarming; in 2020: on a total of 1554 live births at the Seychelles Hospital, 193 mothers were aged between 10 and 19 years old (12.42% of the total live births).
Source: National Bureau of Statistics/Department of Immigration and Civil Status
Source: National Bureau of Statistics/Civil Status Office
The fertility rate for the age group 10-19 years old is 58. It means that in a group of 1,000 girls aged 10-19 years old, 58 have a baby (57 aged 15-19 years old). And from official numbers (counting legal abortions) 78 girls aged 15-19 were pregnant in 2020 (statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics).
If we compare the numbers to some other countries:
Data from dataworldbank.org: In 2019, adolescent fertility rate (aged 15-19 years old) in:
- United Kingdom was 11.912 (11.912 births from women aged 15-19)
- United States of America was 17.252
- South Africa was 67.79
- Mauritius was 24.82
- India was 10.965
- Bangladesh was 81.664
- Cuba was 51.439
For the first six months of this year (2021), five teenagers under 15 years old have delivered at the Seychelles Hospital and 79 were aged from 15-19 years old (a total of 11.81% of the total live births). In some districts, the percentage of births from teenagers goes up to 21.4%.
It is also important to note that 15.28% of the legal abortions in 2020 were from pregnant patients aged from 10-19 (6 were aged 10-14 and 71 were aged 15-19).
Many numbers and statistics to show how alarming the situation is, how the youth is being affected, and how we need to address this issue. We also need to understand that a number of pregnancies are not recorded (illegal abortions) and that all the young teenagers who are not protecting themselves are exposed to sexually transmitted diseases.
My opinion as a midwife: “I feel very concerned and worried about the situation, and as we see, it is getting worse every day. We see young girls coming to have prenatal consultations, we see them coming to the labour room, some of them with a parent, some often without their partner.
“They are coming to give birth to a child who was not planned, most of them have dropped out of school, some since a few weeks, some since many months. They sometimes stay with a partner who is older than them or stay at their parents’ house. They don’t work and often don’t know what they will do after the birth of their child.
“Many of these young girls have never taken any contraceptives. Their partner has not been protecting himself either. They are often scared to talk to their parents, so they end up being sexually active without protecting themselves. All of them know that they are not allowed to access contraceptive methods without their parents’ consent.
“In my opinion, the law has to change and we need to allow teenagers to have access to contraceptive methods without their parents’ consent.
“We cannot tell a young girl or boy that we will not assist them because they are under 18. Yes they are allowed to have condoms freely, but in 2012: 46% of boys and girls aged 15-19 had already had sex and most of them without protection.
“Our role is to educate, instruct, train, inform to prevent, preserve and guarantee the future of the youth and all the newborns. We can’t just sit and watch and assist them when the child is born. We can’t just treat them when they are sick (they are at higher risk of medical complications, social issues, addictions) or be there for their medical tests when they are pregnant, when they deliver or after their delivery.
“We need to empower the youth, we have to trust them, but we need to give them the ‘tools’. We need to engage young men to prevent premature fatherhood, and denounce and convict abusers. Only changing the law won’t stop the problem immediately, but it is a ‘major tool’ to help assist the youth.
“We need to be more active in schools from an early age (in 2012: 10% of the youth reported having sex under the age of 15, that number is higher today). We need to bring parents on board, the decision makers, the law makers, the ministries, the health workers, the social workers, the youth. All of us need to participate and take our responsibilities.
“It has to be a national project to help for the future of our youth and the future of our nation.”
The following are some other opinions which I have collected from different members of the public about this topic:
Male, 19 years old
“I think it’s a decision that should be a joint one and you should sit down with your parents and discuss and then take a final decision because it is necessary to know all the pros and cons before taking contraceptives. Then if they don’t agree I guess have like places family can go to see a professional to discuss the pros and cons maybe they can persuade parents.”
Male, 36 years old, couple with a child
“Children reach physical, psychological and emotional maturity at various stages in their adolescent lives. Parents are therefore tasked with guiding them through these critical years so that they can become well rounded adults making informed decisions about all aspects of their lives ‒ this is part and parcel of parenting.
“This law needs to be properly defined and we need to ascertain what is actually too young! As noted, children attain milestones at different junctures. Removing what is a key element of child raising from the purview of parents undermines the family and societal unit as a whole.
“Matters of contraception and sexuality should be broached in a cross societal manner with the children’s involvement and in partnership with health care providers and schools to support the child. It would be counterproductive to deny parents a role in this conversation whilst simultaneously allowing children to unilaterally make decisions which can have a bearing on their futures without the faculty to make at times difficult choices.
“We are under no illusions that abstinence does not work and that contraception plays a crucial role in mitigating the spread of illness and unwanted pregnancies. As such the law must find common ground between the two chief issues; access to life saving contraception and the rights of parents to raise their children.”
Female, 55 years old, married with two children
“I strongly believe that access to contraception should be given to teenagers when they want to, and if the parents do not want to participate or if the child is too scared to talk to them we should assist them. Otherwise we will only see the numbers of young kids having kids increase. We will only see young people who are not educated enough looking for jobs, and insecurity and all social aspects will get affected. For me the law has to change, access to contraceptives should be given to teenagers under 18 without their parents’ consent if they can’t get the consent.”
Female, 34 years old, single mother with two children
“We live in a country where we all have abstinence preached to us in school yet know full well that’s not the case for many 16+ year-olds. Now whilst I’m not advocating we encourage 16 and 17-year-olds to go about having sex all over the place we have to acknowledge that it happens. And just like the flu ‒ we all know it happens and we can sneeze into our elbows and practice safe hygiene but we still take vitamin C when we start to feel run down ‒ we should be able to allow teenagers access to contraceptives when we know they are having sex. Allowing access and providing education are not encouraging teenage sex but it does allow those who have made the choice to do so, the safety of protection. I find it absurd that we will consider giving clean needles out for drug users to prevent the spread of disease but not do the same for people engaged in consensual sex. Forcing youth to need parental consent for contraceptives is we know, in the majority of cases, tantamount to denying them access to it.”
Teenager, female, 17 years old
“The age of consent is too young in the first place. If they consent to let 15-year-olds have sex they should at least be allowed to use birth control too. It makes no sense otherwise. It’s like they want to promote teen pregnancies. Age of consent should be 17 or 18 in my opinion, it would protect girls from predators.
Teenager, male, 17 years old
“I think the current law of needing to have your parents to access birth control is key as a responsible parent, you would want to know what your kids are getting up to and especially since you would not want to have your 12 or 13-year-old exploring such things just yet. I believe there is a time for all that and that would most likely be over 18. So I think the law is good in my opinion. I would say the legal age of consent should perhaps increase so 17 or 18 but then again it will be quite hard to control, because if kids want to have sex they will do it with or without their parents’ authorisation. But I think they should increase the legal age to have sex rather than lower the age for them to access birth control.”
Teenager, female, 18 years old
“All girls who are sexually active should have access to birth control. Especially if the legal age of consent is 15 years old. Most girls feel embarrassed or can’t tell their parents about their sex life and they still have no access to contraceptives and are prone to teenage pregnancies.”
Teenager, male, 17 years old
“I think as long as you are above fifteen (the legal age to have sex without parental consent) you should be able to have access to contraceptives. It does not make any sense to be able to have sex at 15 but you need to be 18 to get contraceptives to prevent pregnancy.”
Contributed by Loréa Rassool
