NURHI: 31% Of Teens Seek Abortion, Time For Sexuality Education In Schools Curriculum

The Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), has called for the inclusion of sexuality education in school curriculum to help curb unwanted pregnancy amongst teenage girls.

Making this known in Lagos, NURHI representatives, Modupe Oluwatayo and Tella Oladipopu, said part of the factors responsible for unplanned pregnancy, especially teenage pregnancy, is early start of sexual activity, streamlined to lack of sexuality education in school curriculum and sexual violence which could be rape or coercive sex.

According to them, “6.4 million pregnancies occur every year in Nigeria and for every four, one is unplanned, adding that more than one- third pregnancies are unintended and one in five end up in abortion.

“Reasons why women result to abortion is that they are single. 31 percent of adolescent, 15 to 19 years sited being single as main of wanting to procure abortion. 49 percent revealed that they are too young to carry the responsibility of child bearing or they are in school.”

They added that contraceptive prevalence rate is very low in Nigeria and stood at only 10 percent for modern method while 5 percent are using traditional method, especially among youths and young adults.

However, they recommended that the federal government should make sexuality education mandatory for all secondary school across the nation as one of the measures to reduce unwanted pregnancies to replicate the success recorded in Lagos State.

Also that the government should make reproductive health and family planning services available to all Nigerian men and women of Reproductive age at all health facility.