{"id":53037,"date":"2025-02-17T15:37:28","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T15:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/parliament-reviews-bill-on-teens-access-to-family-planning-services-without\/"},"modified":"2025-02-17T15:38:03","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T15:38:03","slug":"parliament-reviews-bill-on-teens-access-to-family-planning-services-without","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/parliament-reviews-bill-on-teens-access-to-family-planning-services-without\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament reviews bill on teens’ access to family planning services without parental consent"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bill, which was approved in principle on November 5, 2024, officially entered the review process on February 17, 2025.<\/p>\n

One of its key provisions states that individuals aged 15 and above have the right to make independent decisions regarding their access to reproductive health information and services. <\/p>\n

According to the explanations provided, the term “age of maturity” in this law refers to individuals aged 15 and above.<\/p>\n

Statistics from the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion indicate that 22,454 teenage girls were victims of sexual abuse and became pregnant in 2024, highlighting the severity of the issue.<\/p>\n

In 2020, 19,701 teenage pregnancies were recorded, increasing to 23,111 in 2021 and 24,472 in 2022. However, in 2023, the number slightly decreased to 22,055.<\/p>\n

Health authorities affirm that previous prevention methods, such as abstinence and condom use, have not yielded sufficient results, hence the need to facilitate adolescents\u2019 access to family planning services.<\/p>\n

The Sixth Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) reveals that some women aged 15-19 have undergone abortions, are currently pregnant, or are already mothers taking care of children.<\/p>\n

A significant number of these young mothers come from rural areas and have only completed primary or secondary education.<\/p>\n

The study also shows that 4.5% of girls engaged in sexual activity before turning 15, compared to 10.1% of boys. Some of these young individuals had children before reaching the age of 15.<\/p>\n

Provisions on surrogacy<\/p>\n

The draft law also includes a provision allowing surrogacy for individuals aged between 21 and 50 who meet specific requirements.<\/p>\n

If enacted, this service would only be available to married couples struggling with infertility.<\/p>\n

The first surrogacy services provided in Rwanda cost approximately 3.5 million Rwandan francs . However, the cost is expected to decrease once it is integrated into health insurance services.<\/p>\n

According to the law, the legal mother of a child born through assisted reproductive technology is the one recognized in the formal agreement related to the procedure.<\/p>\n

Surrogacy was first introduced in 1986 with the birth of the first baby conceived through this method. Since then, it has gained popularity, particularly in developed countries. <\/p>\n

For example, in the United States, approximately 750 babies are born annually through surrogacy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Social Affairs Committee in the Chamber of Deputies have begun reviewing a draft law that includes a provision allowing children from the age of 15 and above to access family planning services without parental consent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000081784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000081784,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ibini_biri_mu_buryo_bwifashishwa_mu_kuboneza_urubyaro_mu_rwanda-e1944.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ibini_biri_mu_buryo_bwifashishwa_mu_kuboneza_urubyaro_mu_rwanda-e1944.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ibini_biri_mu_buryo_bwifashishwa_mu_kuboneza_urubyaro_mu_rwanda-e1944.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ibini_biri_mu_buryo_bwifashishwa_mu_kuboneza_urubyaro_mu_rwanda-e1944.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ibini_biri_mu_buryo_bwifashishwa_mu_kuboneza_urubyaro_mu_rwanda-e1944.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/ibini_biri_mu_buryo_bwifashishwa_mu_kuboneza_urubyaro_mu_rwanda-e1944.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000081784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53037"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53037"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}