Ugandan lawmakers have rejected a government proposal that will allow 15-year-old girls to access birth control pills to reduce high levels of pregnancy.
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa called the idea “devilish”, saying it would “formalise the defilement” of girls while a senior health ministry official said the “stigma” around young people using contraceptives should end.
According to a recent survey, nearly a quarter of 15- to 19-year-old girls in Uganda are either pregnant or are already mothers with the rate increasing sharply during the Covid lockdown when schools were shut for almost two years.
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