Sex-ed on backburner as child pregnancies  near 61,000

While religious  groups continue to battle sex education in schools At least  30% of all pregnancies  in Panama are adolescents., From January to March,  this year the Ministry of Health (Minsa) registered 2,652 pregnancies of girls and young women aged from 10 to 19. The figure does not include the CSS and private hospitals and other facilities.

 Over the last six years 60,665 girls and young people in the same age group  were admitted for pregnancy control.

Another reality that young people face are sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as chlamydia – an infection caused by the bacterium chlamydia trachomatis.

Failed attempts
Since 2008, sex education has been the subject of intense controversy three times in the country, after the presentation to the National Assembly of different bills that sought to adopt public policies inherent to the subject.

In 2008, a project proposed by the Minsa was rejected, because religious groups and civil society alleged that it incited youth to debauchery.

Three years later, in 2011, the CD deputy, Marylín Vallarino, filed a new initiative, which did not advance .

The third and last legislative initiative was Bill 61, approved in the first debate in April 2017 in the Committee on Labor, Health and Social Development also died on the vine.