By SAPA
Johannesburg - The ANCYL has proposed that the government give contraception to girls as young as 12 to stop teenage pregnancies.
The league supports the "mandatory initiation into contraception for all adolescent girls from the age of 12 to curb teenage pregnancy", according to the organisation's education and health discussion paper for its 24th national congress in June.
It describes teenage pregnancy as a "perennial societal problem" that has reached alarming proportions.
Responding to the proposal, Katharine Hall, senior researcher for the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town, was quoted by City Press as saying: “I suspect it would be in contravention of the new Children’s Act...
"It smacks of an authoritarian approach which is contrary to promoting safe sex behaviour that will not only curb teen pregnancies, but also HIV/Aids infections.”
Hall said data on teen pregnancies showed the phenomenon to be on the decline.
Other ANCYL proposals include raising the legal age for buying alcohol from 18 to 21 and looking "at all the pros and cons of legalising prostitution”.
