Teenage Pregnancies Soar as Church Looks the Other Way

[ensho]

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51668


Poland


Pressure from the Catholic Church to effectively stop sex education in schools is threatening the health of tens of thousands of teenagers who fall pregnant every year because they have little or no knowledge of safe sex, education groups in Poland have warned.


They say many youngsters go into their first sexual relationships with little or no idea of contraception and the health consequences of unprotected sex, as conservative clergy covertly stifle any school sex education that does not conform to the Church’s strict Catholic teachings.

Anka Grzywacz, educator with the Polish Ponton Group of Sex Educators, told IPS: "The Catholic Church has a huge influence in Poland and in schools. The Catholic Church does not want sex education to be taught and, therefore, schools simply do what the Church wants and just do not teach it."

More than 20,000 Polish girls below the legal age of consent give birth each year, according to official figures. But it is believed that many more teenagers fall pregnant, and because of Poland’s strict abortion laws and the unwillingness of doctors to perform even legal abortions, they undergo dangerous illegal abortions or head abroad to have the procedure carried out.

Women’s rights and family planning groups estimate there are more than 100,000 illegal abortions carried out in Poland each year.

(100,000 illegal abortions makes my blood run cold. many time they cause death/maiming. these girls NEED HELP big time)

-snip-

In surveys carried out by family planning groups, teenage students have recalled how teachers in supposed sex education classes told them that condoms are useless as they do not protect against sexual diseases, were the "work of Satan", and that sex for any reason other than reproduction is a mortal sin. Others say that their teachers were often too embarrassed to discuss sexual themes and instead talked about family and religion.

-snip-

"The Catholic Church also has a huge influence on top politicians in Poland. They are mainly right-wing and conservative and want to have good relations with the Church. This transfers to schools as well where there is usually a priest present in schools every day, at least to teach religious education which is compulsory."

-snip-

"From our work we have seen that kids are heavily influenced by a very sexed media in Poland and they think that sex is cool. More and more kids are having sex younger, but unless they are properly educated, this can lead to serious problems with health such as sexually transmitted diseases, and unwanted pregnancies.

"The figures that are around for underage births are simply those that are registered. Because abortion is to all intents and purposes impossible legally in Poland there is no way of knowing how many young girls have illegal, possibly dangerous, abortions.

"The figures for underage births may be just the tip of the iceberg in relation to the total number of unwanted pregnancies overall," said Grzywacz.
------------------------

the boys in Poland need education equal to the girls - they can't be free to ignore this.


the catholic church is a menace to society - in more ways then one

[MineralMan]

1. More souls for Jebus!

Why would they want to stop babies from being born, after all?

[TlalocW]

2. That's disappointing

Normally, I think of most of Europe as putting up with the Vatican's penchant for pretending that it has some sort of moral authority and then being logical when it comes to sex. I wonder if Poland's being behind the Iron Curtain had anything to do with it - that when communism fell, the Vatican swept into the power/culture vacuum, and if so, has this happened in the other Eastern Bloc countries?

TlalocW