The World Health Organization calls for ending the marriage of children and treating deaths from adolescents

This came in new trends issued by the organization today, Wednesday, with the aim of addressing this global problem, which more affects low and medium -income countries, with more than 21 million teenage girls – almost half of them inadvertently.

The organization emphasized that nine of every ten gatherings of teenagers in these countries occur to girls who were married before the age of 18, which shows the close link between pregnancy and early marriage.

Real options

Dr. Pascal Awti, Director of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organization and the United Nations Private Program on Human childbearing, stressed that early pregnancy “It can have serious physical and psychological consequences for girls and young women, and it often reflects essential disparities that affect their ability to form their relationships and their lives.”

She said that dealing with this issue will allow girls and young women to prosper, by ensuring that they remain in schools, protecting them from violence and coercion, and obtaining information and sexual and reproductive health services that protect their rights, “It gives them real options about their future.”

The World Health Organization indicated that the pregnancy of teenage girls involves severe health risks, including high infection and early birth rates, as well as complications of unsafe abortion.

The organization said that the causes of early pregnancy are varied and interconnected, including gender inequality, poverty, lack of opportunities, and the inability to obtain sexual and reproductive health services.

Childhood deprivation

The new directives recommended comprehensive efforts to provide feasible alternatives to early marriage by enhancing girls’ education, savings, and job opportunities. It also recommended laws that prohibit marriage under the age of 18, in line with human rights standards, and to involve the local community to prevent this practice.

Dr. Sherry Bastian, sexual and reproductive health of adolescents at the World Health Organization, said: “Early marriage is deprived of girls of their childhood and has severe consequences for their health. Education is crucial to changing the future of young girls, and adolescents – from boys and girls – can understand the meaning of approval, take responsibility for their health, and challenge aspects of the main inequality between the sexes that still push high rates of marriage and early pregnancy in many parts of the world.”

The World Health Organization indicated that there is global progress in reducing pregnancy and childbirth. In 2021, one girl gave birth to every 25 girls before the age of twenty, compared to one in every 15 girls in 2001.

However, the organization emphasized that there are still great disparities, as nearly one of every ten teenagers give birth in some countries every ten teenagers.