Joanne Madrona Adarne

In their effort to reduce abortions in Nicaragua, health officials have revealed that about four-fifths of the 140 minors getting abortions in a Nicaraguan clinic during 2008 were told that they could terminate the pregnancy if they wanted to or that they were healthy enough to undergo the abortion. These facts highlight the continuing need to examine the relationship between girls' education, the state and the use of contraceptives.

Studies have shown that many young women across the developed world, including some indigenous populations, have engaged in sexual activity as a way of coping with their fears about sex, the body, fertility and love, and this activity is often concentrated in urban areas. Surveys from different countries have shown that the proportion of older women who engage in sexual activity with young men and a small number of girls aged 12--13 years in urban areas is about half that of women in rural areas.

Previous research has linked poverty and the acquisition of contraceptive devices. Women who are married, have any kind of education, and who regularly take an IUD have a lower risk of experiencing pregnancy and experiencing unwanted pregnancies, less health problems, and, just as importantly, a lower rate of abortions. This is in line with recent studies that found that people with higher educational attainment are less likely to have sexual activity and consequently a lesser risk of sexual violence, such as rape, when they are not using contraception.

These contraceptive statistics do not come as a surprise. What women have been told about contraceptive methods is based on the status quo. Many NGOs working at the grassroots, such as My Family Support Group of Nicaragua (FMGH), as well as individual and cultural experts in the country, have stressed the idea that if one has a condom (often a part of the contraceptive strategy in Nicaragua), one can use it even if sexual activity is not desired, especially if one works in an environment where there is a stable low-paid, non-union job that implies an unstable financial lifestyle. I find this idea really worrying. If one doesn\'t get married, one cannot use a condom and, paradoxically, abstinence doesn\'t stop abstinence, just as it doesn\'t stop incest if one is only a teenager. Instead, many girls are told: "this is the only way that contraceptive information you might receive is accurate. It might be valid in Nicaragua, but it is not going to work in the field, which is where things happen.