Dear Gogo, can young boys and girls access family planning like married people do?

Thank you Alice for your question. My friend, family planning is about having access to information that allows you to make decisions about whether you want to choose to start a family or not and about how to practise sex safely. Family planning can include advice about giving birth, planning to have another child when you feel it’s time and ways you can prevent getting pregnant if you don't want to. I believe family planning is every woman's right, not just for married women only. And this is how every organizations that speak for girls’ right see it.

When girls reach puberty, their genital organs get the ability to give birth. This means if they don’t do family planning, they can get unwanted pregnancies.  I believe that girls should be able to choose family planning methods that suit them. They can abstain. They can use condoms if they have sex, as they can also go to a health facility in order to be explained other methods that can help them avoid unwanted pregnancies or STD's, such as the morning-after-pill. If a medical personnel gives you this pill, he/she will explain how to use it. The best person to advise you on whether you can start family planning methods is a doctor.

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