Children having sex at age 16 are law-abiding citizens – Says Lecturer

 
Dr Kobina Esia-Donkor, A Senior Lecturer at the Department of Population and Health of the UCC (University of Cape Coast), has called for a review of the country’s laws on the age of sexual
agreement in order to assist address the nuisance of teenage pregnancies and also control the country’s growing population.

According to the lecturer, children who are sixteen years and having sexual affairs are law-abiding citizens since the country’s laws allows them.

Dr Kobina explained that per the current laws of the Ghana, adolescents who are 16 years can give consent to sex, adding that so far as the laws on sexual consent remained at age sixteen, children who involve themselves in sexual acts at such age have not violated any of our laws.

He was speaking at the opening of a 2-day oversight workshop organized for the Parliamentary Select Committee on Population held at the Capital View Hotel in the Eastern regional capital Koforidua.
The 2-day workshop was to enable the members of the Population Caucus in Parliament to determine the impacts of population and health issues on national development.

Dr Kobina Esia-Donkor was speaking on the topic: ‘Teenage pregnancy and child marriage by region. Implications for national economic development’ said for Ghana to make any convincing national development plans, we must first address its unmanaged population, including tackling the problem of teenage pregnancies.

The population expert is of the view that Ghana ought to take instant steps to review the laws of the age of sexual consent as part of measures to control the menace of growing teenage pregnancies which has considerably contributed to the rising population of the country.

He said; although the legal age for marriage in Ghana is 18 years, children of age 16 can agree to sex, a situation he said desired to be addressed suitably.

Dr Esia noted that since children 16 years can consent to sex, they can choose to participate in sexual acts without protections which could lead to teenage pregnancies or contraction of sexually transmitted infections.

He also said one of the means to deal with rising menace of teenage pregnancies was to introduce into the country’s educational syllabus, comprehensive sex education to fully equip the young ones with the needed information on sexual health reproductive matters.

He explained further that research has shown that knowledge “does not transform into practice” and that enlightening children on sexual reproductive health matters would not mean such knowledge would encourage them to engage in sexual practices.

Doctor Kobina also proposed that since many young people, predominantly teenagers are engaging in sexual acts, it was necessary to educate and introduce them to contraceptives and family planning methods.

He expressed worry that the existing approach where some parents and teachers put fear in children on sex education rather encourages children to engage in sexual activities which are dangerous to themselves, their family, community and the country as a whole.

“We need to address teenage pregnancy like we did to galamsey,” he said, adding that teenage pregnancies “have more damaging effects on the national budgets” than even the galamsey menace.