Q: What are the policies that either inhibit or support access to and delivery of reproductive health (RH) services for adolescents — policies that you can begin to lobby to change?
Legislation and policies pertaining to sectors other than health can either facilitate or impede access to delivery of RH services for young adults. For example, national laws or policies that discourage girls school attendance or that prevent labor force participation may result in few choices for young women other than childbearing and thus may prove to be indirect inhibitors of a demand for contraceptive services.
Legislation and policies forbidding or not encouraging sex education in the schools, including information on contraceptive methods or where such methods might be obtained, may result in low levels of demand for such services among young adults. Limits on information dissemination through the media, or regulations governing the ways in which contraceptive methods can be displayed or dispensed in certain kinds of commercial outlets, could also be viewed as inhibiting access to contraceptive products. This access is of particular importance given that most young adults use contraceptives that can be relatively easily acquired in commercial outlets if those youth have appropriate information and economic means.
Clearly, health-sector-specific norms or regulations that establish eligibility requirements, such as a minimum age or marital status, will inhibit many young adults access to RH services. Even in the absence of official eligibility requirements, if young adults feel disapproval from the service delivery staff because of their age or union status, those youth will be much less likely to seek services from such an organization.
Additional barriers include fear of the pelvic exam, frequent re-supply visits, lack of privacy, parental or spousal consent requirements, parental, family, or partner notification, and inconvenient hours. Finally, although there is still very little information on cost as a barrier to access to reproductive health services for young adults, to the extent that cost is a barrier, policies exempting teens from payment or reduced fees might encourage use of such services.
Reprinted with permission from Pathfinder International's "FOCUS on Young Adults" Project, 2002.
