- 97.7 out of every 1,000 young Venezuelan women become pregnant in the country
Suzany González, executive director of the Center for the Study of Sexual and Reproductive Rights, warned that the adolescent pregnancy rate in Venezuela is the highest in the region.
González specified that 67 out of every 1,000 adolescents in Latin America are pregnant, while in Venezuela there are a total of 97.7 pregnant women for every 1,000 young people.
“We are talking about 50% more than the Latin American average, which in itself has a rather worrying adolescent fertility rate,” said the specialist in an interview for Union Radio.
These data that González shared are part of a study carried out by the United Nations Population Fund based in Venezuela in December 2022.
The study specified that a woman in Venezuela needed $1,300 to cover medical and food expenses during the pregnancy process.
The effects of teenage pregnancy
The specialist assured that teenage pregnancy implies a structural reproduction of poverty with serious effects on the present and future of the country.
In this sense, he warned that in Venezuela there is little training in sexual education issues for young people and many of the adolescents who become pregnant end up abandoning their studies, which forces them to be exposed to precarious jobs or to circles of violence in some cases.
The representative in Venezuela of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP), Jorge González Caro, asserted that the shortage of free contraceptives in health centers affects most of the young population of the country who lives in poverty.
In addition to this, wage disparity and the increase in gender violence are part of the challenges faced by Venezuelans.
Contraceptive methods in Venezuela
González Caro mentioned that contraceptive methods are available in private pharmacies, but at prices that the minimum wage of 130 bolivars, which is equivalent to $5.37, cannot afford. A box of three condoms costs what would be a week’s work for those earning the minimum wage.
These methods have not been acquired by the State for almost six years. Consequently, it leaves the bulk of the population living in extreme poverty unassisted.