Increasing the Age of Consent: Righteous and Wrong

We applaud the Hon. Minister of Family and Gender Affairs, Laverne Gibson-Velox, for her innocent and good intention to address our adolescent sexual crisis. Unfortunately, increasing the so-called age of consent and establishing new childcare facilities will not resolve the national sexuality crisis we face. That approach is rooted in our knee-jerk, cultural disposition to punishment, and more punishment. It has not worked and it will not work.

Consent is not the issue. More than 40% of first sexual experiences in our region are non-consensual, coercive, and often violent. Some 76-85% of so-called teen pregnancies across our region result from relations with men 20 years and older; 50-55% result from relations with young men just 20-24 years old. So, we fail to see how increasing the age of consent addresses this problem. The issue is a combination of innocence (for our adolescents) and power (for the men). This is not a level playing field.

We need a mental shift from restriction and punishment for our adolescents to empowering them – giving them Access and Education. At 45.2, St. Vincent has the fourth highest adolescent fertility rate (AFR) in the region. That is ten points above the average in the Caribbean and nine times the average of 5.1 for all Caribbean colonizers – England, Spain, Portugal, France and the Netherlands. The difference is not about culture; it is about method. Bermuda’s AFR is 7.4, Martinique’s is 10.7, and Aruba’s is 13.3 – all Caribbean countries.

In 1987, St. Vincent was the third country in the region to pass legislation that allowed 16-year-olds access to healthcare without parental consent. That was a sensible and commendable step. It provided Access; but it did very little or nothing about Education. Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) remains a weak, largely ignored, and unexamined aspect of our school system.  Of course, failure in any academic subject can be readily corrected in the next semester; but failure in HFLE can be catastrophic and irreversible.

If the minister truly wants to address the roaring crisis of reproductive health she must (i) extend the 1987 legislation to age 12 or lower, (ii) radically strengthen HFLE education in schools, (iii) encourage parents to discuss responsible sex with their children, and (iv) persuade her colleague in Health to develop adolescent-centred health clinics. Only about 5-10% of Caribbean parents speak to their children about responsible sex.

Within our region, Jamaica’s Teen Hubs have demonstrated the advantage of dedicated services to adolescents. They had by far the highest reduction in adolescent fertility in the region. Argentina recently adopted a stratified approach to providing teenagers with access to health care. There, the government introduced a three-layer model. They gave teenagers 16-18 full autonomy. They allowed teens 13-15 independent access providing there was no serious risk. And for those 12 and younger, they required an adult presence, chosen by the child. In just six years with this model, the adolescent fertility rate fell from 62.6 to 27, a drop of almost 57%. That is remarkable.

This is what is possible when public policy is informed by empirical evidence. This is not magic: It is social science in action. The Government’s announcement, in which the Minister of Gender takes such great delight, is a well-intentioned but uninformed, backward step that would leave our children every bit as vulnerable and defenseless as they are today. We must move in exactly the opposite direction to increasing Access and strengthening Education.

That is Empowerment and that is how we address the current power imbalance. The issue, Hon. Minister, is power, not consent.

Sincerely,

ASPIRE

ASPIRE is a pro-motherhood, pro-family, pro-choice, non-governmental advocacy group registered in six Caribbean countries. It promotes research and dialogue with civil society and governments to advance fairness and justice in reproductive health.