Rwanda lowers contraception access age to 15

KIGALI - Rwanda will allow teenagers as young as 15 years old to access contraception after approving a new law to tackle teen pregnancy, sparking divided opinions in the largely conservative country.

The nation of about 13 million people -- 40 percent of whom are aged under 15 -- has been worried by rampant teenage pregnancy but faced resistance to its plan to widen access to contraception.

While globally adolescent birth rates have declined, they are falling the slowest in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

Lawmakers on Monday passed the healthcare services bill, lowering the legal age to access contraceptives from 18 to 15 without parental consent.

The health ministry said that the previous age limit fuelled high rates of unintended teen pregnancies, which topped 22,000 cases last year, national figures showed.

The law had been before parliament since last year and was rejected once.

"It has been proven that Rwandan girls are sexually active even before 15 years," John Scarius, the programmes' director at NGO Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development in Rwanda told AFP.

"What the parliament has done is a good thing, it's good they looked at this from a progressive standpoint," Scarius said.

The legislation allows teens to access the pill and implants, but lawmakers insisted that condoms should be prioritised.

A report presented in parliament said that over the past five years, 100,000 teenage girls in Rwanda experienced unwanted pregnancies -- a leading cause of school dropouts in the country.

"We expect this law to bring a decrease in teenage pregnancies, we expect to see minimal school dropouts, minimal illegal abortions, we expect less or no abortion related fatalities," Scarius said.

But parent and retired healthcare worker Karemera Charlotte expressed concern the law "opens a very dangerous door".

"The thought of seeing your 15-year-old off to school with packets of condoms in the suitcase is unfathomable, it is akin to openly abetting immorality," Charlotte said in the capital Kigali.

"This in a way will actually promote abortion." Abortion is illegal in Rwanda unless it results from rape, incest or forced marriage.