Colombian archbishop calls for authentic sex ed to prevent teen pregnancy

Bogotá, Colombia, Sep 27, 2010 / 11:18 am

Archbishop Ruben Salazar of Bogota stressed last week that if the root causes of teen pregnancy are not addressed, the problem will never be solved.

“The truth is that if the root causes are not attacked, we will never prevent teen pregnancies from happening, no matter how many contraceptives are distributed,” the archbishop said.

The archbishop warned that sex-ed programs must not be focused on promoting contraception. “As long as there is no authentic education on the relationship between sex and love, on the meaning of marriage and the family, and while children are not taught values that encourage responsible sexuality, we will always have this problem,” he added.

For his part, the secretary of the Colombian bishops, Bishop Juan Vicente Cordoba, rejected proposals by one local official to provide teenage girls with contraceptive implantations in order to prevent pregnancies.

“We are creating one problem to solve another,” he said. “Our teenage girls are not animals, like cows that we sterilize on a farm. They are human beings with dignity. We are turning them into objects by putting a device in them so they can’t be mothers. I agree that a girl of that age should not become a mother but that is not the way to do it,” the bishop said.