How Dominican girls battle baby marriage and teenage being pregnant whereas dealing with whole abortion bans
AZUA, Dominican Republic — It was a busy Saturday morning at Marcia González’s church. A bishop was visiting, and usually she would have been there serving to with logistics, however on at the present time she was instructing intercourse schooling at a neighborhood college.
“I coordinate activities at the church and my husband is a deacon,” González mentioned. “The bishop comes once a year and children are being confirmed, but I am here because this is important for my community.”
For 40 years, González and her husband have pushed for broader intercourse schooling within the Dominican Republican, certainly one of 4 Latin American nations that criminalizes abortion with out exceptions. Women withstand 2 years in jail for having an abortion; penalties for medical doctors or midwives vary from 5 to twenty years.
With a Bible on its flag, the Caribbean nation has a strong foyer of Catholics and evangelicals who’re united in opposition to decriminalizing abortion.
President Luis Abinader dedicated to the decriminalization of abortion as a candidate in 2020, however his authorities hasn’t acted on that pledge. For now, it will depend on whether or not he’s reelected in May.
To assist ladies stop unplanned pregnancies on this context, González and different activists have developed “teenage clubs,” the place adolescents find out about sexual and reproductive rights, vanity, gender violence, funds and different matters. The objective is to empower future generations of Dominican girls.
Outside the golf equipment, intercourse schooling is usually inadequate, in response to activists. Close to 30% of adolescents don’t have entry to contraception. High poverty ranges enhance the dangers of dealing with an undesirable being pregnant.
For the youngsters she mentors, González’s issues additionally transcend the impossibility of terminating a being pregnant.
According to activists, poverty forces some Dominican moms to marry their 14 or 15-year-old daughters to males as much as 50 years older. Nearly 7 out of 10 girls undergo from gender violence reminiscent of incest, and households usually stay silent concerning sexual abuse.
For each 1,000 adolescents between 15 and 19, 42 grew to become moms in 2023, in response to the United Nations Population Fund. And till 2019, when UNICEF printed its newest report on baby marriage, greater than a 3rd of Dominican girls married or entered a free union earlier than turning 18.
Dominican legal guidelines have prohibited baby marriage since 2021, however group leaders say that such unions are nonetheless widespread as a result of the follow has been normalized and few persons are conscious of the statute.
“In my 14-year-old granddaughter’s class, two of her younger friends are already married,” González mentioned. “Many mothers give the responsibility of their younger children to their older daughters so, instead of taking care of little boys, they run away with a husband.”
Activists hope schooling will help stop ladies from dealing with this example.
“There are myths that people tell you when you have your period,” mentioned Gabriela Díaz, 16, throughout a latest encounter organized by the Women’s Equality Center. “They say that we are dirty or we have dirty blood, but that is false. We are helping our body to clean itself and improve its functions.”
Díaz calls González “godmother,” a time period utilized by Plan International to group leaders who implement the packages of this UK-based group, which promotes kids’s rights.
According to its personal information, San Cristóbal and Azua, the place González lives, are the Dominican cities with the very best charges of teenage being pregnant and baby marriage.
To deal with this, its golf equipment settle for ladies between 13 and 17. Each group meets 2 hours per week, welcomes as much as 25 individuals and is led by volunteers like González.
In San Cristobal, additionally in southern Dominican Republic, the National Confederation of Rural Women (CONAMUCA) sponsors teenage golf equipment of its personal.
“CONAMUCA was born to fight for land ownership, but the landscape has changed, and we have integrated new issues, such as food sovereignty, agrarian reform, and sexual and reproductive rights,” mentioned Lidia Ferrer, certainly one of its leaders.
Its golf equipment collect 1,600 ladies in 60 communities, Ferrer mentioned. The matters they research differ from area to area, however among the many recurring ones are adolescent being pregnant, early unions and feminicide.
“The starting point is our own reality,” mentioned Kathy Cabrera, who joined CONAMUCA golf equipment at age 9 and 20 years later takes new generations below her wing. “It’s how we live and suffer.”
Migration is more and more noticeable in rural areas, Cabrera mentioned. Women are pressured to stroll for miles to attend college or discover water, and well being providers fail in guaranteeing their sexual and reproductive rights.
“We have a government that tells you ’Don’t have an abortion’ but does not provide the necessary contraception to avoid it.”
She has witnessed how 13-year-old ladies bear the kids of 65-year-old males whereas neither households nor authorities appear to be involved. On different events, she mentioned, mother and father “give away” their daughters as a result of they can’t assist them or as a result of they uncover that they’re now not virgins.
“It’s not regarded as sexual abuse because, if my grandmother got pregnant and married at an early age, and my great-grandmother too and my mother too, then it means I should too,” Cabrera mentioned.
In southern Dominican communities, most women can relate to this, or know somebody who does.
“My sister got pregnant at 16 and that was very disturbing,” mentioned 14-year-old Laura Pérez. “She got together with a person much older than her, and they have a baby. I don’t think that was right.”
The golf equipment’ dynamics change as wanted to create protected and loving environments for women to share what they really feel. Some periods kick off with rest workout routines and others with video games.
Some ladies converse proudly of what they’ve discovered. One of them talked about she confronted her father when he mentioned she shouldn’t minimize any lemons from a tree whereas menstruating. Another mentioned that her pals at all times go to the lavatory in teams, to keep away from security dangers. They all regard their godmothers as mentors who’ve their backs.
“They call me to confide everything,” González mentioned. “I am happy because, in my group, no girl has become pregnant.”
Many ladies from teenage golf equipment have desires they need to observe. Francesca Montero, 16, wish to grow to be a pediatrician. Perla Infante, 15, a psychologist. Lomelí Arias, 18, a nurse.
“I want to be a soldier!” shouted Laura Pérez, the 14-year-old who needs to watch out to not following her sister’s footsteps.
“I was undecided, but when I entered CONAMUCA I knew I wanted to become a soldier. In here we see all these women who give you strength, who are like you, but as a guide,” Pérez mentioned. “It’s like a child seeing an older person and thinking: ’When I grow up, I want to be like that.’”
___
Associated Press faith protection receives assist by way of the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content material.
