Critics expressed dismay at the Christian-dominated blueprint with the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in South America.
Paraguay has the second highest rate of teenage pregnancy in South America. The country is about to approve its first national sex education curriculum.
However, parents, students and activists have issues with the new guidelines, which caution that masturbation leads to loneliness, condoms can’t be trusted and don’t mention LGBTQ+ people.
According to health workers, comprehensive sex education is urgently needed in a nation where child pregnancy rates remain very high, and abortion is not permitted even in cases of rape.
Government reports show that last year, 10697 teenagers aged between 15 and 19 and 405 girls between age 14 and 15 gave birth in the country. Paraguay’s population just hit 6.9 million. Apart from Venezuela, Paraguay is the second country with the highest teenage birth rate.
About 4,048 girls and teenagers fell victim to sexual abuse in 2023. Paraguay banned abortion unless the health of the mother is at risk. Unfortunately, the country has seen a thread of ugly cases in which rape victims as young as 10 have to carry pregnancies to term. A 14-year-old teenage girl lost her life during an emergency caesarean section after a 37-year-old man raped her.
When the government announced the much-anticipated sex education curriculum in June 2023, it was viewed as a means to combat the current crisis.
Over a year, critics claimed that the project, which will be implemented nationally next year, is driven by religious fundamentalism but not scientific evidence.
The new curriculum states that it only refers to sex between “a man and a woman” and cautions that “we know condoms are not an adequate protection” and that “masturbation leads to problems of frustration and isolation”. Students are taught that “sexual relations are not for children or teenagers nor for boyfriends or girlfriends; they are for adults committed to each other for life”.
The National Union of Student Centers demanded a curriculum “not to be influenced by any ideological agenda or religious bias.”
The founder of the LGBTQ+ rights NGO SomosGay, Simón Cazal, stated that the government’s intentions were “charged with Christian precepts and are very repressive. It disregards human rights and ignores science.” He added that it “makes no mention whatsoever of LGBTQ+ people”.
Gazal said, “We have terrible phenomena of sexual violence against girls and adolescents … and one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies on the continent – and the only response the government is proposing is to promote abstinence.” He also stated that only conservatives were invited to discuss the new program.
Miguel Ortigoza, an evangelical pastor from Capitol Ministries, is one of the program’s most prominent supporters. During Donald Trump’s term as president, Capitol Ministries, a Washington-based non-profit, held Bible Studies sessions in the White House.
Both evangelical and catholic churches expressed their support for the new program.
Adriana Closs, president of Families for Holistic Education and one of the leading voices against the proposal, stated, “We don’t understand why churches should impose any type of education in Paraguay. “This material takes us back at least 50 years.”
Paraguay never has a formal sex education guideline; schools adopt whatever method works for them. According to Closs, many have already practised methods similar to what the government is currently about to implement, including some by the same author.
However, activists claim that between having no guidelines and implementing already existing guidelines, “it would be better for the ministry not to do anything.”
She added, “You can’t fix material based on incorrect principles.” “They need to start it from scratch, this time with the participation of other ministries and genuine citizen involvement.”
