This country will allow kids aged 15 to buy condoms amid rising teen pregnancy

In a significant development, Rwanda's lawmakers passed a revised healthcare services bill on Monday that lowers the minimum legal age for accessing contraceptives from 18 to 15 without the approval of parents. The move comes in response to reducing the country's high rate of teenage pregnancy. The decision has sparked a row in the largely conservative country.

With nearly 40 per cent of Rwanda's 13 million population under the age of 15, concerns over rising teenage pregnancy have pushed the government to act, despite opposition to expanding access to birth control, according to a report by AFP.

Although teenage birth rates have fallen globally, the decline has been slowest in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organisation. The Health Ministry stated that the previous age limit had led to an increase in the rate of unwanted teenage pregnancies, which topped at more than 22,000 cases last year, according to the national data.

The proposed legislation has been under review by the parliament since last year and was initially rejected by the parliament. "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 added. Earlier, the law makers permitted teens to access the pill and implants, but later it asked to prioritised the condoms.

Unwanted pregnancies led to school dropouts

A report that was presented in parliament underscored that 100,000 teenage girls experienced unwanted pregnancies over the past five years, prompting the upsurge of school dropouts in Rwanda.

"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.

Meanwhile, abortion is illegal in Rwanda unless it is the result of rape, incest, or forced marriage.