Campbell on Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation

MAKING remarks at the opening of the 41st anniversary of the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation (CFPA), International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, Senior Programme Advisor, Lucella Campbell, congratulated the organisation and the other regional associations for surviving in spite of tremendous odds.

She noted that the regional family planning associations have gone above and beyond their mandates over the past three decades, as they have to defend the rights of all persons, including the youth, elderly, HIV positive persons, persons of different sexualities, bisexual persons, disabled, sex workers and the poor.

“We defend the rights of the woman as to whether or not to carry a pregnancy. We defend the rights of our young not to be victims of incest or forms of sexual abuse of any kind. We defend the rights of the young girl who became a mother too early in life and who now has the responsibility of not only herself, but another innocent life. The new challenges that the IPPF has taken on in current times require from them strength and determination in the face of adversity and opposition,” she stressed.

Campbell also congratulated the Barbadian branch for its success in addressing a vexing issue with the age of consent.

“In Barbados, as well as several other territories, there is an anomaly in the law, where the age of consent is 16, while the age of access to contraceptives is 18, and therefore, for two years, the law subjects our youth to teen pregnancy.

“Under the leadership of the executive director, the BFPA successfully negotiated a change in the Barbadian law that now marries the two ages, no longer subjecting our young women to an untimely pregnancy,” she pointed out to those gathered at the Hilton Barbados on Saturday night. (JMB)