FEAR of being prosecuted, because of a clash between existing policies and the law, is preventing the delivery of contraceptive and other services to sexually active young Jamaicans.

The dilemma is cause for great concern among groups at the forefront of sexual and reproductive health rights, as well as family planning and service delivery.

“We find that, in Jamaica, there is conflict between law and policy as it relates to adolescent access to services,” St Rachel Ustanny, chief executive officer of the Jamaica Family Planning Association, told reporters and editors during the weekly

Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange yesterday, the second day of Family Week (formerly National Family Planning Week).

“So even though the Ministry of Health, some years ago, developed a contraceptive policy for minors, which attends to the needs of [persons] under the age of 16 to access contraceptive services, we find that that is in conflict with the law, and therefore young people are not able to access contraceptive services,” she said.

All this was happening, Ustanny said, in an environment where the high fertility rate among Jamaican adolescents sees the country having the second highest fertility rate in the Caribbean, behind the Dominican Republic, and an early age of sexual debut, with boys averaging 13 years and girls up to 15 years. “Service providers, even though there is a policy, are fearful to provide contraceptive services to young people because the law takes precedence in terms of presenting a case before the court,” Ustanny told the Exchange.

“So those are issues we need to look at, because if our young people are not able to access contraceptive services and are unable to realise their right of access in the long term… poverty will continue to be high, and therefore there needs to be full discussion. It is something the association would like to be prioritised and addressed as a matter of urgency in Family Week and going forward,” she said.

According to Ustanny, the Family Planning Association has been trying to use advocacy to get the ears of the authorities.

“We have been trying to lobby Government and other stakeholders. I think the listening is happening, but it is happening very slowly. Consultations are happening, and as of tomorrow (today) we will be sitting down with Government and civil society stakeholders to look at the policy and the laws; because one of the key things under the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) programme of action is that adolescents have the right to access certain things,” she noted.

“But the dialogue is happening because the Government has a responsibility to establish youth-friendly clinics, and it means that young people are able to access services even without parental consent. The Government has two youthfriendly clinics; I know the ministry wants to establish a youth-friendly site in Half-Way-Tree, but the whole business of the conflict between law and policy is high on the agenda, and therefore that is one of the things they want to resolve before that site is established,” she told the Monday Exchange.