Abstract

PIP: The new government in South Africa during the early 1990s has given health a priority status on the development agenda and integrated family planning programs with AIDS education, prenatal care, and reproductive health care. The Youth Information Center, which is part of the Planned Parenthood Association, uses creative strategies to teach adolescents about the effects of teenage pregnancy. Girls are given a life-sized doll tied to their backs that is carried around town and on buses. By-standers react usually by staring and making the girls feel uncomfortable. The program director explains afterward that people are staring because of the young age of the pretend "mother." Men are given condoms for free. The approaches at the Youth Information Center are used to help young people make realistic choices by providing contraception and health education. The need for adolescent services is apparent from the survey results that indicates that 1 in 3 South African young women had babies by the time they were 18 years old. But only 33% of these pregnancies were planned, and almost 50% were to youth enrolled in school. Youth are also at risk of acquiring HIV infections. The Youth Information Center provides information and services to combat unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The health staff are offering new approaches that are redefining the nature of contraceptive counseling. The strategies are popular with youth because the old mold of family planning is being changed and replaced with improved programs. Programs do not rely on moralizing from doctors before giving the pill to adolescents. A major obstacle remains the involvement of men and changes in the attitudes of men. Health workers report that men who are counseled still refuse use of contraception. Men rejected the IUD because it could be felt. Men disapproved of pill use because of potential reproductive problems later in life. The anti-contraception attitude is traced back to apartheid and the use of contraception as a political tool.