It is imperative to strengthen sex education for more than half of premarital abortions among teenagers in China

In some cities in China, premarital abortion among teenagers has accounted for about one-third to half of the total miscarriage rate. At today's National Reproductive Care Youth Health Expansion Work Conference and on-site experience exchange meeting, Liu Yongliang, an expert from the Youth and Reproductive Health Education Expert Group of the China Family Planning Association, revealed.

According to data, there are over 300 million adolescents aged 10 to 24 in China, with two-thirds of them in economically underdeveloped areas, most of whom are in a mobile state.

In Liu Yongliang's view, the situation of sexual and reproductive health among adolescents in China is severe. The data provided by him shows that in China, premarital pregnancy and abortion, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection rates caused by premarital sexual behavior of adolescents are on the rise, and the number of unmarried young people who have unwanted abortions among the floating population is higher than that of local unmarried young people. Nearly 80% of HIV infected people are 20-40 years old, and about 1/10 of them are younger than 19 years old.

Consistent with Liu Yongliang's viewpoint, Professor Gu Baochang from the Population and Development Research Center of Renmin University believes that in China, not only is the proportion of unmarried youth abortions increasing, but there is also a trend towards younger age. Unmarried abortions under the age of 20 are gradually increasing, with the youngest being 13 years old. Moreover, unmarried childbirth has become a part of unplanned childbirth.

China faces cognitive and methodological challenges in promoting sexual and reproductive health education for adolescents. Liu Yongliang said that due to inadequate understanding, the education content and methods are still focused on providing knowledge through preaching, which cannot solve the increasingly prominent sexual and reproductive health problems of adolescents.

Conducting sexual and reproductive health education for teenagers, if it is only a one-way preaching style education for teenagers, the effect is very limited. Liu Yongliang said that according to China's national conditions, support from governments and leadership departments at all levels should be obtained to mobilize the participation of society and families. It is necessary to work together with the education department to incorporate adolescent sexual and reproductive health education into the teaching plan, while placing adolescents at the center of work and attracting their active participation.