Sex education in Mexico is lagging

Non-Governmental Organizations agree that sexual health education in Mexico is still limited and aim at making a more comprehensive approach available, one that brings together both its biological and sociocultural dimensions, in order to provide children with the necessary information that will help prevent the rising number of teenage pregnancies and to protect them against sexual abuse.

Nashieli Ramírez, director of NGO Ririki, noted that sexual health education is a right of children and teenagers, which has a special significance in the face of rising teenage pregnancy, the over-sexualization of girls by the media and the increasingly early onset of sexual activity in Mexico.

For his part, Juan Martín Pérez García, CEO of the Rights of Infancy Network in Mexico, (REDIM), said that “Mexico is lagging and has a very conservative view” towards sexual health education. He considers that free-textbooks should be modified so as to include subjects such as the respect and autonomy over one’s body, as well as sexual diversity.

Pérez García added that “This is information is useful, even for young children, because it helps them understand that their body must be respected by everybody, even by their parents”, and referred that eight of ten child sexual abuses occur in safeguarding environments such as home, schools and churches. He assured that 21% of marriages in Mexico are between teenage girls and older men, while half of the teenagers in the country have unprotected sex in their first sexual encounter.