Résumé : This article reports the risks of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion relative to HIV/AIDS by adolescent women. Data presented at the XI International Conference on AIDS indicated that adolescents aged 15-19 years form the highest risk group for newly acquired HIV infections and also with the highest rate worldwide of unwanted pregnancy. Contributing factors of this high rate includes physical violence and other forms of coercion; an earlier age of sexual initiation for girls than boys; so-called "sexual mixing", wherein young girls may have sex with older men for a variety of cultural and economic reasons; social pressures faced by young girls; the lack of access to formal education including sex education; the lack of access to contraception and reproductive health services; the high-risk sexual behavior of adolescent female partners; and young women's lack of power to negotiate terms of sex with their partners. When faced with an unwanted pregnancy, adolescent women have always found it difficult to obtain appropriate services to meet their needs, including safe abortion care. The AIDS epidemic exacerbates these difficulties and adds new medical, legal and ethical dimensions to the practice of unsafe and illegal abortion procedures that put young women's health and lives in danger.
Notes : Inglés/anglais/English