Study Reveals Alarming Sexual Health Trends Among Moroccan Youth

During the webinar, Luis Moa, UNFPA representative in Morocco, popularized the latest data from the UN agency, reports Hespress. It emerges that young Moroccans live in prolonged celibacy. Men get married almost at 32 while girls get married at almost 27. Yet they have sex at an increasingly early age. Already from 16 for boys and 17 for girls.

The worst, 37% of young people between 15 and 24 have had unprotected sex while 44% of them sometimes use condoms. Nearly 8% of girls aged 15 to 24 have had an unwanted pregnancy, almost 70% of them have had an abortion, the representative said.

Yet Morocco is one of the United Nations member states that have adopted the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and have committed to working to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care and services. Last November, the kingdom had also reiterated this commitment at the last Nairobi summit.

"We commend the Moroccan government and Moroccan society for this renewal in terms of commitment to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights," said the UNFPA representative.

According to Luis Moa, this rather gloomy picture is explained by the difficulties young Moroccans face in terms of access to information, education and reproductive health services. "These trends can have consequences and already have serious consequences if we consider the limited access of young people to education and training and services in the field of sexual and reproductive health," he points out.