As America discusses the abstinence report and as the debate rages on whether young people should get information and contraception so that they can protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, young people at least in Kenya have found a way of avoiding pregnancy—emergency contraception.

While my focus is not on the abstinence report, it clearly indicated that abstinence-only does not work. Lack of youth friendly clinics and information that will provide family planning has driven many youths to misuse the emergency contraception pills which can easily be accessed over the counter in many pharmacies.

In most African society, it is still a taboo to have sex outside marriage and more so to get pregnant. So although most youth are sexually active, they lack the information to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies. Here in Kenya, the introduction of sex education has been controversial, pitting the church against the state.

Condoms have had a lot of success in reaching both youth and adults, but when girls are not able to negotiate for sex or ask their partners to use protection, they end up having unprotected sex. Research indicates that only 1 out of 5 women who have used EC discussed it with their partner.

In many African cultures, women alone bear the consequences of unwanted pregnancy. In Mozambique 41% of girls aged 15-19 have had a child or are currently pregnant (DHS 2003). The picture for the rest of Africa is not far from this.

Most young people are more concerned with getting pregnant than getting STDs including HIV/AIDS. This is because of the stigma that is associated with pregnancy out of wedlock.

This is not just a concern for girls, but for boys too. One Kenyan study indicated that males constitute a large proportion of those who seek EC in pharmacies and health care facilities. They purchase it for their girlfriends because they are not ready to be parents yet. With lack of proper information, most girls end up misusing it as a regular contraceptive—instead of an emergency contraception that can reduce ones chance of getting pregnant when taken within 72 hours of sex.

Most funding for HIV/AIDS programmes from the U.S. government specifically focuses on abstinence-only programmes, without looking at the reality on the ground of sexually active youth. The study indicates that abstinence-only programmes do not help young people in delaying their first sexual encounter.

As emergency contraception helps young people avoid pregnancy, it brings to the fore the issues of lack of education and access to contraception. The likelihood of misuse of emergency contraception brings the question back to sex education and what young people need to know about their sexuality and reproductive health—including availability of services.

Sources from Kenya's Ministry of Health say they are now looking at ways of ensuring that young people get the right information from pharmacies where they purchase emergency contraception without a prescription.

The pharmacies provide the security young people need; they won't fill in forms and no one will ask them questions. Some pharmacists report that most clients (especially the young boys) have the drug written on a piece of paper or others come in asking for the brand name.

What the abstinence report seems to remind us is that we need to not only tell young people to say not to sex when they are not ready, but to also help them get the right information and services for when they are sexually active. In this case, ignorance is not bliss.