GOVERNMENT IS LOOKING at the “anomaly” where girls can consent to sex at 16 but must get their parents’ permission to go to the doctor at that age.
So said Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner, as she addressed activities to mark International Day Of The Girl Child in Heroes Square, The City, on Saturday.
She was speaking at the event which was hosted by the charity I Am A Girl Barbados and entitled I Am A Girl . . . Listen Up’.
“The age of consent in this country is 16 and a girl may marry with parental consent at that age,” the senator said.
“However, there is still the contradictory provision that she may not seek medical attention without the knowledge of her parents or guardian until she is 18 and this Government had recognised that attention has to be paid to that anomaly.”
Sandiford-Garner also noted the island had laws which placed it “head and shoulders” above other countries in the hemisphere, pointing to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (1983).
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