More than a year ago, on 17 July 2025, Linda Straker (now deceased), NOW Grenada, reported on the Government’s introduction of a Bill to reduce the age of lawful access to reproductive healthcare without parental consent from 18 to 16.
The Age of Civil Legal Responsibility (Amendment) Bill (ACR) also promised to reduce the age further to 12, if there was “good cause” to do so.
The announcement set off a brouhaha so intense that the Government has been silent ever since. It has abandoned its sensible, rational effort to protect adolescents.
Consider how illogical it is that a 16-year-old can legally consent to sex, yet s/he cannot have independent access to contraceptives until s/he is 18. That is the absurdity of our current legal situation. Seven Caribbean countries have long ago fixed this madness.
In the face of screams that the ACR would undermine parental rights, destroy our family values, and extinguish our pristine culture, the Government cowered. It recoiled.
Parental consent is meaningful only when it rests on a foundation of parental responsibility. If that foundation is absent, the requirement of consent becomes harmful.
Well, more than 90% of Caribbean parents fail to speak to their children about responsible sexual behaviour. That is not responsibility; that is negligence. The foundation collapses.
But it gets worse: in the 2018 Grenada Women’s Health and Life Experiences Study, almost 1:5 women (18.8%) reported being sexually abused before the age of 18. That goes beyond negligence to abuse. And that is likely to be an under-reported figure.
Retaining the legal standard of parental consent allows parental abusers to muzzle their children. It protects and empowers parental abusers. It is destructive and harmful to children.
Removing the legal requirement of parental consent does nothing to threaten wholesome families; but it gives vulnerable children, trapped in abominable situations, a window of legal access to health professionals.
Today, 4 September, is World Sexual Health Day. We call for renewed, evidence-informed dialogue on how Grenada’s laws can better protect our adolescents. We must ensure that our adolescents have timely access to confidential sexual and reproductive healthcare. We therefore call for the Government to pass the Age of Civil Legal Responsibility Bill to protect vulnerable adolescents.
Sincerely,
Tonia Frame, President, Grenada Planned Parenthood Association (GPPA)
Fred Nunes, Consultant, Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity (ASPIRE)
Dr Tonia Frame is the President of the Grenada Planned Parenthood Association (GPPA), a Trustee of the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation (CFPA) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at St George’s University.
Dr Fred Nunes is the founder of ASPIRE — Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity, Advisor to the CFPA and GPPA, and is a former Head of Management Studies at The UWI, Mona.
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