Lesson 1: Just because of love in haste, living together

(Baonghean.vn) -According to reports from authorities, in recent years, the rate of abortion among minors aged 13-22 in public health facilities has only been 0.9-1%. But in reality, this rate is many times larger...

One morning, posing as a family member taking a younger sister to “deal with the consequences”, we went to a private clinic on Phong Dinh Cang Street. There were about 3 young men there, one sitting on the edge of a chair looking anxiously inside, one sitting smoking a cigarette, and an older man who looked like a student walking back and forth.

While surfing the net on his phone, the shy, young student looked at me and asked, “Did you also take your family to settle things?” “Yes, your sister accidentally fell in love with a guy named So!” – I replied. “Oh my, why do those “sisters” forget about the “urgent” part these days? If you’re stupid, you’ll die of any disease!” – The boy was completely awake!



Patients check in for pregnancy check-up at Nghe An Reproductive Health Center
- Photo: Vo Huyen

After a while of chatting, I knew that this was the second time he had brought his 16-year-old girlfriend, a grade 11 student, to this private facility to solve the problem, and according to him, this time, for some reason, his girlfriend had forgotten to take the emergency contraceptive pill. And according to him, it was more convenient to go to a private clinic, a bit more expensive but only a few minutes was ok, "and there was no need to declare anything". Indeed, in less than 10 minutes, the nurse pushed the stretcher, on the hospital bed was a young, pale-faced female student, her lips tightly pursed to suppress her moans. The student helped her back to bed to rest, without a word of comfort, without a loving gesture, and less than 5 minutes later he called a taxi, and they both got in the car.

Following the address that my friend advertised: “safe abortion, no need to leave address” in Cua Nam ward, I saw two girls around 18-19 years old with pretty faces, stylishly dressed, not looking like people going to see a doctor or get treatment. Hearing the nurse calling her name, one of them quickly went inside, the other said: “Relax, it won’t hurt much”.

Talking to the other girl, I learned that the two girls were students, her friend "didn't know who was the author of the pregnancy" and "she was still in school so she had to have an abortion" - the girl said. "So is she scared?" - I asked. "Scared, but I have to accept it, some of my friends have had 2 or 3 abortions, they are also scared but I heard that "quick abortion" is also very harmful so some of them have had an abortion several times... But these days they "do" it very advancedly, it doesn't hurt much, the bleeding stops after a few days, so there probably won't be any consequences!?".

At the Nghe An Reproductive Health Care Center, among the crowd of women and mothers, two children with “baby faces” stood out. A girl about 16 or 17 years old, with dyed blonde hair, wearing a plaid shirt, and a school backpack on her shoulder, was pushing her son (about her age) wearing a white shirt, with a backpack on his back, to the abortion procedure counter.

After paying the money and completing all the procedures for his girlfriend, the boy sat waiting in the row of chairs outside the clinic, while the girl went into the technical room so the doctors could “deal with” the pregnancy. I sat down next to him and had to be very tactful before the boy could reveal some information. He and his girlfriend went to the same high school, had been in love for over a year, and this was the second time he had taken his girlfriend to deal with the consequences of the times they had gone too far.

Doctor CK1 Le Thi Hang - Head of the Department of Maternal and Child Health - Nghe An Reproductive Health Care Center said: "If about 5 years ago there were about 3-4 cases per day, now there is only an average of about 1 case, sometimes there is no case for a week, usually the children do not declare their correct age and address so the statistics cannot be accurate, the real number can be much larger"!

While talking to an officer of the Nghe An Reproductive Health Care Center, through a white curtain, I heard: “Who are you pregnant with?... Why are you asking but not saying? Relax!”, then the sound of stainless steel instruments clanking against each other. Before that, a shy girl walked in when her name was called, probably around 19-20 years old.

With hasty love and living together, today's students consider sexual relations among minors as a matter of course. Besides the serious physical consequences, they also have to bear psychological consequences that last their whole lives.
(To be continued)

Thanh Nga