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Sexual education and Panama

Pro-sexual education reform supporters gather for a march in downtown Panama City in late July. Photo by Corey Kane

Sexual education has caused a controversial split in Panama, with proponents demanding a reform to public school programs due to a slow reduction in teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

One of the major economic success stories of the past several decades, Panama has surged past its northern neighbor, Costa Rica, to have the highest per capita income in Central America and the fourth highest in Latin America. It’s per capita GDP nearly tripled in the past decade, rising from $4,300 in 2004 to $11,900 in 2014, according to World Bank figures. During this same period the country slashed extreme poverty – those living on roughly $2 per day or less – from 12 percent of the population to 4 percent. 

However, the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy have proven to be intractable issues. The rate of HIV did drop from 1.1 percent of the age 15-49 population in 2004 to 0.6 percent in 2014, placing Panama on the opposite end of regional rankings from its economic achievements -- seventh worst.

During this same decade, teenage pregnancy dropped from 84.3 births per 1,000 teenage women in 2004 to 75.3 in 2014. This also ranked as seventh worst in region. 

Panama’s national legislature has been kicking around a proposal to provide nationwide sexual education reform since 2014. In the past months the issue has risen to national prominence with two competing marches in the capital city, while the project sits in debate in a legislative committee. 

Proponents insisted that current public school sex education is insufficiently scientific, leaving many teenagers at risk. Opponents of the law, mostly cultural conservatives, ranged from those insisting that sexual education was the duty of parents to those who worry about an “ideology of gender” – issues such as transgenderism, for example – spreading throughout the country.

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