'NS pregnancy test may push girls to drastic measures'

The mandatory pregnancy test for young women selected to attend National Service is not only an “infringement of privacy” but could cause more harm than good, said women's rights groups.

This is because unmarried trainees may be pushed to take “drastic action” to prevent the pregnancy from being detected.

“We don't want to traumatise these young people (to the extent) that they feel their only resort is to risk a botched abortion,” Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) executive director Ivy Josiah said when contacted.

Through her experience at WAO, she has found that after mediation, families and the community do provide support for young women even if they are pregnant out of wedlock.

“Families and the community can be understanding but often we find it is the authorities wagging their fingers,” she said, adding that mandatory testing also has an element of shame to it.

It was announced yesterday that all female National Service trainees must have a pregnancy test. Since the programme started in 2004, six trainees have given birth while at camp.

National Service director-general Abdul Hadi Awang Kechil claimed that a survey involving 4,500 trainees and their parents in 2011 found that 94 percent are for the mandatory tests.

All Women's Action Society (Awam) president Ho Yock Lin said the trainees are adults and forcing them to take such tests is an “infringement of privacy”.

“Some of them are even working adults. Imagine if an employer makes all employees take pregnancy tests. Adults would not stand for it,” she said.

Ho (left) said it appears that the move is to keep pregnant young women out of the camps and that this is discriminatory, especially for those who want to join the programme.

The test should be offered on a voluntary basis, she said, as should other tests - including those for drugs and medical issues - which could help camp counsellers prepare for the trainees’ needs.

If 94 percent of trainees and parents agree to to mandatory pregnancy tests, then a voluntary test would have a similar response, she noted.

“There should be a choice, and when someone is found to be pregnant she can either be allowed to come back after she has delivered, or she may be excused from the more streneous exercises.

“Someone giving birth at the camp is just like someone having a heart attack at the camp. They have a heart attack, you send them to a hospital, they rest.”

‘Safe place required’

While society may not want young people to get pregnant, use recreational drugs or even take up smoking or drinking, Ho said that being punitive or forcing tests on them will not help.

Instead, the National Service programme should be used as a place for education, as well as a safe place where young women with an unplanned pregnancy, can come forward.

“A school principal does not want her students pregnant at 14, but she can't test the students. So what she does is she helps a girl if she is pregnant, but at the same time educates other students about such issues,” Ho said.

Josiah said this will actually address issue of clandestine births at the camps - one young woman reportedly gave birth in a toilet, out of fear or shame.

“They should look at creating an environment where a young woman can tell a counsellor, so the camp will be aware and she won't be pushed to give birth in secret.”

There is also no indication of what will happen to a trainee who is found to be pregnant, and if assistance will be provided to them, she said.

She urged the implementation of sex education modules developed by women's rights NGOs and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry for National Service trainees in 2008.

“I don't know if they are being implemented as there was a lot of resistance to it then, but the fact is, romance and lust is in the air,” she added.

“If girls are turning up at the camps pregnant then we know this is age when they are exposed to sexual activities and they need to be educated about it.”