The Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres (INAMU) – Costa Rica’s Natioal Women’s Institute – is alarmed by the report of 400 pregnancies of girls under the age of 15 in 2011.
According to the most recent records by UNICEF, one in five pregnancies – 20% of all births – in Costa Rica in 2011, were of a teenager.
The women’s institute says the figures are alarming, evidence of quite a permissive society on the subject and considers the pregnancy of a teen under the age of 15 as rape.
According to most recent reports by the INAMU, in Costa Rica for every 1.000 teenage (ages from 12 to 19) girls, 112 were reported some type of relationship with a man at least at least five years older than she.