Brazil’s government plans to push abstinence-based sex education to help cut teenage pregnancy rates, in a controversial move inspired by an evangelical Christian pressure group and Donald Trump’s policy in the US.

The government is also censoring sex education sections of a health booklet for teenage girls following criticisms by the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. The moves have raised alarm among paediatricians and education specialists.

“This is like going back 40 years,” said Luciene Tognetta, a professor of educational psychology at the Paulista State University in São Paulo state.

The Brazilian Paediatric Society said teenagers had a “right to know their own body” and that adequate information was essential to avoiding unplanned pregnancies and preventing sexual diseases. Brazil’s teenage pregnancy rate has dropped in recent years but it remains stubbornly higher than the world average. The country sees 62 pregnancies per 1,000 teenagers aged 15-19 – compared with a global average of 44 per 1,000. Read more via Guardian