In many cases, in order to win crucial community support, even programs for young adults put limits on the services or information that they provide. Unfortunately, they may be trading away what some young adults need most, such as information about contraceptives or confidentiality of services. Reduce legal and informal restrictions. The age of consent for medical treatment is as low as 14 years in parts of Canada and New Zealand but as high as 18 years in South Africa. Because of the controversy surrounding advice and treatment for minors, many health departments and school boards take the conservative position of denying services or programs to young people who are legally minors.
Many young adults find it difficult to obtain guarantees of confidentiality.
If young people do not have the legal right to choose or consent to reproductive health care, they can be denied confidentiality. At the level of program policy rather than law, some parents insist that they should be present or be notified if their children seek reproductive health care. They argue that young people are too immature to understand medical advice or to make health decisions, and they require their parents' guidance. Requirements of spousal consent, too, can deny confidentiality even to married young people. When women marry young, their husbands, families, or health professionals may not acknowledge their right to make their own decisions about reproductive health.