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Why Honduras is starting to tackle 'taboo' topic of sex

(The Christian Science Monitor) Irene is curled up at the end of a yellow, plastic mattress, tapping her hand lightly on the cooing baby by her side. The 14-year-old new mother is so petite, she barely takes up the top half of the bed. At her feet lies another wrinkly, day-old infant that belongs to her 19-year-old roommate.

“I think having her will make my life joyful,” Irene said of her first child, Genesis.

The stiflingly hot fourth floor of this decaying wing of Hospital Mario Catarino Rivas, the largest public hospital in San Pedro Sula, isn’t a teen maternity ward. But there’s at least one girl under the age of 19 in each of the four-person rooms here.