Adolescents in Nigeria face several challenges in attempting to exercise their Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights. Although the Constitution and laws such as the Child Rights Act 2003 and the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 provide protection to an extent, however the reality of the effective exercise of such Rights is different. Provisions of restrictive abortion laws, contradictions in the age of consent, lack of confidentiality in healthcare, and weak enforcement of existing laws limit adolescents’ ability to access safe and appropriate services. These legal and institutional barriers are reinforced by socio-cultural and religious norms that discourage open engagement with adolescent sexuality and often stigmatise those seeking care. An emerging but underexplored consequence of these constraints is the recourse to cross-border reproductive healthcare. There is growing evidence that some adolescents and their families seek services outside Nigeria, within and beyond Africa to obtain care that is inaccessible or legally restricted domestically. This raises complex questions: how should conflicts of law be managed when Nigerian adolescents undergo procedures abroad that are unlawful domestically? How are issues of parental consent, adolescent decision-making capacity, and confidentiality reconfigured in transnational medical contexts? This paper interrogates these questions through a doctrinal and policy analysis of Nigerian law in light of comparative international practice. It argues that unless systemic legal and institutional reforms are undertaken particularly the clarification of adolescent consent, strengthening confidentiality protections, and harmonising domestic law with international obligations, Nigeria will continue to witness the externalisation of adolescent reproductive healthcare needs through medical tourism, with profound implications for health equity, child rights jurisprudence, and ineffective regulatory sovereignty in respect of adolescent sexual and health rights.
Key Words: Adolescent Sexuality, Reproductive Health, Medical Tourism, Health Rights, Childs Rights.
