The lack of available contraception, wars and other crises only aggravate the situation, according to a new report released Wednesday by the UN sexual and reproductive health agency.
Nearly half of all pregnancies, totaling 121 million each year worldwide, are unwanted.
This is the astonishing conclusion of the latest report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
“This report is a wake-up call,” said the Fund’s executive director, Natalia Kanem, adding that this figure “represents a global failure to defend the basic human rights of women and girls.”
The groundbreaking Report, Making the Invisible Visible : The Need for Action to End the Neglected Crisis of Unintentional Pregnancy , warns that this human rights crisis has “profound consequences for societies, women and girls, and global health.”
“There is no option at all”
More than 60% of unwanted pregnancies end in abortion and an estimated 45% of all abortions are unsafe, accounting for between 5% and 13% of all recorded maternal deaths, according to the State of Health Report. UNFPA World Population 2022.
This is also having a major impact on the planet’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by their deadline of 2030.
Additionally, the war in Ukraine and other conflicts and crises are expected to drive an increase in unwanted pregnancies as access to contraception is disrupted and sexual violence increases.
“For affected women, the most life-changing reproductive option, whether getting pregnant or not, is not an option,” said the UNFPA official.
Pushed into pregnancy
The report highlighted that gender inequality and development stagnation lead to high rates of unwanted pregnancies.
For example, an estimated 257 million women worldwide who wish to avoid pregnancy do not use modern, safe contraception.
And where data is available, nearly a quarter of all women feel unable to say no to demands for sex.
A variety of factors also contribute to unwanted pregnancies, including lack of sexual and reproductive health care; contraceptives that do not adapt to the woman’s circumstances; the harmful norms that surround women and control their own bodies; sexual violence and reproductive coercion; as well as the feeling of shame in health services.
All of this reflects the pressure that societies put on women and girls to become mothers.
Pregnancies increase during crises
Crises and conflicts deprive women of their autonomy at all levels, dramatically increasing the risk of unwanted pregnancies.
Women often lose access to contraceptives and sexual violence increases, according to the report, which cites studies showing that more than 20% of refugee women and girls will face sexual violence.
“If you had 15 minutes to leave your house, what would you take with you? Would you take your passport? Meal? Would you remember your contraceptive method? Dr. Kanem asked.
The truth is that, after a crisis begins, sexual and reproductive health and protection services save lives.
“In the days, weeks and months after a crisis begins, sexual and reproductive health and protection services save lives, protect women and girls from harm, and prevent unwanted pregnancies. They are as vital as food, water and shelter,” observed the director of the Fund.
Population Fund/Ruth Carr. Lack of information or awareness about sexual and reproductive health led to an unwanted pregnancy of an 18-year-old teenager in Timor-Leste.
Act against inequality
The report shows how easily the most fundamental rights of women and girls are relegated to the background both in peacetime and during war.
The report calls on decision-makers and health systems to help prevent unwanted pregnancies by improving contraceptive accessibility, acceptability and options, while urging politicians and community leaders to empower women. women and girls to make affirmative decisions about sex, contraception and motherhood.
If this is done, women and girls will be able to fully contribute to society with the tools, information and power to decide for themselves whether to have children or not.
“By putting the power to make this fundamental decision directly in the hands of women and girls, societies can ensure that motherhood is an aspiration and not an inevitability,” concluded the director of the Population Fund.
Ukraine Effect
The war in Ukraine is also likely to cause an increase in unwanted pregnancies, Fund spokeswoman Monica Ferro told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.
“We predict that 265,000 women are pregnant in Ukraine and in the next three months, 80,000 people will give birth. Therefore, if there is no health center to give birth, to have a delivery with qualified personnel, or if they do not have access to medical care, this will increase, as we know, maternal mortality and morbidity.”
Earlier this month, a maternity hospital was targeted by shelling in the stricken coastal city of Mariupol. As part of the UN response, UNFPA has sent essential medicines and life-saving sexual and reproductive health services and supplies to Ukraine.
