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News > World

Rise in Contraceptive Use Averted 21MN Risky Abortions in 2018

  • Around 7 million women are admitted to hospitals every year in developing countries, as a result of unsafe abortion, according to the latest estimate by the World Health Organization.

    Around 7 million women are admitted to hospitals every year in developing countries, as a result of unsafe abortion, according to the latest estimate by the World Health Organization. | Photo: Reuters

Published 12 November 2019
Opinion

By 2025, there will be a population growth of one billion people across developing nations which warrants an even stronger need for family planning services, according to the report.

Greater use of modern contraceptives in developing economies prevented 21 million risky abortions and 119 million unwanted pregnancies in 2018, according to data released Monday by the Family Planning 2020 alliance.

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Almost 315 million women and girls used modern methods of contraception in 69 low-income countries, an unprecedented figure with nine million new users in the last year and 53 million in the last seven years.

Access to contraception has meant 134,000 maternal deaths were prevented in 2018.

The data collated in the “FP2020: Women in the Center” report was presented by the FP2020 alliances on Monday ahead of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) which will take place in Nairobi.

The report revealed that more women and girls had access to family planning than ever before.

“The evidence is clear – when you invest in women and girls, the good deed never ends,” said Beth Schlachter, executive director of FP2020.

“Barriers are broken and opportunities open up that not only lift women out of poverty but can elevate society and bring about economic gains," she added. "No other single change can do more to improve the state of the world.”

There were nine countries – Mozambique, Chad, Cameroon, Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Sri Lanka – that were on track to achieve FP2020 goals of modern contraceptive use, the organization said.

Progress to put women and girls at the heart of development has been slower in central and eastern regions of Asia where the use of contraceptives had not increased as markedly.

However, some examples of good practice in Asia were championed in the report.

In the Philippines, one of the first countries in the group to commit to the goals laid out by the FP2020 partnership, 2.6 million unwanted pregnancies were averted and 1,200 maternal deaths avoided since 2012.

In Pakistan, the Supreme Court addressed a swelling population by creating a 2019-2024 national action plan for family planning, the report said.

Some 3.5 million unintended pregnancies and 3,400 maternal deaths have been avoided in Pakistan since 2012.

Schlachter did not downplay the challenges and further work that lies ahead.

“25 years on from the first ICPD, the family planning movement has gained huge momentum. Yet big challenges remain,” she said. “With every day that passes, millions are denied the right to choose their own future.  As we look ahead to 2030, we must continue to push for progress, build on what works well, and ensure we leave no woman or girl behind.”

Worldwide, 922 million women of reproductive age used contraception, of which 842 million used modern methods and 80 million continued to prefer traditional methods, according to global data from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Modern contraceptive methods use technological advances and include sterilization, oral hormonal pills, the intra-uterine device, condoms, injectables, the implant, vaginal barrier methods and emergency contraception.

Traditional contraception includes withdrawal before ejaculation, the calendar method and abstinence.

Female sterilization remained the most common contraceptive method globally with 219 million sterilized women, according to a UN survey in 195 countries.

The practice occurred mostly in regions such as central and southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, with India leading the world in sterilized women.

It was followed by the male condom, which 189 million people used, and the intrauterine device (IUD), with 159 million users.

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