UNFPA ALARMED BY STAGGERING NUMBER OF UNINTENDED PREGNANCIES WORLDWIDE

Wed 30 March 2022:

State of World Population report released on Wednesday, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) showed that nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended, demonstrating a significant global failure to protect human rights.

“This report is a wakeup call. The staggering number of unintended pregnancies represents a global failure to uphold women and girls’ basic human rights,” UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem said.

The report warned that this human rights crisis has profound implications for society, women and girls, and global health. More than 60% of unplanned pregnancies end in abortion, and an estimated 45% of all abortions are unsafe, causing 5% to 13% of all maternal deaths, with a resultant serious impact on the world’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The report urges politicians, community leaders and all individuals to empower women and girls to “make affirmative decisions” about sex, contraception and motherhood, and to promote a society that recognizes the full value of women and girls, entitling them to a choice whether or not to give birth.

The UNFPA’s yearly flagship publication is the State of World Population report. Since 1978, it has been publishing an annual report that highlights and explores new concerns in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as the difficulties and opportunities they present for international development.

Ukraine effect

The war in Ukraine is also likely to drive an increase in unintended pregnancy, said UNFPA’s Monica Ferro, briefing journalists in Geneva on Wednesday.

“We are foreseeing that 265,000 women are pregnant in Ukraine and in the next three months 80,000 will give birth. So, if there is no health facility for them to give birth, to have a skilled attendant’s birth – or if they don’t have access to healthcare – this is going to 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’s response, UNFPA has shipped essential medicines and life-saving sexual and reproductive health services and supplies to Ukraine.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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