233 Million Women May Be Without Birth Control by 2015
Researchers estimated the contraceptive use and unmet contraceptive need among married or cohabiting women of reproductive age for 194 countries between 1990 and 2010. The researchers defined an unmet need as the proportion of women who would like to delay or stop childbearing but who are not using any method of contraception to prevent pregnancy.
Global use of contraceptives by these women increased from 55 percent to 63 percent over the period from 1990 to 2010, while unmet need decreased from 15 percent to 12 percent, the results showed. Despite this, the researchers project that 233 million women will have an unmet need for modern birth control by 2015.
“The changes over time that we see — in terms of increases in contraceptive prevalence and reductions in need — are in the right direction,” study leader Ann Biddlecom, a fertility and family planning researcher in the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, told LiveScience. “But there are still parts of the world where there remains a high level of unmet need for family planning.”
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