Guttmacher Report underlines need to meet adolescents’ contraceptive needs

Twenty three million – that’s the number of adolescents at risk of unintended pregnancies in the developing countries.

The statistic, part of the Guttmacher Institute’s May report Adding It Up: Costs and Benefits of Meeting the Contraceptive Needs of Adolescents , again points out the huge gap in contraceptive services among adolescent women. The report says that many women who want to delay childbearing are not getting the services they need.

About 40 million of the over 250 million adolescent women between 15–19 years in developing regions are sexually active and want to avoid pregnancy, yet 23 million of them have an unmet need for modern contraception. Most adolescents with unmet need are using no contraceptive method while the rest depend on traditional methods, which have been proven to be not so effective.

All this underlines the need to make sure modern contraceptives is made available in developing countries. This, according to the report, will not only prevent unintended pregnancies but also prevent the 3,000 adolescent maternal deaths reported every year in developing countries.

At 21% India has among the highest unmet needs for contraception in the world. This is despite the fact that we were the first country in the world to launch a government-backed family planning program. However, today countries like Bangladesh and Indonesia, which started their programs much after India, are faring much better.

The government has recently launched a wider pool of contraceptive choices for women. Welcome steps, but there needs to be more focus on behaviour change communication. Young women and couples want to plan their families but do not know where to get the information.