Meeting Women’s Modern Contraceptive Needs Could Yield Dramatic Benefit

September 9, 2020
By Deekshita Ramanarayanan

“Achieving true progress on sexual and reproductive health and rights requires a comprehensive approach and a commitment to tackling deeply entrenched inequities and injustices of which marginalized communities continue to bear the brunt,” said Dr. Herminia Palacio, President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute. She spoke at a recent Wilson Center event where speakers analyzed findings from the Guttmacher Institute on the state of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) globally.

The current COVID-19 pandemic threatens to roll back progress made towards SRHR.  “A growing body of evidence shows that the pandemic is already limiting access to sexual and reproductive health care worldwide, especially in low- and middle- income countries,” said Sarah Barnes, Project Director of the Maternal Health Initiative at the Wilson Center. These impacts go unrecognized because they are indirect results of health system disruption rather than the direct impact of a virus, said Zara Ahmed, Associate Director of Federal Issues at the Guttmacher Institute.

Continued: https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2020/09/meeting-womens-modern-contraceptive-yield-dramatic-benefit/


Despite Widespread Support for Postabortion Care, Many Countries’ Health Systems Do Not Have the Capacity to Provide Essential Services

Despite Widespread Support for Postabortion Care, Many Countries’ Health Systems Do Not Have the Capacity to Provide Essential Services
New 10-Country Study Identifies Gaps in Postabortion Care

First published online: November 29, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30404-2

There are critical gaps in the provision of postabortion care (PAC) at facilities that offer childbirth delivery services in many countries, highlighting a disconnect between national governments’ commitments to address the consequences of unsafe abortion and the capacity of health systems to provide essential services, according to a new study published today in The Lancet Global Health. “Health Systems' Capacity to Provide Post-Abortion Care: A Multicountry Analysis Using Signal Functions,” by Guttmacher researchers Onikepe Owolabi, Ann Biddlecom and Hannah Whitehead, found an unacceptably low level of appropriate medical care provided to women who experienced complications from abortion or miscarriage and who sought treatment in one of 10 countries across three regions.

Study Summary:
Abortion-related mortality is one of the main causes of maternal mortality worldwide. Laws often restrict the provision of safe abortion care, yet post-abortion care is a service that all countries have committed to provide to manage abortion complications. There is minimal evidence on the capacity of national health systems to provide post-abortion care.

Continued: hhttps://www.guttmacher.org/article/2018/11/health-systems-capacity-provide-post-abortion-care-multicountry-analysis-using


In Developing Regions, Greater Investment Is Needed to Help Adolescents Prevent Unintended Pregnancy

In Developing Regions, Greater Investment Is Needed to Help Adolescents Prevent Unintended Pregnancy

Nov 9, 2018

20 Million Adolescent Women Have an Unmet Need for Modern Contraception

Ensuring that adolescent women are able to choose whether and when to have children is crucial to their sexual and reproductive health, yet new data published today by the Guttmacher Institute show that contraceptive services in developing regions fall short of meeting adolescents’ needs. The new data, published in a series of fact sheets, indicate that as of 2017, an estimated 36 million young women aged 15–19 in developing regions are married or sexually active and want to avoid becoming pregnant in the next two years. Yet the majority of this group—20 million adolescents—are not using a modern contraceptive method and thus have an unmet need for modern contraception. Most adolescent women with unmet need are using no contraceptive method (85%), while the remaining 15% are using traditional methods, such as withdrawal or periodic abstinence, which are less effective than modern methods.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2018/developing-regions-greater-investment-needed-help-adolescents-prevent-unintended