Why 164 million women have unmet contraceptive needs while methods exist that could save their lives

Shreya Suri
January 27, 2026

Fatima sat across from the community health worker, finally voicing what she’d been afraid to say. “I need to stop having children,” she whispered. “I already have six. My body can’t take another pregnancy. But my husband won’t allow contraception. And even if he did, the nearest clinic is three hours away by bus. I can’t afford the fare.”

The health worker nodded. She hears this story daily in rural Pakistan. Fatima is one of 164 million women of reproductive age worldwide with an unmet need for contraception. They want to prevent or delay pregnancy but aren’t using any contraceptive method.

Continued: https://observervoice.com/contraception-why-164-million-women-have-unmet-contraceptive-needs-while-methods-exist-that-could-save-their-lives-177572/

27.01.2026

Commentary

unmet contraceptive needs

Global

Pakistan

Contraception

When floods rise in Pakistan, women’s reproductive health falls behind

Uzma Shahid, Program Manager, Ipas Pakistan
December 8, 2025

This story reflects my firsthand observations during a monitoring visit to a flood-affected community. I spent a day in the community, conducting a focus group discussion with women on their reproductive health needs before and during disasters. This is how I learnt the story of Sehrish* and her heartbreaking pregnancy and miscarriage experience. I went to meet her and later discussed the matter with the camp doctor who I requested to visit Sehrish at her home before the camp closed in the community.

Unprecedented flooding during the 2025 monsoon season in Pakistan led to more than 1,000 deaths, thousands injured, and nearly seven million people impacted since June. Around three million people have been displaced by flood waters so far. In climate-induced crises like these, women and girls are disproportionately impacted. Many face unmet reproductive health needs…

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/floods-pakistan-womens-reproductive-health/

08.12.2025

Commentary

Ipas Pakistan

Rahnuma-Family Planning Association of Pakistan

Women’s empowerment key to tackling Pakistan’s population crisis

November 28, 2025

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s population growth rate of 2.55 per cent per year—the highest in the region—is putting immense pressure on the country’s resources, with projections showing a population of 385 million by 2050 if trends continue. Experts say the issue is closely linked to the status of women, whose autonomy and well-being remain severely restricted.

Dr Ali Mohammad Mir, Senior Director of the Population Council, highlighted decades of mismanaged population policies, noting that women bear the brunt of high fertility rates through both childbirth and unpaid childcare responsibilities. “Any effective population strategy must place women’s rights and autonomy at the centre,” he said.

Continued; https://dailytimes.com.pk/1408959/womens-empowerment-key-to-tackling-pakistans-population-crisis/

28.11.2025

Ipas Pakistan helps expand access to postabortion family planning

November 26, 2025

Access to family planning after an abortion is a vital part of comprehensive reproductive health care. Clinical studies have shown that fertility can rapidly return following an abortion. But access to such care has not been widely available to women in Pakistan.

In a move that promises to greatly improve access to both postpartum and postabortion family planning services, the provincial Government of Sindh has issued new standards and guidelines developed in consultation with Ipas Pakistan and a diverse group of more than 40 stakeholders.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/pakistan-postabortion-family-planning/

26.11.2025

postabortion family planning

Pakistan – Sindh faces alarming rise in unsafe abortions, experts warn

Experts warn iron deficiency, early marriages, lack of family planning fueling silent health crisis

Dua Abbas
October 10, 2025

KARACHI: Sindh faces a mounting women's health crisis, with an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 abortions taking place annually — many of them unsafe, unregulated, and life-threatening. This alarming figure, combined with widespread malnutrition and anemia, is placing countless women at risk, medical experts warn.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Dr Mehwish Mubarak Ali, Deputy Director (Clinics Section) of the Sindh Population Welfare Department, revealed the gravity of the situation. "In terms of blood loss, a single unsafe abortion can be as dangerous as 10 full-term pregnancies," she said.

Continued: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2571582/sindh-faces-alarming-rise-in-unsafe-abortions

10.10.2025

News

Dr Mehwish Mubarak Ali

Sayana Press Self-Injection

Sindh Population Welfare Department

Pakistan – Autonomy to plan

By Dr Hadia Aziz
September 26, 2025

Two years ago, in a government healthcare setting at the periphery, I encountered a 29-year-old mother of three who had been driven to a life-threatening, unsafe abortion by an untrained practitioner because she had no access to contraception.

Her story is not an anomaly in Pakistan. It is a chilling microcosm of a far wider national crisis. Her tragic experience highlights a fundamental failure of our state and society to safeguard the most basic right of its women: bodily autonomy.

Continued: https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1346380-autonomy-to-plan

26.09.2025

Commentary

Dr Hadia Aziz

Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey

United Nations Population Fund

World Contraception Day

Providing Choice During A Humanitarian Crisis

Aug 1, 2023
By Amanda Seller, President, MSI United States

In the Northern Central region of Burkina Faso, Yvette Yoda is part of a team of mobile midwives working to provide life-saving reproductive healthcare services to women and girls who have been forced from their homes by violence.

More than two million people are internally displaced in Burkina Faso, with many living in camps. Yvette makes the difficult journey to reach them because she knows how important it is for women facing a crisis to be able to control their own futures.

Why is reproductive choice important in emergency settings?

Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeseq/2023/08/01/providing-choice-during-a-humanitarian-crisis/?sh=209d75cb1591

Pakistan – ‘Reproductive health law to end discrimination against women’

June 18, 2023

LOWER DIR: Speakers at a seminar here on Saturday said that reproductive health was a fundamental human right of everyone.

They said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Reproductive Healthcare Rights, 2020, was passed to facilitate, ensure and improve the reproductive health issues pertaining to couples. They said that the Act ensured elimination of discrimination against women.

Continued: https://www.dawn.com/news/1760315

18.06.2023

News

abortion law reform

Dr Minhajud Din

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Reproductive Healthcare Rights

Pakistan – Rubab For Multi-faceted Strategy To Improve Young Mothers’ Reproductive Health

Muhammad Irfan
Published May 23, 2023

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News): Parliamentary Secretary Law Dr. Rubaba Khan Buledi Tuesday emphasized the need for adopting comprehensive and multi-faceted strategies to improve reproductive healthcare and the well-being of young mothers and their families.

She expressed the views while addressing at Provincial Consultative Workshop Voluntary National Survey International Conference on Population and Development organized jointly by UNFPA and the Ministry of Planning and Development here.

Continued: https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/rubab-for-multi-faceted-strategy-to-improve-y-1696412.html

23.05.2023

News

Dr. Rubaba Khan Buledi

International Conference on Population and development

Life over death, death over life: Abortion in Pakistan

In the hands of untrained practitioners, an already difficult choice comes with potentially deadly consequences

BY SHAZIA MEHBOOB TANOLI
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 16, 2022

“Fear, pressure, and pain of abortion were much more than giving birth to a child”, says Hareem, who had an induced abortion at a health care facility in Rawalpindi. Although it was her second baby, she had to abort her six-week-old pregnancy because of the baby’s abnormal growth. Recalling her experience of abortion, she says, “It was as though everything from inside me was being wrenched out in the form of blood and pieces. It took me weeks to recover physically and mentally.”

Hareem was treated in a quality health care facility, yet her recovery took weeks. That is why it is hard to imagine Safina’s experience who did not have access to a good and safe medical service and suffered the pain of abortion at the hands of an untrained midwife.

Continued: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2381813/life-over-death-death-over-life-abortion-in-pakistan

16.10.2022