In South Africa, Ipas builds broad commitment to tackle child marriage, teen pregnancy and school dropout

June 12, 2026
Ipas

Child marriage, teen pregnancy and school dropout remain persistent challenges in South Africa, with girls and young women disproportionately affected. UNICEF estimates that about 250,000 learners drop out of school each year. The Department of Social Development in the country links many of these dropouts to child marriage and teen pregnancy, reporting that 4% of girls are married before age 18.

Against this backdrop, we’ve been building momentum, leadership and partnerships to address the impacts of child marriage, teen pregnancy and school dropout in the country. In May 2025, we held a high level gathering in South Africa, bringing together nearly 40 members of parliament from G20 countries and Eastern and Southern Africa to discuss the economic benefits of investing in women’s health. The gathering was part of Ipas’s longer-term strategy to build legislative support for sexual and reproductive health and rights, following the 2024 launch of the Eastern and Southern Africa Parliamentary Caucus.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/south-africa-child-marriage-teen-pregnancy-school-dropout/

Why teenage pregnancy is on the rise in Nigeria – Expert

May 21, 2025
Vanguard

Mrs Roseline Akinlabi, Adolescent Desk Officer, Osun Primary Health Care Board, says that child marriage and peer pressure are some factors responsible for increase in teenage pregnancy in the country.

Akinlabi said this during an enlightenment programme organised by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), The Challenge Initiative (TCI), on Wednesday in Osogbo.

Continued: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/05/why-teenage-pregnancy-is-on-the-rise-in-nigeria-expert/

21.05.2025

adolescent pregnancy

child marriage

Ouson Primary Health Care Board

Roseline Akinlabi

The Challenge Initiative

UNICEF

United Nations Children’s Fund

Right wing policies threaten gender equality and health security

Young people call for all sexual and reproductive health services including safe abortion rights

SHOBHA SHUKLA – CNS
08 Feb 2025

Donald Trump’s presidency is likely to have far-reaching consequences for sexual and reproductive health, bodily autonomy and human rights worldwide. He has already withdrawn USA’s financial support to the UN health agency World Health Organization (WHO), and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will no longer share its invaluable expertise with the WHO.

Also all ongoing (as well as future) projects funded by US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been put on immediate hold. Many of these are lifesaving health programmes, including those directly related to sexual and reproductive health services.

Continued: https://kashmirtimes.com/opinion/comment-articles/right-wing-policies-threaten-gender-equality-and-health-security

Zimbabwe court rules against law that denies abortion to marital rape victims and girls below 18

Farai Mutsaka, The Associated Press
Dec. 3, 2024

HARARE, Zimbabwe - A law prohibiting abortion services for women raped by their husbands and girls under the age of 18 is unconstitutional, Zimbabwe’s High Court has ruled.

In his ruling handed down on Nov. 22 and made public this week, Judge Maxwell Takuva said since Zimbabwe’s laws already criminalize marital rape and sex with a minor, victims should be allowed to abort if they become pregnant.

The ruling is significant, given Zimbabwe’s restrictive abortion laws that often lead women and girls into illegal and unsafe backstreet abortions that in many cases turn fatal.

Continued: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/zimbabwe-court-rules-against-law-that-denies-abortion-to-marital-rape-victims-and-girls-below-18-1.7131471

03.12.2024

News

rape and abortion

teenage pregnancies

Termination of Pregnancy Act

Sweden invests $42 million to improve sexual and reproductive health in East and Southern Africa

Sources: Govt. Sweden, UNFPA, UNICEF
22 Jun 2023

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Sweden today announced a further investment of $42 million for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), in an effort to transform the lives of millions of people in East and Southern Africa. The funding is being made available through Sweden's Strategy for SRHR in Africa 2022-2026.

The investment will bolster existing efforts by four United Nations agencies -- UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO -- to support countries and regional entities in East and Southern Africa to reduce maternal mortality including from unsafe abortion, HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unmet need for contraceptives, and gender-based violence (GBV). The investment brings to $99 million the total amount committed by Sweden since 2018.

Continued: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/sweden-invests-42-million-improve-sexual-and-reproductive-health-east-and-southern-africa

Will the world abort women’s rights after death of Roe v. Wade?

BY ELLEN WULFHORST, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
Nov 24, 2022

PATTAYA CITY, THAILAND – Women and girls around the world will suffer a knock-on effect from the U.S. decision to roll back abortion rights, experts say, predicting a global clampdown on hard-won female freedoms.

From access to abortion to voting rights, equal pay to equal status, women from Africa to Asia to Europe are expected to feel the fallout of the U.S. decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/11/24/world/women-rights-abortion/

BY ELLEN WULFHORST, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
Nov 24, 2022

From access to abortion to voting rights, equal pay to equal status, women from Africa to Asia to Europe are expected to feel the fallout of the U.S. decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/11/24/world/women-rights-abortion/

Strategizing to accelerate the reduction of maternal mortality in the African Region

World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa
29 April 2022

Johannesburg – The African Region accounted for 66% of the 303,000 maternal deaths recorded globally in 2017. To address this situation, WHO in collaboration with UNFPA, UNICEF and partners supports Member States to ensure that all women and girls have access to quality and timely health services, particularly during pregnancy, childbirth, and after delivery, leaving no one behind.

« Most maternal deaths in the Region are attributable to five main causes: haemorrhage, pregnancy-related hypertensive disorders, unsafe abortion, infection, and obstructed labour. Of these, complications of haemorrhage and hypertension account for almost 50% of deaths," said Dr. Owen Kaluwa, WHO Representative in South Africa.

Continued: https://www.afro.who.int/news/strategizing-accelerate-reduction-maternal-mortality-african-region

Maternal mortality in Nigeria: a long case of angst and discuss

Ogungbile Emmanuel Oludotun, University of Ibadan
September 14, 2020

On 11th September 2020, Daily Times, a foremost Nigerian Newspaper reported that the former governor of Sokoto State, Aliyu Wamakko, lost his daughter, Sadiya, who reportedly died during child-birth. Sadiya died at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, on Thursday. It was sad that the 23-year-old lady died in event of complications arising from childbirth. So I wondered even the elite also suffers from maternal mortality? This is 2020 and we are still talking about the high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria which breeds death of millions of people who should not have died, most especially the first-timers.

Specifically today, we still talk of maternal mortality as a major risk for women of childbearing age in Nigeria. The country’s maternal mortality ratio has always stayed elevated despite efforts to curb maternal deaths.

Continued: https://qwenu.com/2020/09/14/maternal-mortality-in-nigeria-a-long-case-of-angst-and-discuss-by-ogungbile-emmanuel-oludotun/

How India’s Healthcare System Treated Women During Pandemic

In one critical segment of healthcare—population services—India failed women almost completely.

Rashme Sehgal
21 Aug 2020

The fate of 30-year old Neelam, who died in the eight month of pregnancy because of lack of proper medical facilities sums up the fate of a large number of women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being in her final trimester and unwell, she failed to get admitted in even one of eight hospitals whose doors her family knocked at in NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh.

Her husband and brother took the unwell woman to eight hospitals in one day but were refused admission, allegedly on grounds that each of them was already overburdened with patients.

Continued: https://www.newsclick.in/How-India's-Healthcare-System-Treated-Women-During-Pandemic

Half of pregnancies during 2015-19 unintended, abortions highest in poor nations

Women in the poorest countries were nearly three times as likely to face unintended pregnancies as those in the wealthiest countries, revealing inequities in access to sexual and reproductive health care

23 Jul 2020
Neetu Chandra Sharma

NEW DELHI: Almost half of pregnancies between 2015 and 2019, worldwide, were unintended, according to a study published in the Lancet Global Health journal. Abortion rates were the highest in low-income countries with most legal restrictions to abortion care, the study pointed out.

The study was a collaboration of Guttmacher Institute and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction.

Continued: https://www.livemint.com/science/health/half-of-pregnancies-during-2015-19-unintended-abortions-highest-in-poor-nations-11595505322628.html