Global Fertility Crisis: UN Report Highlights Barriers to Family Planning
A new report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has highlighted the growing global crisis in family planning, revealing that many women and couples face significant barriers in achieving their reproductive goals. The report, presented in Berlin, is based on a survey of 14 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States, representing over a third of the world’s population.
The survey found that many women and couples face significant obstacles, both in preventing unwanted pregnancies and in achieving their desired family size. “The real crisis is that people do not feel able to found the families they want” said Ian McFarlane, Director for External Relations at UNFPA. “This crisis affects the global North as much as the global South.”
The report reveals that globally, 44 percent of women and girls have no decision-making power over their sexual relationships, contraception, or reproductive health services. Over 750 million women, or 40 percent of women of childbearing age, live in countries with restrictive laws on abortion. In these countries, many women resort to unsafe methods for terminating a pregnancy, with an estimated 45 percent of all abortions worldwide being unsafe.
On the other hand, 23 percent of respondents had an unfulfilled desire for children, while over 40 percent had to give up on this desire. The reasons for this are varied, with barriers to family planning mirroring those for preventing unwanted pregnancies, including poverty, lack of education and health problems.
The survey also found that, on average, people across the world desire to have around two children. However, among those who had already completed their family planning, nearly a third reported having fewer children than planned, while 12 percent reported having more.
“Widespread attacks on the bodily autonomy of women are taking place globally” said Niels Annen, State Secretary at the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Reproductive rights, which women have fought for over the past few decades, are under threat in many places. This is a dangerous development. “The report shows that education, job opportunities and access to healthcare are the best ways to support women.