We Can Do Better: 233 Million Needs for Birth Control Will Go Unmet by 2015

Women want to prevent pregnancy, but can't take necessary measures

Despite more women using birth control worldwide, there is still an unmet need for contraception, a new study shows. Researchers defined the unmet need as the proportion of women who would like to delay or stop childbearing but who are not using any method of contraception to prevent pregnancy. They studied married or cohabiting women of reproductive age across 194 countries between 1990 and 2010. Global use of contraceptives by these women increased from 55 percent to 63 percent over that period; despite this, researchers project that 233 million women will have an unmet need for modern birth control by 2015. Birth control usage was high in developed countries, but decreased slightly in Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Other areas showed a very low rate of contraceptive use; in central and western Africa fewer than 1 in 5 married women of reproductive age used any kind of birth control as of 2010. (NBC News)

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