CONTENTS
Chapters
- Growing Numbers, Diverse Needs
- Growth, Change, and Risk
- Programs for Young Adults
- Evaluation Findings
- Winning Support from the Community and
Young Adults
HIGHLIGHTS
Included with this issue:
Population Reports is published by the Population
Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland
21202-4012, USA
Volume XXIII, Number 3
October, 1995 |
Sexually active people who do not desire pregnancy but are not using contraception
are defined as having unmet need for contraception (520). Calculations of
unmet need conventionally have focused on married women and omitted the
unmarried and the young—one of the largest groups whose needs for reproductive
health services and contraceptives are not being met (61, 135, 136, 518,
591). Using DHS data on unmarried women in sub-Saharan Africa, Charles Westoff
and Akinrinola Bankole have estimated that 8% of unmarried women ages 15
to 19 have an unmet need for contraception, although the figures are as
high as 25% in Zambia and Ghana and 34% in Botswana (see Table
8). Although it cannot be assumed
that all sexually active, never-married women want to avoid pregnancy, it
is clear that many young women's reproductive health needs remain unmet.
Unmet needs also are evident in high rates of STDs, premarital conception,
and unplanned pregnancy and in mortality and morbidity resulting from unsafe
abortion among young people. |
