The 2022 State of the World Population Report has revealed that between 2015-2019, there were roughly 121 million unintended pregnancies each year, which amounted to 48 per cent of all unintended pregnancies, and 61 per cent of them ended in induced abortion.
The report which was launched recently, by the United Nations Population Fund, was titled: Seeing the Unseen: ‘The Case for Action in the Neglected Crisis of Unintended Pregnancy.’
Resident Representative of the United Nations Population Fund, Ms Ulla Mueller, revealed that though the rate of unintended pregnancy has declined, the global abortion rate is virtually unchanged.
The report further explained that globally, 29 per cent of all pregnancies both intended and unintended combined, end in abortion.
The report hinted that the steady abortion rate alongside the declining incidence of unintended pregnancy means that the proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion has increased since 1990-1994, from 51 to 61 per cent.
The report is coming one year after it was discovered that Nigeria records about 2.5 million cases of unintended pregnancy annually, pointing out that 19 per cent of married women and 48 per cent of unmarried women seek to postpone or delay childbearing.
According to the report, “The steady abortion rate alongside the declining incidence of unintended pregnancy means that the proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion has increased since 1990-1994, from 51 to 61 percent. Taken together, these findings suggest that women may be exercising moderately more autonomy over their reproductive outcomes, in the form of both pregnancy prevention and termination of unintended pregnancies, compared to women 30 years ago.
“On a country or regional level, however, the proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion varies widely. There is no discernible association between the national incidence of unintended pregnancy and the proportion of those pregnancies ending in abortion; in many
places women tend to exercise reproductive choice in one way but not the other.”
The report further said: “The incidence of unintended pregnancy varies widely by region. There were about 35 unintended pregnancies annually per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49 years in Europe and North America, compared to 64 in Central and Southern Asia and 91 in sub-Saharan Africa, in 2015-2019. But there are wide disparities within regions, too. For example, the estimated unintended pregnancy rate was 49 in Niger but 145 in Uganda.
“Despite these intra-regional relationship between unintended pregnancy and lack of development, suggesting that more vigorous efforts to address unintended pregnancy could yield significant development benefits. Meanwhile, the proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion varied widely, reflecting the wide diversity in cultural and legal environments around the world.
“Countries (and territories) with higher levels of gender inequality, as measured by the GII, had higher rates of unintended pregnancy in 2015-2019, in both low- and middle-income countries and in high income countries.”