'We still find ourselves in a crisis,' UN report states

Many women and girls are still unable to make free decisions about their bodies and family planning in 2022, according to a new report by the UN Population Fund. 'We are still in a crisis,' it states.

121 million women become pregnant unplanned every year, says the UNPF, which means that half of all pregnancies worldwide are not planned. An unplanned pregnancy usually has economic social consequences that plague the mothers for a long time. But even though not all unplanned pregnancies are unwanted, in 60% of cases abortion occurs, and even more often it is not performed in a medically correct way.

Yves Sassenrath is a representative of the Population Fund and is currently active in Mali, where he is also presenting the UNFP report. On the ground, viable and reliable solutions are needed, because even though men bear just as much responsibility for having children, contraception is the responsibility of women. At the same time, it is a piece of secret autonomy for them. Sassenrath explains that hormone injections are particularly popular because women can insert them themselves. This contraceptive method is not visible, but it is efficient.

For the representative, however, it is clear that contraception alone cannot solve the problem. There has to be a social change in which women get better education on the one hand and men see women as equal partners on the other.

In this context, Luxembourg is participating in a number of projects, for example in Burkina Faso, with 5 million euros.

However, Sassenrath points out that, even if the crisis of unplanned pregnancies is particularly striking in the global South, one must not forget that the problem also exists in the Western world and has been intensified by the lockdown.