State of World Population 2012 - UNFPA Haiti

taken, the more effective it is. Emergency contraceptionis not effective once implantationhas begun and does not cause abortion. It isintended for emergency use only and is notappropriate for regular use. For longer-termprotection, a copper intrauterine device, wheninserted within five days of intercourse, alsoprevents implantation and can be left in placefor up to 10 years (Trussell and Raymond,2012). Emergency contraception plays a specialrole in instances of sexual violence, armedconflict, and humanitarian emergencies.Given the unpredictable and often unplannednature of young people’s sexual encounters,emergency contraception is especially importantin the range of services provided toadolescents and young adults.Rights and the unmet needfor family planningAccording to a 2012 report by the GuttmacherInstitute and UNFPA, there are 1.52 billionwomen of reproductive age in the developingworld. An estimated 867 million of themneed contraception, but only 645 million arecurrently using modern contraceptive methods.The remaining 222 million women have anunmet need for contraception.• An estimated 80 million unintended pregnancieswill occur in 2012 in the developingworld as a result of contraceptive failure andnon-use among women who do not want apregnancy soon.• Most—63 million—of the 80 million unintendedpregnancies in developing countriesin 2012 will occur among the 222 millionwomen with an unmet need for moderncontraception.• 18 per cent of unintended pregnancies occuramong the 603 million women who wereusing a modern contraceptive but haddifficulty using it consistently and correctly,or because of method failure.Why is unmet need for contraceptionstill so high?The 222 million women who want to avoidbecoming pregnant for at least the next twoyears but are not using a method actually reflecta slight decline in unmet need between 2008and 2012. During this time, the number ofwomen who wanted to avoid a pregnancy grewby nearly 40 million, and the biggest improvementsin reducing unmet need were made inSoutheast Asia. Despite the gains, there is asignificant need for targeted interventions thatreach underserved communities and marginalizedsub-populations, where unmet need remainsrelatively high.In the developing world as a whole, 18 percent of married women have an unmet need formodern contraception, yet in Western, Centraland Eastern Africa and Western Asia, 30 percent to 37 per cent of women have an unmetneed for contraception. In the Arab region, asignificant number of women have unmet needfor family planning—that is, they prefer to avoida pregnancy for at least two years but are notusing a family planning method. A survey collectedby the Pan-Arab Project for Family Healthfound that only four in 10 married women ofreproductive age living in the Arab countriesuse modern contraception (Roudi-Fahimi et al.,2012). In most Arab countries, women’s ambivalencetowards family planning results from arange of factors, including fear of side effects,concern with husbands’ reactions, conflictsabout family roles and cultural responsibility forbearing children. This ambivalence declines aswomen grow older.Particularly in Western and CentralAfrica, weak health systems and poor services30 CHAPTER:2: ANALYSING DATA AND TRENDS TO UNDERSTAND THE NEEDS