WUNRN
Direct Link to 36-Page 2014 World
Health Organization Publication on Contraceptive Information & Services -
Guidance & Recommendations:
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6 March 2014 – With preparations under way to mark International Women’s Day
this Saturday, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO)
today released a set of recommendations for countries to ensure that women,
girls and couples have access to the tools needed to avoid unwanted
pregnancies, thereby improving health and allowing for better family planning.
“Ensuring availability and
accessibility to the information and services they need is crucial, not only to
protect their rights, but also their health,” said Dr. Flavia Bustreo, WHO’s Assistant
Director-General for Family, Women, and Children’s Health.
“These unintended pregnancies
can pose a major threat to their own and their children’s health and lives,”
she insisted.
It is estimated that 222 million
girls and women who do not want to get pregnant or who want to delay their next
pregnancy are not using any method of contraception. The WHO stresses in a news
release that access to contraception information and services will allow better
planning for families and improved health.
In low- and middle-income
countries, complications of pregnancy and childbirth are among the leading
cause of death in young women aged 15-19 years. Stillbirths and death in the
first week of life are 50 per cent higher among babies born to mothers younger
than 20 years than among babies born to mothers 20–29 years old.
The populations most vulnerable
to this lack of access to contraception services are young, poor, and live in
rural areas and urban slums. Efforts have been made to address this need since
the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, where a commitment was made to allow
family planning services to reach at least 120 million people more by the year
2020.
But though these global targets
are stimulating much needed action, says Dr. Marleen Temmerman, Director of
WHO’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research, who adds: “It is not just
about increasing numbers, it’s also about increasing knowledge. It is vital for
women – and men – to understand how contraception works, be offered a choice of
methods, and be happy with the method they receive.”
The WHO’s guidance recommends
that every individual seeking contraception should be able to obtain “detailed
and accurate information,” as well as “a variety of services such as
counselling [and] contraceptive products,” in a non-discriminatory,
non-coercive and non-violent environment.
The guidance also notes the
importance for countries to provide “scientifically accurate sex education
programmes for young people, including information on how to use and acquire
contraceptives.”
Putting an emphasis on
contraception as a human right, and the importance of privacy and
confidentiality in medical matters, the guidance states that women and
adolescents should be able to request contraceptive help without having to
obtain authorization from their husbands, parents or guardians.