A brewing crisis: Millions of women still lack access to family planning

A brewing crisis: Millions of women still lack access to family planning

SHOBHA SHUKLA - CNS

The landscape of sexual and reproductive health and rights is shifting: millions of women want to avoid pregnancy but are not using a modern method of contraception.

Modern contraceptives are essential and life-saving, and yet an estimated 224 million women in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy are not currently using safe and effective family planning methods.

For most women, the basic human right to choose whether to have children continues to be undermined. They are at risk of losing access to the most basic tools for bodily autonomy and health.

While contraceptives remain essential and lifesaving, yet supply chains, funding streams, and political will are collapsing, while demand is surging among women and girls worldwide. Millions are now at risk of losing access to the most basic tools for bodily autonomy and health.

Experts warn that this is not just a health issue - it is a human rights and economic crisis that threatens decades of progress in gender equality, education, and maternal health.

Family planning is not only a matter of health, it is a matter of rights, said UNFPA Executive Director Diene Keita.

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