By Moses Emorinken, Abuja
Stakeholders in the health sector have disclosed that nearly 50 per cent of unmarried women in the country do not have access to modern contraceptive, eve as the unmet need for contraception among married women is about 19 per cent.
This, according to them, puts the women in the condition of pregnancies they did not plan for, thereby increasing our population, and increasing their chances of dying from unsafe abortion.
They called for an increased investment in the procurement of contraceptives, especially at the state level.
Prof Abubakar Panti, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH), made these known during a virtual media training organised by the Rotary Action Group for Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health Nigeria (RMCH), in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, and the German Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development.
He said: “Currently, there is a pressing need to limit family size, at the personal and national level. The need for birth control at a personal level is paramount now because there is an increased cost of living, scarcity of accommodation, a desire for better education of children, among others. At the national level, there is rapid population growth, and this is a critical issue in most developing countries because social amenities are overstretched.
“In underdeveloped countries, women continue to die because they lack access to contraception. In Nigeria, from the National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2018, the unmet need for contraception among married women is about 19 per cent, and the unmet needs among unmarried women are as high as 48 per cent.
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