The sexual reproductive health of women: unfinished business in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region

Abstract

Each year, 200 million women have an unmet need for modern contraception, more than 45 million women receive inadequate or no antenatal care, 1 million women and girls acquire HIV, and 25 million abortions are unsafe. These numbers illustrate the huge gap in access to basic sexuality and reproductive health services, posing serious challenges to achieving universal health coverage [7].

Women empowerment domains and unmet need for contraception among married and cohabiting fecund women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A multilevel analysis based on gender role framework

“…The finding is in tandem with a study conducted in lower and middle-income countries (LMICs) of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (24%) [7] and a study conducted in SSA among both married and cohabited women (28.7%) [37]. But it is higher than another study conducted in South and Southeast Asian countries (21%) [38], European countries (17.2%) [39] and lower than some European and Central Asian countries (Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania) which was approaching 40-50% [40]. The disparities could be due to a complex interaction of socioeconomic (poverty, education, employment), cultural and religious (beliefs, stigma, and misinformation), structural (healthcare infrastructures, access to services, and quality of care), gender-related (power dynamic and family pressure), legal and policy related (legal restrictions and lack of supportive policies), and political(conflict and instability) factors that vary among continents and even countries [7].…”