Unintended pregnancies are widespread in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), jeopardiz- ing the health and well-being of women and their families.1 These unplanned pregnancies also exert an unnecessary burden on their countries’ health systems and socioeconomic development.
Throughout the world, including the MENA region, women too often become pregnant sooner than they wanted or when they do not want any more children. Such unintended pregnancies occur for a variety of reasons, in particular the lack of access to a preferred contraceptive method or incorrect use
of a method. In addition, some women are vulner- able to social pressure from their husbands or other family members on family planning issues and do not have the power to decide for themselves whether or when to become pregnant. Over the past decade, between 15 percent and 58 percent of pregnancies in MENA countries were unintended (see Figure 1).
Individuals’ freedom to decide the number and timing of their children is acknowledged as a basic human and reproductive right in international agree- ments.2 Universal access to reproductive health services that include family planning is one of the targets included in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015. Providing all women access to high-quality family planning ser- vices would reduce unintended pregnancies, con- tributing directly to three MDGs: promoting gender equality and empowering women (MDG 3); reducing child mortality (MDG 4); and improving maternal health (MDG 5).3