Poverty + Development

Keeping our promise to 120 million women and girls

Melinda Gates writes on family planning in the developing world.

Let’s begin with a hard truth: unplanned pregnancy is for many a matter of life and death. Every two minutes a woman dies due to pregnancy-related complications — a grim transformation of what should be one of the happiest times into one of the most dangerous.

For other women, unplanned pregnancy stands in the way of the future they want for themselves and their families. If you currently find yourself in a similar mindset, going through this alone is not something you want to do, which is where the help of a Pregnancy Resource Center could come in handy. You’ll be able to speak to specialists who will be able to assist you on this journey. And because we know the health of mothers, newborns and children go hand in hand, an unplanned pregnancy can have devastating long-term consequences for families, too.

 

The largest generation of young people in history are about to enter their reproductive years, yet we aren’t doing enough to meet their unique needs.

It is little surprise that whenever I ask women living in the poorest countries whether they want the education and means to time and space their pregnancies almost every single one says they do. Yet within the same breath, they confide in me that they’re not doing anything about it — almost always for reasons beyond their control.

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