11% of teenage girls have unmet need for birth control

More than one in 10 teenage girls and women in Ireland have an unmet need for contraception.

The annual report of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says 11% of 15 to 49-year-olds females who are in relationships are not getting adequate access to family planning.

That’s more than twice the rate in our nearest neighbour, Britain, where just 5% fall into this category. Across the 25 EU countries covered in the global study, only Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Spain have a higher rate than Ireland.

Of those in Ireland who are using contraception, just 80% are using a modern method, meaning many are relying on less safe and effective practices.

Reasons are not given but the cost of contraception and fears among teenagers of disclosing under-age sex have been cited elsewhere as factors.

Worldwide, the countries with the greatest unmet need are Samoa, 44%; Ghana, 34%; and Uganda and Togo, 33%.

Ease of access to contraception is one of the measures the UNFPA says is essential if girls are to have real choices in their lives, to exercise power and to have a chance to make an economic contribution.

This year’s report focuses on the fate of the world’s 60m 10-year-old girls, 33,000 of whom live in Ireland, who will be the benchmark of the success or failure of the UN’s sustainable development goals which run to 2030.

The report states: “By 2030 the world could be a dramatically different place for a 10-year-old girl.

“Ïf the United Nations goals for inclusive, equitable and sustainable development are achieved in 15 years, every 10-year-old will have every opportunity to be healthy, protected and in school.

“She would not be married or mutilated against her will. Her rights would be upheld in the law and fully supported through broad social consensus. She would no longer be left far behind the 10-year-old boy.”

Without the right supports, the report warns, many of today’s 10-year-old girls will already have their own 10-year-old daughters by 2030 and another generation will have been failed.

The report emphasises the “demographic dividend” generated by investing in childhood and early adolescence and it uses Ireland as an example of how it works.

It says Ireland saw rapid declines in infant and child death in the 1960s and 1970s but continued to have high rates of fertility until 1980 when modern contraception became accessible.

“The fertility rate decreased, falling by one-third in 10 years, initiating a surge in the working-age population relative to the population of dependent children. This translated into remarkable growth in per capita income.”

It is noted that although the working age ratio has declined since 2005, income per head has been sustained, albeit with a dip during the recession.

The UNFPA has developed models showing the economic impact if a girl is retained in school, protected from forced marriage, given equal rights to property and allowed exercise her sexual and reproductive rights.

In almost every case her earning potential doubles, often meaning the difference between a life of destitution and one where she can contribute to the economy and also help provide even greater opportunities for her own children.

The executive director of UNFPA, Babatunde Osotimehin, will formally launch the report tomorrow.