Rising Birth Control Access Seen Easing Women’s Lives

GENEVA —  Human sexual intercourse takes place more than 100 million times daily, resulting in nearly 1 million conceptions and about 350,000 cases of sexually transmitted diseases, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

About 150,000 unwanted pregnancies end every day in abortion, the U.N. health agency said. On average, one woman dies each minute worldwide because of complications during pregnancy or childbirth.

But the agency’s report, “Reproductive Health, a Key to a Brighter Future,” said that access to contraception has increased rapidly in the past few decades, giving women more control over their bodies and their lives.

“Without fertility regulation, women’s rights are mere words,” the report said. “A woman who has no control over her fertility cannot complete her education, cannot maintain gainful employment . . . and has very few real choices open to her.”

The report says that about 381 million people used contraception in Third World countries in 1985-90, up from only 31 million in 1960-65. The biggest rise has been in East Asia, where contraceptive use is higher than in industrialized nations.

WHO says couples in industrialized nations use contraception in about 70% of all sexual acts.

Women in developing countries had on average 3.9 children in 1985-90 compared with 6.1 in 1965-70, WHO says.

“The progress has really been quite striking over the past few decades,” said Dr. Mahmoud Fathalla, author of the report.

WHO described the 170-page document as the most comprehensive international study to date of reproductive health. It was based on information provided by medical institutes around the world.

Fathalla said the figure of 1 million conceptions is calculated from health data on the number of live births in the world. The 100 million sex acts is based on a 1-in-100 fecundity ratio derived from long-accepted statistics, he said. The 100 million includes sex where contraceptives were used.

The report says female sterilization is the most widespread form of contraception, accounting for 26% of all contraception. This is followed by male sterilization with 19% and oral contraception, 15%.

In industrialized countries, use of condoms is much higher than in the Third World. Condoms are most popular in Japan, accounting there for nearly 70% of all contraception.