It's true that we know that nearly one-third of women in low- and middle-income countries begin child-bearing in their adolescence, age 19 and younger. This has implications in terms of consent and in terms of how a girl navigates her adolescence safely, often in the absence of comprehensive sexuality education that would be protective to her. Every year, there are an estimated 21 million pregnancies among girls aged 15 to 19 in low- and middle-income countries, nearly half of these being unintended. A significant number end up in abortion, and the majority of those abortions are in unsafe conditions.
The correlation with the difficulty of providing modern contraception to meet the unmet need is partly an adolescent issue. It's also an issue of prioritization, because studies have repeatedly shown the value of women who understand very well the costs of raising children and who want to space their children appropriately. Still, the ability to provide contraception in a regular way means that, in a biological process, you have to have a guarantee that logistics systems will be there to support the women, as well as cost and affordability.
I'm not sure if I'm out of time, but I just want to quickly add that the other issue is that the budgeting domestically for contraception is an area that UNFPA works avidly on, because this is of import in a place like Niger, for example, with an average fertility rate of seven children per woman. There is political will there in that government, and there is also strong leadership by traditional systems, including the religious chiefs, to feature family planning as a life-saving manoeuver because of the prevalence of death during childbirth in the least developed countries.
Thank you.