Guatemalan Health Care System Fails Women

While Guatemalan women increasingly want smaller families, their levels of contraceptive knowledge and use remain low, especially among the country’s poor and rural populations. Two new studies published in International Family Planning Perspectives outline urgent next steps for health care providers to help women get the contraceptive information they need to avoid becoming one of the 65,000 Guatemalan women who have an unsafe abortion each year, and the even larger number who have an unplanned birth.

According to “Induced Abortion and Unintended Pregnancy in Guatemala,” by Susheela Singh of the Guttmacher Institute et al., abortion is prevalent in Guatemala although it is legal only to save a woman’s life. National estimates, available for the first time, show that about one in three pregnancies are unintended and that one abortion occurs for every six births.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3213606.html

In “Internal Migration and Contraceptive Knowledge and Use in Guatemala,” authors David P. Lindstrom of Brown University and Coralia Herrera Hernández of El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City, analyze findings from Ladino and Mayan men and women to determine the relationships between moving to an urban area and a woman’s likelihood of using modern contraceptives. The analysis finds that over time, the negative association between being a rural-to-urban migrant and possessing information about modern contraceptives fades, suggesting that as rural women adapt to new environments, they also gain knowledge of contraception.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3214606.html

Also in this issue:

Adolescents in the Philippines typically wait about one year after their first crush or date before having sex for the first time. In “Before First Sex: Gender Differences in Emotional Relationships and Physical Behaviors Among Adolescents in the Philippines,” authors Ushma D. Upadhyay of Johns Hopkins University et al. analyze survey data from more than 2,000 17–19-year-olds in Cebu and find that although young men often become sexually active at a younger age than young women, men and women become emotionally invested in relationships at around the same age. They recommend that young people be armed before they start having sex with the information they need to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3211006.html

Unintended pregnancy and not son preference underlie the demand for abortion in India as a whole, according to nationally representative survey data analyzed in “Maternal and Social Factors Associated with Abortion in India: A Population-Based Study,” by Saseendran Pallikadavath and R. William Stones of the University of Southampton, United Kingdom. In addition, women in rural areas have a reduced risk of abortion, suggesting that access to services may influence India’s abortion rate. Though not a national-level predictor, son preference could play a role in certain Indian states, the authors suggest.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3212006.html

Some young women in Thailand are starting to have sex at younger ages, according to “Sexual Initiation, Substance Use, and Sexual Behavior and Knowledge Among Vocational Students in Northern Thailand,” by Alice Liu of Stanford University et al. The characteristics associated with young women starting to have sex at a young age include living away from the family, not having a confidant within the family, having smoked marijuana and a perception of high personal risk for sexually transmitted infections. These characteristics, the authors suggest, should be used to identify groups likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and most in need of outreach.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3212606.html