Reproductive Health and Rights of Young Women in Ethiopia: The Need for Sexual Health Education

Tizta T. Degfie, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Fenot Project
Bereket Yakob, Harvard School of Public Health

Access to reproductive health services for young women is limited in developing countries and their rights for quality reproductive and sexual health are violated. This study assesses the use of reproductive health services among young women (age 15-24) using the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2016. Nearly 24% of maternal deaths occur among young women. The descriptive statistics show some of the important reproductive health indicators: unmet need for family planning, 19.5%; contraceptive prevalence rate, 35%; and unintended pregnancy (wanted later or wanted not at all), 48% among young women. The observed differences in SRH services utilization by residence, wealth quintiles and gender indicate that young women are unfairly disprevilaged and their reproductive health and rights rights are not met in Ethiopia. Lack of focus in SRH services for young women may be considered as denying for their SRH rights.