Spotlight on CSDE Affiliate, Jacqueline Darroch
Posted: 9/28/2020 (CSDE Research)
Dr. Jacqueline E. Darroch is a senior fellow at the Guttmacher Institute. She is the author or coauthor of more than 100 articles and publications on sexual behavior, fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, teenage pregnancy and abortion. Recently, Dr. Darroch, along with co-authors, published a report titled “Adding It Up: Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health 2019” on the unmet need for contraception in low and middle-income countries.
The study documents the sexual and reproductive health needs of 1.6 billion women of reproductive age (15–49) in 2019, the positive impacts of meeting those needs, and the costs associated with improving and expanding services. They estimate that 218 million women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have an unmet need for modern contraception. In the 132 countries that they study, the need is disproportionately high among adolescents aged 15–19 who want to avoid a pregnancy (43%, compared with 24% among all women aged 15–49).