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Family planning prevents maternal deaths due to pregnancy complications (including unsafe abortion, which accounts for 13% of maternal deaths worldwide). Each year, 50 million women seek pregnancy termination, which remains illegal and unsafe in many countries. To estimate the effect of satisfying the unmet need for contraception, information from the Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group database, the UN World Contraceptive Use 2010 database, and the UN World Population Prospects 2010 database was used to model maternal deaths averted by contraceptive use in 172 countries. The researchers then modeled the number of additional maternal deaths that could be averted if the global need for contraception were met.
These models estimat…