Almost 90 percent of all women in Zimbabwe lack health insurance(Zimbabwe,268). Most
are undereducated or underemployed, and only have access to maternal and contraceptive
care via public clinics. Since 2008, the health climate in the country has declined socially,
economically, and structurally; there are only 1.6 physicians for every 10,000 people in
Zimbabwe as of 2010 (WHO,1).There is a large lack of family planning services in both
rural and urban areas, which could lead to unintended pregnancies and induced
terminations. Particularly, women who do not use modern forms of contraception, have
fewer assets, less education, and live in rural areas are more susceptible to having
unplanned pregnancies (Clements,2). In 2014, 52% of women in Zimbabwe with unplanned
pregnancies did not usually use any form of birth control (McCoy,6). Instead of carrying out
the unintended pregnancies, many of these women induce terminations at home or in
unsafe facilities due to lack of access to proper services (Johnson,3).This gap could be
bridged, which would fulfill the needs for contraception and consultation access, and
decrease the prevalence of induced terminations within the population. I chose to analyze
demographic and family planning related data in order to determine whether there was
unmet need for these services within the country, what gaps existed in the current
healthcare, and how best to address these gaps to provide better family planning services
to women in need. To guide my analysis, I hypothesize that women who live in rural areas
are more likely to have unmet need- Women with limited contraception are more likely to
have induced terminations.