WHY FAMILY PLANNING NEEDS OF RURAL WOMEN CAN NO LONGER BE IGNORED.

Access to safe, accurate, high quality, affordable, acceptable and voluntary family planning is a basic human right yet thousands of young girls and women who want to avoid pregnancy in Kenya’s rural areas lack access to family planning information and services. Women and girls living in rural areas are usually at risk because they are usually denied basic reproductive health and rights services and information. They are forced to carry pregnancies, give birth in dangerous circumstances, and in many places women are sterilized without their informed consent or even knowledge.

Limited access to reproductive health services, gender inequality, stock outs, distance to health point, cultural norms, and lack of skilled service providers are some of the barriers to accessing family planning services in rural areas and have led to them having poor health outcomes.