3.1.1  The extent of unwanted pregnancy

Adolescent pregnancy occurs in all societies, although the extent and consequences vary from place to place. According to WHO estimates, in the year 2007 slightly more than 10% of all births worldwide were to girls in late adolescence (15–19 years old), with over 90% of these births occurring in developing countries such as Ethiopia. Many sexually active unmarried young women experience a pregnancy which is both unplanned and unwanted. A study in Ethiopia in the year 2000 showed that more than half of all births to women under the age of 15 (i.e. those in early adolescence), and more than one in three births to women aged 15–24 were unintended.

The same study indicates that 37% of young women aged 15–24 have begun childbearing – 34% of mothers having at least one child. In general, the older the adolescent, the more likely they are to be pregnant; for example, teenage pregnancy and childbearing increases from 1% among women aged 15 to 40% among women aged 19. Teenage pregnancy is higher among rural women (3%) than urban women (2%) and is highest in the Oromiya Region (4%) and lowest in Addis Ababa (1%) (Youth Reproductive Health in Ethiopia, 2002).