86.9% of Egyptian women use family planning methods: CAPMAS

CAIRO – 28 May 2017: More than 86% of ever-married women aged (18-64 years) in urban areas use family planning methods compared with 85.2% in rural areas, said the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in a press release on the occasion of the International Day of Action for Woman's Health on Sunday.

The maternal mortality rate dropped to 49 women per 100,000 live births in 2015 compared to 52 women in 2013-2014 and the lowest percentage of female mortality was due to pregnancy and birth by 0.2%, the statement added.

The statement indicated that there is an increase in female's life expectancy at birth from 70.5 years in 2009 to 73.3 years in 2016. Despite this increase, female mortality increased from 5.6 per 1000 females in 2008 to 5.8 in 2012 and it reached 6.0 in 2015 due to circulatory system diseases in 2015.

A total of 84.1% of women in urban areas (18-64 years) had Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) performed on them, comparing to 94.1% in rural areas.

The international Day of Action for Women’s Health (May 28) is a dedicate day for women’s rights advocates and allies to advocate for ending human rights abuses and promoting women access to comprehensive, respectful, and rights based maternal health care as well as promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) worldwide . This agenda comes in conjunction with the Sustainable development Goal 5 on Gender Equality that aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by affording equal rights to economic resources such as land and property and access to sexual and reproductive health

For more information on the story of the International Day of Action for Women’s Health, see the below video: