Population: Pregnant woman dies every minute

A woman dies every minute from pregnancy-related problems, largely because of a lack of adequate contraception, according to the latest United Nations Population Fund Report.

Many women were coerced or pressured into pregnancy, or simply had no way of preventing it, The State of World Population, found. It concluded that up to 150 million more women would use birth control if it was available and that at least 75 million pregnancies each year are unwanted. "For many women, denial of sexual and reproductive rights is a matter of life or death," said Dr Nafis Sadik, executive director of the UN Population Fund.

She said there had been a decrease in the rate of growth in the world's population and was confident it would stabilise at about eight billion by 2050, instead of the projected 11 billion.