An Analysis of Reproductive Health Components in Yemen‪.‬

Introduction Over the last five decades, efforts to control global population growth have focused on family planning policies and programs. Since the 2004 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), (1) demographic studies on understanding fertility-controlling behavior have concentrated on reproductive health. The 2004 ICPD broadened the narrow view of population control to include individual health by asserting that population growth could be managed through the economic, political, and social advancement of women. (2) This parallels the recent shift in focus of population control studies from limiting family size to improving women's health and protecting human rights. (3) Despite this change, fertility-controlling behavior has yet to be thoroughly investigated in many countries. One such example is the People's Republic of Yemen. To be sure, some demographic studies have tried to unravel the complex fertility condition in the Middle East. (4) But these studies have neglected several countries in the region primarily due to the lack of availability of national data. This study attempts to address this gap in the literature by focusing on three factors in the continuum of the reproductive process (age at marriage, contraceptive use, and abortion/miscarriage) to understand the fertility-controlling behavior of Yemeni women.