West Africa: West and Central Africans Support Women's Autonomy and Sexuality Education, but Are Divided On Contraceptive Access and Abortion

16 September 2026
Afrobarometer (Accra)
By Maame Akua Amoah Twum and Komi Amewunou

Majorities say women should be able to make their own choices regarding marriage and childbearing.

Key findings

  • On average across 18 West and Central African countries, more than seven in 10 respondents (72%) say that girls and women should be able to decide for themselves whether and when to get married.
  • o A slimmer majority (53%) believe they should be able to decide how many children to have and when to have them.
  • o Support for women's autonomy in marriage-related decisions is the majority view in all surveyed countries except Mali (35%). It approaches nine in 10 respondents in São Tomé and Príncipe (88%), Cabo Verde (88%), and Togo (86%).
  • o Support for women's autonomy in marriage and childbearing decisions is more widespread among women, city residents, the wealthy, the more educated, and youth than among their respective counterparts.
  • Three-quarters (76%) of West and Central Africans - including majorities in all 18 surveyed countries - endorse the teaching of sexuality education in school.
  • An even larger majority (83%) - including at least seven in 10 respondents in all surveyed countries - say girls who get pregnant or have children should be allowed to continue their schooling.
  • But views are divided on who should have access to contraceptives. A slim majority (54%) say contraceptives should be made available to anyone who is sexually active regardless of marital status, while half (50%) endorse access to contraceptives regardless of age.
  • o Opinions on contraceptive access vary dramatically by country, from overwhelming support in Cabo Verde to overwhelming opposition in The Gambia.
  • o Access to contraceptives regardless of marital status and age wins greater support among women, more educated and wealthier citizens, urban residents, and youth than among their various counterparts.
  • A majority (63%) of West and Central Africans say abortion can "sometimes" or "always" be justified if the woman's health or life is at risk.
  • o Half (50%) say the same for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, while 46% disagree.
  • o Solid majorities say pregnancy termination is "never justified" in cases where the woman is economically unable to care for a child (62%) or where she doesn't want the pregnancy for any reason (65%).
  • Compared to Christians and citizens of another or no religious faith, Muslims are consistently less likely to support women's autonomy, sexuality education, keeping pregnant girls in school, and unfettered access to contraceptives, and less likely to see abortion as justified.

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West and Central Africa face significant sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) challenges. The region combines high fertility with unmet need for modern contraception, helping to give sub-Saharan Africa the highest unintended-pregnancy rate of any world region. At the same time, restrictive abortion laws and barriers to reproductive health services limit women's and girls' ability to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive lives (Guttmacher Institute, 2022; Bankole, Remez, Owolabi, Philbin, & Williams, 2020).

These challenges are shaped by social, economic, political, and religious contexts that vary considerably across countries. In parts of the Sahel, early marriage, a preference for large families, girls' limited access to education, poverty, insecurity, displacement, and weak access to health services reinforce barriers to reproductive autonomy. Humanitarian crises add pressure on already-constrained health systems. Across the nine countries of the Ouagadougou Partnership, for example, an estimated 17 million people were expected to require humanitarian assistance in 2024, including 4.25 million girls and women of reproductive age (Women's Refugee Commission, 2024).

Yet the regional picture is not one of stagnation. The Ouagadougou Partnership, established in 2011 to accelerate access to family planning in francophone West Africa, added more than 4 million modern-contraceptive users between 2011 and 2021 and is estimated to have averted nearly 18.9 million unintended pregnancies and 63,740 maternal deaths (Women's Refugee Commission, 2024). The region has also seen greater political coordination around adolescent SRHR. In 2023, ministers of education and health from 25 countries endorsed the West and Central Africa Commitment for Educated, Healthy and Thriving Adolescents and Young People, which calls for greater access to comprehensive sexuality education and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services (UNESCO, 2023).

However, progress in translating political commitments into practice has been uneven. Sexuality education has met with political and religious resistance in some countries; integration has sometimes been only partial. Mali's experience illustrates the sensitivity of the issue: Efforts to expand sexuality education encountered strong opposition in 2018, contributing to the government's decision to withdraw a sexuality-education textbook (Cone & Lamarche, 2021).

But religious and community leaders are not always barriers to SRHR. Research by the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative, for example, found that exposure to family planning messages from religious leaders was associated with greater use of modern contraception, suggesting that religious leaders can play an important role in shaping positive social norms around family planning (Adedini et al., 2018).

The latest Afrobarometer surveys, conducted between January 2024 and September 2025 in 38 African countries, included for the first time a special module on SRHR, probing citizens' views on women's bodily autonomy, contraceptive access, sexuality education, continued schooling for pregnant girls and young mothers, and abortion.

An analysis of findings from 18 countries in West and Central Africa1 shows widespread support for women's right to decide when to marry and have children, for sexuality education in schools, and for pregnant girls' and young mothers' continued education. Views on contraceptive access and abortion are more divided. Support for SRHR principles varies widely by country but is consistently stronger among urban, wealthier, more educated, younger, and Christian respondents than among their rural, poorer, less-educated, older, and Muslim counterparts.

Maame Akua Amoah Twum Maame Akua is the communications manager at Afrobarometer

Komi Amewunou Komi Amewunou is an editor at Afrobarometer.

Read the original article on Afrobarometer.

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