Enthusiasm for long-acting reversible contraception, or LARC, methods, including implants and intrauterine devices, has grown dramatically among development and public health practitioners in recent years. Given their differential burden of early and unintended pregnancy, much of the effort to expand access to and use of LARC methods has focused on adolescent girls and young women.

However, scholars and advocates have increasingly cautioned against treating these methods as a "one size fits all" approach to reducing unintended pregnancy, and by extension, reducing socioeconomic inequities and poverty.

The prevention of unintended pregnancy benefits a wide spectrum of social, health, and economic outcomes for girls, their families, and their communities. IUDs and implants are the most effective reversible contraceptive options currently available. There are no contraindications to their use based on age or parity, and they do not require daily or monthly adherence. For many women, their use is associated with only minimal side effects — particularly as duration of use increases — and there is an option for a nonhormonal method, or Copper T. LARC methods can also be more convenient than other methods, as they may require fewer trips to the pharmacy or health clinic ...

But a rights-based approach to contraception does not prioritize LARC as automatically preferable to other methods, and ensures that contraception programs do not creep towards manipulation and/or coercion to adopt LARC or contraception in general.

Read the full article about the rights-based approach to LARC by Sandra McCoy, Jenny Liu, Lauren Hunter, and Lauren Ralph at Devex International Development.