Reproductive health rights are broadly defined as the right of all people, without regard to gender identity, sexual orientation, age, race or socioeconomic status, to access information and care pertaining to their sexual and reproductive health; however, there is no universally accepted definition. These rights can include access to contraception, testing and treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, safe pregnancy, labor and delivery, sexual and reproductive health education, and protection against gender discrimination and violence. Ensuring reproductive and sexual rights are considered pivotally important in achieving gender equality for women.
Statistics
According to the World Population Foundation, every minute a woman dies somewhere in pregnancy or childbirth; 20 times more survive but suffer from serious disease, disability or physical damage from complications. As many as one-third of all women have been beaten or coerced into sex or abused in some way, usually by someone they know. Every 14 seconds a young person is infected with HIV. Two million girls are at risk of female genital mutilation annually.
Proclamation at Teheran
The first document establishing sexual and reproductive rights on an international level was the Proclamation at Teheran in 1968. The document, composed at the First International Conference on Human Rights, recognized the right of parents "to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children." Specific rights, such as the right to access contraception and abortion, were not detailed.
International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)
Reproductive health and rights were first defined in 1994 at the ICPD, held in Cairo, Egypt. The Programme of Action states "Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. It implies that people have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this is the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility, which are not against the law, and the right of access to health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth."
Fourth World Conference on Women
The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, produced a "Declaration and Platform of Action." The platform of action highlighted the need to acknowledge that differences in "men and women's achievements and activities ... as the consequences of socially constructed gender roles rather than immutable biological differences" and called for non-gender-biased curricula and teaching materials as well as the removal of barriers to sexual and reproductive health education. The Beijing document also expanded the definition of reproductive rights to include sexual health rights, stating "Reproductive health ... also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations, and not merely counseling and care related to reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases."
Exercising Rights
Reproductive health rights are also understood to include the right to exercise reproductive rights free of discrimination, coercion and violence. The World Population Foundation cites shortage of funding, religious and cultural barriers to accurate information (including the Vatican ban on condoms), limited access to contraception in the developing world and unsafe abortion as continued blocks to all people exercising their reproductive rights.
