Reproductive Rights of Women Around the World

Tessa Huber

Reproductive Rights of Women Around the World

            Women around the world are constantly faced with violations of their reproductive rights. Reproductive rights can also be known as human rights for women and they include contraception, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, and care during pregnancy. This paper will discuss the many different issues regarding reproductive rights that women face including all of the topics that surround reproductive health, as well as some of the things that have and will be done to improve conditions for women around the world.

            There are many different definitions of what reproductive rights really are. Reproductive rights include: the right to reproductive healthcare, abortion, access to contraceptives and family planning. Reproductive health includes everything that relates to reproduction, for instance safe motherhood, preventing and treating sexually transmitted diseases, avoiding unwanted pregnancies, and promoting responsible sexual behavior (Chikam, 2011). Many women are denied reproductive health care because of their race or where they live. Women of color are usually at a disadvantage compared to white women (Addressing, 2012). Reproductive health care includes many different things such having the ability to be treated for STDs and receiving both prenatal and postnatal care after child birth.

Another issue that women all around the world face is the lack of pre- and postnatal care. Maternal mortality is more common in underdeveloped areas of the world such as Afghanistan and Africa, but it also occurs in the United States. One out of every six Afghan women, along with one out of every twenty-two African women die each year due to pregnancy complications, whereas only one out of every 3800 women in the united kingdom lose their life from the same complications (Repro Rights, 2012). In one instance, a six month old pregnant woman was not feeling well and she attempted to go to a clinic in Rio de Janeiro, but was denied help. This woman died one week later due to not receiving prenatal care during her pregnancy (Repro Rights, 2012). Many women do not even have the opportunity to receive maternal health care because of financial burdens. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has attempted to get the U.S. to reduce the standards for Medicaid eligibility in order for more women to meet the requirements so they can gain access to maternal health care (Addressing, 2012). Despite all the progress made towards the equality of the people despite their race, there is still some racial discrimination when it comes to health care. African women are three to four more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth. These rates are often due to the lack of prenatal care that is offered to African women (Addressing, 2012).

Sexually transmitted infections and diseases are more common in minority groups and in underdeveloped countries. Almost every minority group has higher rates of these infections and diseases compared to white Americans. For example, in the United States, although African Americans and Latinas represent only 25 percent of the women in the country, they are reported to have the highest numbers, 80 percent, of the reported HIV and AIDS diagnoses in the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have conducted studies that have shown that those women who do receive such care are far less likely have harmful outcomes after pregnancy and have a less chance of maternal mortality (Addressing, 2012). These statistics are proof that there is discrimination against not only women, but women of color in the healthcare system. More proof includes the fact that even though women of color have increased rates of death due to cervical cancer, they are less likely to receive routine physical exams that include pap smears (Addressing, 2012).

            Young women are also affected by the lack of access to reproductive healthcare. In school, kids are taught primarily about abstinence only sex education, instead of getting information on how to gain access to contraceptives and lack of contraceptives lead to unplanned pregnancies. When young girls are still living under their parents’ roof and are supposed to be following their rules, finding information and getting contraception can be scary and challenging. Many conservative politicians favor this abstinence only sex education offered in schools, but this more often than not ends with teenagers being uninformed about the facts and they are not prepared to protect themselves again unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (Reproductive Justice, 2012).  

            Many women around the world are denied access to contraception for a variety of different reasons. It may be based on their religious, cultural, or family values, and it may just be illegal in general. Some government members have thought in the past that by not allowing women to receive contraceptives, that the amount of immoral activity would decline (Repro Rights, 2012). Many pharmacists will not even provide prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraceptives which deny women the right to family planning.  Denying contraception can lead to approximately 76 million unplanned pregnancies a year (Background, 2012). In the United States, by allowing women the right to access contraception, it has been proven that the number of unplanned pregnancies decreases and it also helps limit family size and timing between children. Also, emergency contraception allows women to reduce their risk of pregnancy after unprotected sex or rape. Providing easy access to contraception for women in other countries around the world could help reduce their numbers of unplanned pregnancy, and in turn reduce the amount of famine and poverty due to overpopulation and large family sizes (Reproductive Justice, 2012).  Contraception may also decrease the number of unsafe abortions that are performed each year globally.

A study done in 2010 estimated that there are nearly 42 million abortions worldwide yearly. This means that nearly one in every five pregnancies ends in abortion (Background, 2012). Unplanned pregnancies all around the world end in abortion whether or not it is legal in that area. Even in the United States, nearly 50 percent of unplanned pregnancies result in abortion no matter what the race, and African American women, who are three times more likely to have an unplanned pregnancy, are also three times more likely to terminate pregnancy through abortion (Addressing, 2012). Abortion is often times legal if it is to save a women’s life. A Polish woman discovered that she would lose her sight if she carried on with her pregnancy. Because her doctors did not see this issue as “life threatening,” she was denied access to an abortion and is now blind (Repro Rights, 2012).

Abortion had been legal in the United States up until the latter half of the 19^th century. Since then, many different acts have been done on both sides to either promote or ban abortion indefinitely. These acts have made it very difficult for women to utilize their right of choice and get an abortion in the United States, making it questionable how hard it would be to get an abortion in another country where religion may come more into play as well (Background, 2012). These acts have gone back and forth by restricting abortion to circumstances where it is medically necessary, to banning abortion completely, and then back again to restricting access (Reproductive Rights, 2004). By legally denying abortion to women, it does not make them any less likely to undergo the procedure. Instead it is just made very unsafe (Background, 2012).

            The international community recently reviewed the past ten years of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). The group recognized many significant steps that could be made towards achieving many of these goals. The fifth goal—to improve maternal health—has made the least progress, with 350,000 women still dying annually of pregnancy related causes (Protocol, 2011). The MDG is concerned with the outcome and slow progress being made on reducing maternal mortality. While greater progress has been made with regard to MDG 6—to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, and MDG 3—to promote gender equality, progress in these goal areas is still limited. Despite global progress in reducing maternal mortality, the impact of HIV/AIDS has slowed reductions in maternal mortality and, in some countries, increased maternal mortality. HIV contributed to an additional 64,100 maternal deaths globally in 2006 (Protocol, 2011). AIDS related morbidity and mortality, including maternal mortality, undermine women’s ability to realize their equality by excluding them from education and employment. Women in Africa, who are especially vulnerable, will bear a disproportionate burned of these failures (Protocol, 2011).

According to the article, “The African Women’s Protocol: Bringing Attention to Reproductive Rights and the MDG’s,” The United Nations Population Fund outlines three components of reproductive rights: the right to control sexual and reproductive lives, the right to non-discrimination, and the right to reproductive health care. This creates a framework that supports women’s rights to insist and engage in safer sex and to access comprehensive and accurate information on HIV/AIDS and family planning and comprehensive reproductive health care, which includes termination of pregnancy and post-abortion care. Reproductive rights ensure that women can control their fertility. The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action remains a foundation vision for women’s reproductive health, committing the 179 participating nations to the achievement of universal and equal access to reproductive health by 2015 (Protocol, 2011).

            Reproductive rights include the right to choose to have, or not have, children as well as to control one's reproductive decisions. Women around the world are constantly faced with violations of their reproductive rights. Societies pass laws regulating issues of reproduction to reflect their economic, political, and religious values and traditions. Reproductive rights vary in different countries around the world. Supporters of reproductive rights for women, agree that safe and reliable contraception and abortion are both essential to the overall level of women’s health and that control over reproductive choices is fundamental for women's social, political, and economic status.  

              

Works Cited

Addressing Disparities in Reproductive and Sexual Health Care in the U.S. (2012). ReproductivgRights.org. Retrieved from http://reproductiverights.org/en/node/861.

Background on Reproductive Rights. (2012). DoSomething.org. Retrieved from http://www.dosomething.org/actnow/tipsandtools/background-reproductive-rights.

Chikam, Ifemeje Sylvia.(2011). Legalization of marital rape in Nigeria: a gross violation of women’s health and reproductive rights. Ebsco Host. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail ?sid= 88c6a158-4425-40e6ab-ce3cf3609b59%40sessionmgr4 &vid=3&hid=24&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbG12ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=61353273.

Gibbs, Andrew. (2011). The African Women’s Protocol: Bringing Attention to Reproductive Rights and the MDGs. Ebsco Host. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/ detail?sid= 5fb5939b-553d-4b89-8b35-e5203b7426d9%40sessionmgr13&vid=3&hid=24&bdata= JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ %3d%3d#db=aph&AN=64287973.

Repro Rights Are Human Rights. (2012). ReproductivgRights.org. Retrieved from  http://reproductiverights.org/en/feature/repro-rights-are-human-rights.

Reproductive Rights Historical Highlights. (2004). Now.org. Retrieved from http://www.now.org/issues/abortion/roe30/timeline.html.

Reproductive Justice is Every Woman’s Right. (2012).  Now.org. Retrieved from http://www.now.org/issues/abortion/reproductive_justice.html.