Why are sexual and reproductive health and rights important
The presence or absence of rights relating to sexuality and reproduction has a huge impact on how people live and die, on their physical security, bodily integrity, health, education, mobility, social and economic status and other factors that relate to poverty. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) fail to provide a specific goal relating to sexual and reproductive health and rights. However, as the following examples illustrate, sexual rights and reproductive health underpin the other goals relating to gender equality, maternal health, HIV and AIDS and poverty alleviation, and are crucial to the achievement of the goals overall (UNFPA).
Ensuring maternal health and safe motherhood
Women often lack the rights or the opportunities to make choices around reproduction. Population control polices, pressure from family members, and social and cultural norms may restrict their options. In many countries, women have difficulty accessing family planning services (Marie Stopes International). Cost, illegality or stigma around abortion can also make it very difficult for women to access abortion services. A cultural preference for sons may encourage women to terminate pregnancies when the foetus is female, or engage in female infanticide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 19 million women have unsafe abortions and 68,000 women and girls die from these botched and unsanitary procedures each year (WHO). Other groups such as HIV positive people face pressure not to have children, rather than being able to make an informed choice and receiving the necessary support to safeguard their own and their children's health (IPPF).
Preventing sexual and gender-based violence
In many societies, women have limited opportunities to establish their own households and live alone, or to pursue sexual relationships outside marriage. Men also experience pressure to marry and have families. Meanwhile, violence in the context of sexual relationships (intimate partner violence) is common across the world, and marital rape continues to be unrecognised by many legal systems. Due to gender inequalities, and lack of negotiating power, women are more likely to be at the receiving end of such violence (Population Council). This also places them at greater risk of sexually transmitted infections including HIV (The links between violence against women and HIV and AIDS). In addition, intimate partner violence has been shown to have an adverse effect on reproductive health (Mayhew).
People who do not marry or conform to accepted forms of heterosexual behaviour also face discrimination and violence; indeed, some sexual violence is rooted in homophobia (fear or hatred of homosexuality). The impacts of such discrimination are wide-reaching. One study in Bangladesh showed that "feminine" boys were more likely to be bullied in school, drop out and end up in poverty (Gosine). Homophobic violence can lead to death: in October 2004, in Sierra Leone, Fannyann Viola Eddy, founder of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association, was brutally raped and murdered (Lang, p16).
Ending genital mutilation
Gender discrimination is literally embodied through practices of genital mutilation (also known as female genital cutting) of girl children in some parts of Africa and the Middle East. These practices prevent the girls affected from enjoying a healthy and satisfying sexual life, and also have a negative impact on their reproductive health, increasing the chance of life-threatening complications and infections, especially during pregnancy (Masterson). In many parts of the world, the 1 in 500 babies who are born with ambiguously sexed genitals (intersex) may be assigned a sex through surgery, with similarly negative consequences for their psychological and physical well-being.
Recommended readings
