There’s a war against sexual & reproductive health rights. Here’s what’s happening

This blog was last updated on June 30, 2022.

 

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The good news:

— Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Biden has vowed to do all in his power to protect abortion rights in states where there will be restrictions and total bans. He says he will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to help all Americans access contraception.

— Colorado has become the 22nd state to protect abortion rights. The governor signed the Reproductive Health Equity Act on April 4, which also prohibits local entities (cities, towns, counties etc.) from implementing their own restrictions. In light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, health care providers are anticipating an increase in out-of-state patients in need of abortion services.

— Another woman in El Salvador named Maritza, who was charged for murder after an accusation of having had a suspected abortion, has been freed from prison after serving 13 years of her 30-year sentence. Like Maritza, five other women in El Salvador have also been released from prison for being accused of having abortions, after experiencing miscarriages, stillbirths or emergency out-of-hospital births.

— Colombia has legalized abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. Access to abortion in the country has been severely limited in the past, but girls’ and women’s rights activists have been fighting for their reproductive freedom for years, leading to this victory.

— Activists in India are petitioning the Delhi High Court to make marital rape a crime, and the court is now expected to rule within the coming months. (Marital rape is currently still legal in India).

 

The bad news:

— The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24 in a 6-3 decision, going back on the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in 1973. Abortion rights will now be determined by individual states, and nearly half of all states are expected to outlaw or severely restrict abortion.

— On May 19, the Oklahoma Legislature passed one of the strictest abortion bans in the U.S. The bill bans abortion from the stage of “fertilization” and allows citizens to sue health care providers who perform abortions.

— Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest. The law will take effect on July 1.

— In conflict-affected regions of Ethiopia, a recent report shows that sexual violence against girls and women is being used as a weapon of war by Tigrayan forces.

— In Rwanda, the supreme court has upheld policies that only allow physicians to perform abortions. There is one physician for every 15,810 people in the country, and the majority of health care providers are nurses and midwives. Access to reproductive health care is now even more limited for millions of girls and women, and half of all abortions are happening in unsafe and sometimes life-threatening circumstances.

 

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Bodily autonomy: getting to decide for yourself what happens to your own body. It seems like a simple enough concept, and something that should exist as a basic human right. But instead of a right, bodily autonomy has become more of a privilege — especially for girls and young women. Their freedom from violence and freedom of choice have become political.

Just participating in society — like walking down the street, using public transportation, going to school or working at your job — can result in experiencing sexual assault for millions of girls and young women. Fatmata, a young advocate from Sierra Leone, says, “In the community in which I live, most of the men [assault] women. It has happened to my friends, and I almost witnessed it once myself. I heard a girl screaming, but by the time I found her the perpetrator had already fled. The woman was a fruit seller who was raped by a customer. That is what made me commit to the [fight] against sexual violence.”

Fatmata, a girl from Sierra Leone.
Fatmata is locally known as “The Malala of her community.”

Though marriage is often considered a protection mechanism from sexual violence in many countries, married girls and women can be at even greater risk within the walls of their own homes. Sylvia from South Sudan says she was married off at 14, but when she moved in with her husband, she faced severe abuse from him — all while carrying their baby.

Sylvia, a young woman from South Sudan.
Sylvia received support from Plan International at a women’s center, where she reported her husband so that he could be put on trial. She has received psychosocial support and visits the women’s center every week to meet with other girls and women who have been abused. She says those connections and friendships are helping heal her emotional wounds.

And in conflict settings, girls are being forcing to engage in “transactional sex” for food or money in order to keep themselves and their families alive. In Kenya, where millions of people are grappling with hunger and thirst due to drought, girls and women are resorting to these extreme survival tactics. Many public transportation workers are targeting vulnerable young girls, offering them food in exchange for their bodies. Young girls are ending up with unwanted pregnancies or sexually-transmitted diseases.

Halima, a girl from Kenya.
Halima, age 15, stands in the doorway of her school in Kenya.

“This year has been the toughest year ever for girls, as the lack of water and food makes some girls offer sexual activities in exchange for [menstrual] pads, food and clean water,” Halima from Kenya says.

This combination of violence and exploitation is on the rise all around the world, and it adds a massive barrier to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Millions of girls and women cannot access health services like: treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; sexual education and information; or contraception that allows them to choose when and if to have children.

Mercy from Kenya says she was never taught in school or by her parents that you can get pregnant by having sex. And when she was 13, she woke up one day and felt something moving inside her stomach. She’d been carrying her child for five months without knowing it. “In school, teachers should talk about safe sex,” she says. “They can’t just say, ‘Don’t do it.’ [Students] should be given contraception.”

Mercy from Kenya, with her 3-year-old son, Rama.
Mercy with her 3-year-old son, Rama.

“If you’re pregnant here in Kenya, they tell you, ‘You’re a mother. You’re not a pupil. What are you doing at school?’” Mercy says. “They make you feel inferior — like you don’t belong.”

The stigma around sexual and reproductive health is why many girls like Mercy can’t access the right information. Anne, a Plan health program coordinator in Papua New Guinea, said in a 2018 interview that sexual and reproductive health care and information is extremely difficult to make available in a culture where just talking about sex is taboo.

“There’s a big need for sexual reproductive health services here,” Anne says. “The main issues are HIV, lack of family planning and unwanted pregnancy. Many other health workers grew up in the church, and so they’re caught in between their religious values. That’s what holds them back from speaking freely and confidently about family planning and condom use … I’m a Catholic myself, but I’ve seen the reality of the issues. People need these services.”

Anne, a health worker in Papua New Guinea.
“We don’t get a lot of support, and we often need to keep pushing and keep pushing and finding another way around problems,” Anne says. “But we get there.”

These combinations of problems are systemic, and they’re perpetuating generational poverty. But when we understand the realities of what’s happening right now, we can work together to advocate for change.

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Mercy and Sylvia’s names have been changed to protect their identities.