"Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence."[2]
Reproductive rights were first established as a subset of human rights at the United Nation's 1968 International Conference on Human Rights.[3] The sixteenth article of the resulting Proclamation of Teheran states, "Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children."[4][3]
In 1945, the UN Charter included the obligation "to promote... universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without discrimination as to race, sex, language, or religion". However, the Charter did not define these rights. Three years later, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first international legal document to delineate human rights. The UDHR does not mention reproductive rights, which were first recognised as a subset of human rights in the 1968 Proclamation of Teheran which "review the progress made in the twenty years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to formulate a programme for the future".
The Proclamation of Teheran states: "Parents have a basic right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and a right to adequate education and information in this respect".[4] This right was affirmed by the UN General Assembly in the 1974 Declaration on Social Progress and Development which states "The family as a basic unit of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members, particularly children and youth, should be assisted and protected so that it may fully assume its responsibilities within the community. Parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children."[3][8] The 1975 UN International Women's Year Conference echoed the Proclamation of Teheran. ((citation)): Empty citation (help)
a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and...not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this last condition are the right of men and women to be informed [about] and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant [para. 72].[1]
The Cairo Programme of Action was adopted by 184 UN member states.
Beijing Platform
The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and its Declaration and Platform for Action supported the Cairo Programme's definition of reproductive health, but established a broader context of reproductive rights:
The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behavior and its consequences [para. 96].[1]
The Beijing Platform demarcated twelve interrelated critical areas of the human rights of women that require advocacy. The Platform framed women's reproductive rights as "indivisible, universal and inalienable human rights."[9]
"reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international human rights documents and other relevant United Nations consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence as expressed in human rights documents. In the exercise of this right, they should take into account the needs of their living and future children and their responsibilities towards the community."[10]
The reproductive rights of women are advanced in the context of the right to freedom from discrimination and the social and economic status of women. The group Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) explained the link in the following statement:
Control over reproduction is a basic need and a basic right for all women. Linked as it is to women's health and social status, as well as the powerful social structures of religion, state control and administrative inertia, and private profit, it is from the perspective of poor women that this right can best be understood and affirmed. Women know that childbearing is a social, not a purely personal, phenomenon; nor do we deny that world population trends are likely to exert considerable pressure on resources and institutions by the end of this century. But our bodies have become a pawn in the struggles among states, religions, male heads of households, and private corporations. Programs that do not take the interests of women into account are unlikely to succeed...[3]
Attempts have been made to analyse the socioeconomic conditions that affect the realisation of a woman's reproductive rights. The term reproductive justice has been used to describe these broader social and economic issues. Proponents of reproductive justice argue that while the right to legalized abortion and contraception applies to everyone, these choices are only meaningful to those with resources, and that there is a growing gap between access and affordability.[citation needed][11]
Men's reproductive rights have been claimed by various organizations, both for issues of reproductive health, and other rights related to sexual reproduction.
Recently men's reproductive right with regards to paternity have become subject of debate in the U.S. The term Male abortion was coined by Melanie McCulley, a South Carolina attorney, in a 1998 article. The theory begins with the premise that when a woman becomes pregnant she has the option of abortion, adoption, or parenthood; it argues, in the context of legally recognized gender equality, that in the earliest stages of pregnancy the putative (alleged) father should have the right to relinquish all future parental rights and financial responsibility, leaving the informed mother with the same three options.[13]
In 2006, the National Center for Men brought a case in the US, Dubay v. Wells (dubbed by some Roe v. Wade for men), that argued that in the event of an unplanned pregnancy, when an unmarried woman informs a man that she is pregnant by him, he should have an opportunity to give up all paternity rights and responsibilities. Supporters argue that this would allow the woman time to make an informed decision and give men the same reproductive rights as women.[14][15] In its dismissal of the case, the U.S. Court of Appeals (Sixth Circuit) stated that "the Fourteenth Amendment does not deny to [the] State the power to treat different classes of persons in different ways."[16]
Reproductive rights issues
Abortion
In some countries, such as the United States, the term "reproductive rights" has become synonymous in many people's minds with "abortion rights". Of all sexual health topics, abortion is perhaps the most contentious. Despite taboos, abortion remains prevailent: each year, thirty-five of every one thousandwomen of reproductive age in the world have an abortion. Twenty percent of all pregnancies worlwide end in abortion, and nearly half of those abortions are unsafe and often illegal.[17]
Eugenics and population control
Reproductive rights are understood by some to include "the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence."[2] Compulsory or forced sterilization or abortion violate these rights, particularly when they occur in the context of eugenics programs. The Eugenics movement in North America and Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century led to the widespread forced sterilization of vulnerable populations, including the mentally or physically disabled. In the case of mentally or physically disabled women, proponents of compulsory sterilisation have argued that it is in the women's best interest.[18]Forced sterilization and forced abortion, as part of a widespread or systematic practices, have been viewed as crimes against humanity by the Rome Statute Explanatory Memorandum, which defines the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.[19][20]
Compulsory or forced sterilizations and abortions may also occur in the context of population control policies.
Fears of overpopulation have historically driven many reproductive health programs. The population control movement was effective throughout the later half of the twentieth century in implementing family planning programs that frequently used coercion to reduce total fertility levels. In the past decades, tension has grown between feminist women's health activists who advance women's reproductive rights as part of a human rights-based approach and the population control advocates whose chief goal was to cut fertility levels as much as possible.[21] At the 1984 UN World Population Conference in Mexico City population control policies came under attack from women's health advocates who argued that the policies' narrow focus led to coercion and decreased quality of care. Women's health advocates also argued that these policies ignored the varied social and cultural contexts in which family planning was provided in developing countries around the world. Reproductive rights activists argued that the right of women to choose how many children they have, regardless of whether such a decision is in conflict with population control programs or antiabortion policies. Women's health activists in particular have become more organised and vocal in response to what they considered unethical population control policies. In addition, in the 1980s the HIV/AIDS epidemic forced a broader discussion of sex into the public discourse in many countries, leading to more emphasis in development projects on reproductive health issues beyond access to contraception. This growing opposition to the narrow population control focus led to a significant departure in the early 1990s from past population control policies.[22]
^McCulley, Melanie G. (1998). The male abortion: the putative father's right to terminate his interests in and obligations to the unborn child. The Journal of Law and Policy, Vol. VII, No. 1.
^Traister, Rebecca. (March 13, 2006). "Roe for men?." Salon.com. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
