Beijing Platform for Action. Chapter IV. C. Women and Health – Paragraph 97
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/10/25
97. Further, women are subject to particular health risks due to inadequate responsiveness and lack of services to meet health needs related to sexuality and reproduction. Complications related to pregnancy and childbirth are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity of women of reproductive age in many parts of the developing world. Similar problems exist to a certain degree in some countries with economies in transition. Unsafe abortions threaten the lives of a large number of women, representing a grave public health problem as it is primarily the poorest and youngest who take the highest risk. Most of these deaths, health problems and injuries are preventable through improved access to adequate health-care services, including safe and effective family planning methods and emergency obstetric care, recognizing the right of women and men 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 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. These problems and means should be addressed on the basis of the report of the International Conference on Population and Development, with particular reference to relevant paragraphs of the Programme of Action of the Conference./14 In most countries, the neglect of women’s reproductive rights severely limits their opportunities in public and private life, including opportunities for education and economic and political empowerment. The ability of women to control their own fertility forms an important basis for the enjoyment of other rights. Shared responsibility between women and men in matters related to sexual and reproductive behaviour is also essential to improving women’s health.
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Women continue to be subject to a set of adverse health outcomes, which were even worse in 1995 and still bad. It can be split via the demographics too. Some are worse off a general rule. For instance, we can see the problems of mortality and morbidity with the larger numbers of young women and poor women.
The problem comes from a culture of apathy in some ways. But this can be reflected in “inadequate responsiveness,” in the case of the services existing but can also simply not exist. This is a problem, especially for women of reproductive age, in several areas of the continually developing world.
The various forms of death or injury that can result from inadequate or poorly timed care for a pregnant or birthing woman are real. One of the biggest violations of bodily autonomy through lack of provisions is the restriction on abortions for women.
It is about as consequential a choice women could ever make, which makes sense as a source of social and political control among the fundamentalist nations and the totalitarian states. Even to the present, thousands of women die every year and tens of thousands are injured because of unsafe abortions.
These are deaths and health problems, including internal injuries, due to activities such as abortion. It is necessary for the recognition of women as autonomous agents for the rights of women in these consequential areas to be respected.
This includes not only the promise of freedom but the mechanisms upon which to ensure their safe and equitable access to them, for example, abortion. The responsibility of the public services is to provide a safe and healthy transition from pregnancy to birth to motherhood.
However, this can be restricted and lead to highly negative outcomes for women who lack these medical and social services. Without these services, we can see the robust restrictions on the ability of women to pursue their proper life course.
Indeed, with the rights restricted in the public sphere, not only the private arenas, this amounts to fundamental violations of them as persons – worthy of dignity, respect, and autonomy – because of the violations there.
What does this imply for their long-term health and wellness in the final analysis?
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