Reproductive rights are a subset of human rights relating to sexual reproduction and reproductive health,^[1][2][3] often held to include the right to control one's reproductive functions, such as the right to reproduce (as in opposition to compulsory sterilization and forced contraception), as well as the right to not reproduce (including support for access to birth control and abortion), the rights to privacy, medical coverage, contraception, family planning and protection from discrimination, harassment and gender-oriented harm.

While the term is often associated with the pro-choice position,^{[citation needed]} which states that abortion should be a legal option for any pregnant woman, reproductive rights encompass more than the abortion issue. Reproductive rights first became an internationally-recognized subset of human rights at the United Nation's 1968 International Conference on Human Rights. The sixteenth article of the Proclamation of Tehran states, "Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children."^[1] Reproductive rights advocates work to secure affordable access to abortion, contraception, as well as education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization and contraception, for both men and women. In addition, reproductive rights advocates endeavor to protect all women from harmful gender-based practices. Examples include cultural practices such as female genital cutting, or FGC, as well as state, customary and religious laws that contribute to women's political and economic disenfranchisment. ^[2][1][3]

History of reproductive rights

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. While the UN declaration was the first international legal document to delineate human rights, it failed to mention reproductive rights. The first international document to mention reproductive rights as a subset of human rights was the Teheran Declaration, the Final Act of the UN's international rights conference. The Proclamation 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". This right was adopted by the UN General Assembly in the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, by the World Food Conference in Rome (1974), as well as parlimentarian conferences internationally. ^[1]

The international women's rights movement established itself with the 1975 International Women's Year Conference, the beginning of the UN's Decade for Women. Of the 1000-plus delegates at the 1975 Conference, 70 percent were women.^[1] Moving beyond the language of the Teheran Declaration, the Conference included reproductive autonomy in its Declaration, grounding its definition of reproductive choice on the idea of "bodily integrity and control:"

Article 11: It should be one of the principal aims of social education to teach respect for physical integrity and its rightful place in human life. The human body whether that of woman or man, is inviolable and respect for it is a fundamental element of human dignity and freedom.

Article12: Every couple and every individual has the right to decide freely and responsibly whether or not to have children as well as to determine their number and spacing, and to have information, education and means to do so.^[1]

The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and its Platform for Action 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."^[4]

Reproductive rights as a women's issue

Organizations such as the Center for Reproductive Rights, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization and the National Organization for Women pursue reproductive rights with a primary emphasis on women's rights. While much attention has been paid to abortion rights as one aspect of reproductive rights, groups focus on a range of issues from access to family planning services, sex education, menopause, and the reduction of obstetric fistula, to the relationship between reproductive health and economic status.

The group Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) spoke for a variety of women when it stated:

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...^[1]

There has also been an attempt to look at micro and macro conditions that affect a woman's access to reproductive health care. 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 (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey 2004).

Reproductive rights in the United States

In the United States, the public debate surrounding reproduction rights is often about abortion rights. Reproductive rights advocates support a woman's right to abortion and contraception from within the context of the right to privacy, or freedom from governmental interference, supporting legalized contraception and abortion.

In the United States Constitution, the right to privacy has been interpreted to include reproductive rights, as seen in numerous Supreme Court cases. Three important cases are Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972), and Roe v. Wade (1973). In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme court overturned a state law prohibiting the use of contraceptives, which established a constitutional right to privacy and legalized contraception for married people. Eisenstadt v. Baird extended the right to use contraceptives to unmarried people. Roe v. Wade legalized abortion on a federal level.

The term procreative liberty was coined by John A. Robertson, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Texas School of Law.

Abortion as a men's issue

One group, The National Center for Men (NCM), has claimed that reproductive rights should apply equally to men.^[5] The NCM brought a case to the United States sixth circuit Court of Appeals, which they label "Roe vs. Wade For Men." They argue, "The practical intent and effect of Roe vs. Wade was to permit a woman to engage in intimate sexual activity while, at the same time, choosing not to be a parent, even in the event of a contraceptive failure... that is the fundamental right created by 'Roe.' [...] By its very nature, this is a fundamental right that must apply regardless of biology. It cannot survive both as a fundamental right and as a limited right, limited only to people with internal reproductive systems." They further argue that men have been "forced to relinquish reproductive choice as the price of intimacy," and that "no woman could have been forced to pay that price." ^[6] Time Magazine reported in 2006 that the arguments of NCM Director Mel Feit gain force "as more and more states pass laws requiring, as part of pre-abortion counseling, that pregnant women be informed that the baby's father has a legal obligation to pay child support."^[7]

References

• "Proclamation of Tehran". International Conference on Human Rights. 1968. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
• "About Us". Center for Reproductive Rights. Retrieved 2007-11-08.

See also

• Women's movement
• Parental leave
• Sexual health

External links

• Center for Reproductive Rights
• The National Organization for Women
• Ipas
• The League of Women Voters on Reproductive Choice
• UNFPA Population Issues: Reproductive Rights
• NARAL Pro-Choice America
• Planned Parenthood
• American Civil Liberties Union