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A TWO-WAY STREET “In the medical world there are more doctors who object to and stigmatize women’s sexual and reproductive rights than those who respect them.” osa and Catherine are two women who have different perspectives but have both experienced the journey involved in trying to exercise women’s sexual and reproductive rights in distant rural areas or in the territorial spaces of training and reincorporation (ETCR1).
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PHOTO: Fundación Oriéntame.
TEXT: LADY ALBA, Fundación Oriéntame Project Coordinator
The first perspective is that of the patient, Rosa, a quiet woman with downcast eyes and slow movements, who was invited by a friend to a sexual and reproductive health brigade held in the Charras-
During the doctor’s visit, she was given a pregnancy test as the doctor had already identified several risk factors. When talking with her about the positive result, she raised her voice for the first time to express her serious anxiety: “You mean I am expecting?! I can’t have another child, I told him [referring to her partner] that if I got pregnant again that it couldn’t continue... he didn’t let me use protection, he doesn’t do anything, and now we don’t have a healthcare card.”
On the other side is Catherine, a general practitioner with a healthcare provider in Ipiales. At her doctor’s office it is common to see women requesting a voluntary termination of pregnancy (VTP). However, it is very difficult for her to SRR outreach must immediately respond due continue in the face of the to the lack of services Constitutional Court’s review in her workplace. She is respectful of women’s of its decision on VTP. sexual and reproductive rights, but recognizes Guaviare ETCR. She is 29 years old that she has colleagues who do not and lives in precarious conditions provide women with information on the other side of the river. Her even though they know that for many neighbor decided to take her to the women, for example women migrants, brigade because she knew about their journey will not only be longer the domestic abuse that Rosa faces but also more dangerous unless at the hands of her partner, that they can find safe services. She also her three children were taken into acknowledges that as an employee protective custody by the Colombian there is little she can do. Institute for Family Welfare, and that after the birth of her last child, she Both sides of the story reflect how access to sexual and reproductive health services is a two-way street. 1 Translator’s note: ETCR’s are reincorporation spaces created for ex-combatants from the First, is a social context where gender FARC under the Peace Agreement.
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wasn’t provided with a contraception method at the hospital.
