sexual & reproductive health edition W
omen’s Health West (WHW) locates the goals of improving women’s sexual and reproductive health within a feminist human rights framework. The place of women in society impacts on their sexual and reproductive health in relation to access to services, control over the type and quality of services available and control over reproductive decision making. It also limits women’s control over their bodies and therefore their lives.
Control over sexual and reproductive decision making is associated with greater choice in other aspects of women’s lives. Through empowerment, women take control of their lives. However, many factors, including women’s low status continue to limit their ability to control their own lives. For example, violence against women has a direct impact on women’s sexual and reproductive health. Most violence against women is carried out by husbands or partners and coerced sex leads to unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and gynaecological problems. According to research undertaken by VicHealth, intimate partner violence is responsible for more ill-health and premature death in Victorian women under the age of 45 than any other well known risk factors, including high blood pressure, obesity and smoking1. Put simply, violence against women constitutes the greatest risk to the health and wellbeing of women of reproductive age. The social empowerment of women clearly contributes to, and depends on, good reproductive health. WHW works to achieve this by increasing women’s control over sexual and reproductive
1 VicHealth 2004. The Health Costs of violence. Measuring the burden of disease caused by intimate partner violence. Accessed September 2008 http://www.vichealth. vic.gov.au/assets/contentFiles/ipv.pdf
decision making, increasing women’s access to resources that support their sexual and reproductive health and responding to the sexual and reproductive health problems created by discrimination and violence against women. Examples of this include our work within the FARREP project and our involvement in advocacy for the removal of abortion from the Crimes Act. Women’s control over sexual and reproductive decision making has played a prominent role within the social and political arena this year. This year, we have seen first-hand how women’s bodies and health are legislated in many different ways. First, with the successful passing of the Abortion Law Reform Bill, and second, with the Assisted Reproduction Treatment Bill which passed through the Legislative Assembly on October 8 with a majority vote of 48 to 36. This Bill, if successful will provide single women, lesbians and infertile couples with greater access to fertility treatments. It is important that women are both recognised and respected as autonomous individuals capable of making good and responsible moral decisions. Failure to recognise this serves to reinforce women’s lack of equality and highlights why WHW views control over sexual and reproductive decision making as one component of the fight against all forms of inequality and oppression. This timely edition of WHW News provides information arising from some of our sexual and reproductive health focussed projects and demonstrates why control over sexual and reproductive decision making and autonomy are an essential part of women’s health. Sexual and reproductive health articles are identified with this stamp:
Cartoon: Sarah Marlowe
Defining Sexual and Reproductive Decision-Making “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.” (Para 97) Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Fourth World Conference on Women, 15 September 1995. http://www1.umn.edu/ humanrts/instree/e5dplw.htm
sexual & reproductive health edition 3
whw news edition 3 • 2008