Rev.
Thomas Robert Malthus argued in 1798 that when unchecked population tends to
grow faster than food supplies. To balance the two, population growth should be
controlled.
Women
acted on the understanding that fertility control which affects their bodies
and health is their responsibility which was formalized into a concept of
reproductive rights fairly recently.
The
reproductive rights first emerged in the 1970s in Europe and
America
abortion and contraception. Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights
that are already recognized in national laws, international human rights
documents and other consensus documents.
Reproductive
health is 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 to its functions and processes”.
In
preparation for the second world population conference in 1984, the
International Campaign on Abortion, Sterilization and Contraception was renamed
Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) with broad mandate to
address all issues related to women’s reproductive health beyond family
planning. Women have since then,
regardless of color, nationality, religion, marital status etc, asserted their
right to decide whether, when and how to have children taking into full
consideration specific social, economic and political circumstances. They have
called for access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of
family planning; safe and legal abortion services. They have demanded
preventive measures to end maternal mortality and morbidity, comprehensive
reproductive and child health services and an end to sterilization and other
coercive measures; improved education for women about birth control,
reproduction, risks and side effects of contraception and sexually transmitted diseases
and freedom from sexual, physical and clinical violence. In
targets for sterilization and hormonal implants, in
America
legal contraception and abortion and in some African countries opposed harmful
traditional practices.
These
efforts have faced some hurdles. Neo-Malthusian population control
organizations have put emphasis on resource allocation for control measures with
long-acting or permanent medical methods such as surgical or chemical sterilization
or hormonal implants and injections to reduce fertility rates especially among
the poor and immigrants.
The
anti-abortion groups (pro-family) particularly in countries with strong
Protestant or Islamist presence consolidated themselves in the 1980s and 1990s
at national and international levels to prevent abortion. This group opposes women’s reproductive and
sexual freedom on behalf of ‘fetal rights’. What has brought these two
otherwise antagonistic groups is that both think of women as incubators and
emblems of tradition, or population control targets.
Advocates
of reproductive rights focus on health, well-being and empowerment of women.
Their priority is to prevent unnecessary mortality and morbidity related to
reproduction and sex for women including from male violence and clinical abuse
as well as to maximize enabling conditions for safe and decent childrearing.
Thus for women, the idea of having control over one’s body or bodily integrity,
which provides the philosophical foundation of reproductive and sexual rights
reflects women’s common experience as child-bearers and nurturers who must
maintain control over their conditions of their reproductive activity in order
to perform it well. This resonates with traditions that value women’s bodies as
a source of life and nourishment. Therefore bodily integrity includes rights to
be free from sexual violence, forced marriage or pregnancy and the right to the
best available reproductive and primary health care, full information and
services for safe contraception and abortion, and the free expression of one’s
sexuality.
Through
caucuses, women have succeeded in developing a new language on reproductive and
sexual rights and gender equality covering the basic right of all couples and
individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of
their children and freedom from gender-based violence and all forms of sexual
harassment and exploitation, systematic rape, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy.
After many years of campaigning, rape has finally been defined as a war crime.
Formulation
of population policies should therefore refrain from using a narrower
definition of birth control or family planning.