Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR): This is a commonly used acronym that refers to both freedoms, such as the freedom to make decisions about whether and when to reproduce free from coercion or violence, and entitlements, such as access to the full range of essential SRHR services. These rights are protected for all people – including people with disabilities – by numerous fundamental human rights treaties, national laws, and policies.
A key underpinning of the right to health— and accordingly, the right to sexual and reproductive health—is the obligation that health-related information, goods, and services be available; accessible; acceptable; and of good quality, collectively known as the AAAQ framework. The AAAQ framework describes the requirements for services that States must abide to fulfil their obligations to respect, protect, and fulfil SRHR. People with disabilities are just as likely to be sexually active and have the same sexual and reproductive health needs as people without disabilities. However, due to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination on the basis of gender and disability, people with disabilities face unique and pervasive barriers to full realization of their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Fundamental SRHR services that people—with and without disabilities—should have access to in order to realize their SRHR fully include comprehensive sexuality education; information, goods, and services for the full range of modern contraceptive methods, including emergency contraception; maternal/newborn healthcare (including antenatal care, skilled attendance at delivery, emergency obstetric care, post-partum care, and newborn care); prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for sexual and reproductive health issues (e.g. sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, syphilis, and HPV, cancers of the reproductive system and breast cancer, and infertility); safe and accessible abortion, where it is not against the law; and post-abortion care to treat complications from unsafe abortion.
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Sources:
Committee on the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR Committee), General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standards of Health (Art. 12), para. 29, U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2000/4 (Aug. 11, 2000). See also Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, para. 8.3, U.N. Doc. A/ CONF.171/13/Rev.1 (Sept. 5-13, 1994).
Committee on the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR Committee), General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standards of Health (Art. 12), para. 12, U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2000/4 (Aug. 11, 2000) [
International Women’s Health Coalition, Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights: What Does an Essential Package of Policies and Programs Look Like? (April 2012), https://iwhc.org/wp-content/ uploads/2013/11/essential-package-sexual-reproductive-health-rights.pdf