Asia
The Center for Reproductive Rights is a driving force behind important advances in reproductive rights laws and policies, improving access to reproductive health care and advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights in Asia.
Summary
For nearly 20 years, the Center’s Asia program has built and strengthened partnerships, networks, and alliances–and collaborated with diverse stakeholders–to improve access to safe abortion and post-abortion care, all forms of contraception, including emergency contraception, and maternal health services. The Center has also been working to advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of adolescents—including the impact of child marriage on their reproductive health and rights–and the rights of women acting as surrogates.
We work alongside regional and national sexual and reproductive health organizations and networks, lawyers, judges, academics, health care providers, and relevant human rights and political bodies and experts. We have also cultivated productive relationships with national human rights institutions (NHRIs) and the South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC)—an apex body of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
Through strategic litigation, fact-finding investigations, legal analyses, capacity-building initiatives, advocacy and outreach at national, regional and global fora, we have advanced legal reforms, exposed reproductive rights violations, strengthened government accountability, and secured landmark victories recognizing fundamental rights to reproductive autonomy in Asia.
Key Facts
17%
Of girls are married before the age of 15 in South Asia, which has the highest rate of child marriage in the world.
41%
Contraception prevalence rate of married adolescents.
53.8 million
Unintended pregnancies occur each year in Asia, with 65% ending in abortion.
Work and Cases
Explore highlights of our Asia initiatives.
The Center’s reports on access to reproductive health and rights in Asia during the pandemic.
A network of organizations and legal experts working to improve legal accountability and advance reproductive rights.
The Center’s work with local partners to increase access to abortion and post-abortion care.
Publications and Resources
Fact Sheet: Syed & Others v. Sindh
The ruling in Syed & Others v. Sindh by the Sindh High Court ordered Pakistan’s Sindh government to increase access to obstetric fistula repair services. The case was conceptualized by the Center’s South Asia Reproductive Justice and Accountability Initiative (SARJAI).
Engaging the Judiciary in Asia
The Center has pioneered engagement with judges and judicial training institutes in South Asia to become SRHR champions and to recognize reproductive rights as fundamental human rights essential for gender equality. Read more.
Newsletters: SRHR and COVID-19 in Asia
Center newsletters on COVID-19’s effect on sexual and reproductive health and rights services and gender issues throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including Cambodia, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. Read more.
Impact of COVID-19 on Reproductive Health and Rights in Sindh
A fact-finding collaboration with the Collective for Social Science Research on the impact of COVID-19 on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls in Sindh province, which includes Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi. Read more.
Securing Reproductive Justice in India: A Casebook
Judgements and orders by the Indian Supreme Court and High Courts across 12 reproductive justice issues. Read more.
Legislative Brief: Abortion Law Reform in Achieving the Development Goals of the Philippines
This briefing paper discusses the grave impact of the Philippines’ restrictive abortion laws on women’s health and rights and the development of the nation. Read more.
Photo credit: Luis Liwanag
Fact Sheet: Criminalization of Abortion in the Philippines
This fact sheet outlines the status of abortion in the Philippines and its effect on women and girls’ access to post-abortion care and modern contraceptives, which have often been falsely claimed as abortifacients by religious dogmatists. Read more.
Photo credit: Luis Liwanag
