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.
New documentary showcases the progress of abortion from criminalization to a fundamental, constitutional right.
The order by Pakistan’s Sindh High Court marks major progress in improving maternal health in the region.
Program at Cox’s Bazar refugee settlement aims to enhance delivery of sexual, reproductive and maternal health services.
Publications and Resources
Factsheet Examines the Impact of India’s Laws on Adolescents’ Access to Abortion Care
Law designed to protect minors has created a chilling effect on adolescent access to safe abortion services. Read more.
Advocating for Abortion Reform in the Philippines
New brief by the Center and its partner outlines the impact of the country’s restrictive abortion laws and recommends legalization and decriminalization.
South Asia Reproductive Justice and Accountability Initiative (SARJAI)
A network of organizations and legal experts working to improve legal accountability and advance reproductive rights.
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.
