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Introduction

As recognized by the United Nations, reproductive rights include:

• The right of all couples and individuals to decide the number, spacing, and timing of their children, and to have the information and means to do so
• The right to quality health care
• The right to make decisions around reproduction without discrimination, coercion, or violence

What does this mean in practice? It means you have a right to contraception, abortion, and fertility treatment. It means you have a right to quality prenatal and maternal care. It means you have a right to information about your body and your reproductive system. It means you have bodily autonomy, and no person or government can take that away. 

Reproductive rights as human rights

Reproductive rights are about more than reproduction.

Reproductive rights are fundamentally connected to many other human rights. These include:   

• The right to life and health.  
• The right to information and education.  
• The right to privacy and family life. 
• The right to equality and non-discrimination.  
• The right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.   

All 193 United Nations member states have agreed to protect these five rights. And their protection, in turn, depends on the protection of reproductive rights. For more on why reproductive rights are human rights, see our human rights explainer: [link]  

Protecting reproductive rights isn’t just about individual freedoms. Reproductive rights allow everyone to participate more fully in society. Things like family planning give more people the opportunity to go to school, hold jobs, and even run for office. Around the world, the evidence is clear: Investing in reproductive health and rights pays off.  

Attacks on rights

Today, reproductive rights are under attack.

We’re in the midst of a growing backlash against gender equality. Around the world, movements opposing abortion and sex education are gaining ground. Many countries have rolled back protections for the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people. This has opened the door for increased violations of their sexual and reproductive health and rights.  

There are many kinds of reproductive rights violations, including:  

• Lack of access to or denial of health services.   
• Poor quality services.   
• Subjecting women’s access to services to third party authorization.    
• Forced sterilization, forced virginity examinations, forced abortion.
• Forced interventions, abuse, or obstetric violence during childbirth.   
• Female genital mutilation.    

In the worst cases, these violations can be deadly. And the UN reports that preventable deaths due to reproductive rights violations are on the rise.

But it’s not all bad: We’ve seen huge global progress on reproductive rights over the past 30 years. More than 60 countries have changed their laws to make abortion safer and more accessible. Only four—El Salvador, Nicaragua, Poland, and the U.S.—have done the opposite.

Government obligations

It’s the government’s job to protect reproductive rights.

Because reproductive rights are human rights, they come within the scope of international human rights treaties. That means governments have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill those rights. In other words, governments:   

• Can’t interfere with people’s reproductive rights, e.g. via an abortion ban.
• Must prevent others from interfering, and must investigate and punish violations, e.g. by passing laws that protect patients from harassment. 
• Must help people fully realize their reproductive rights, e.g. by providing health information and services.   

International bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council help to monitor human rights in different countries. At the same time, non-governmental organizations like the Center for Reproductive Rights help expose violations and hold governments accountable for them. 

Our role

The Center fights for reproductive rights using the power of the law.

We are the only global legal advocacy organization dedicated to advancing reproductive rights. Around the world, we’ve helped change the way these rights are understood by courts, governments, and human rights bodies. Our work has strengthened reproductive rights in more than 65 countries around the world.