AFRICA ( commonwealth Union ) _ The world is full of declarations of support for women’s rights and gender equality during women’s month. Abortion and contraception are frequently left out of the general narrative highlighting historical progress on gender problems, obscuring the fact that gender equality would have been – and still is – impossible without them.
Millions of women and girls will not be able to access abortions this year, which will force them to take unintended pregnancies to term or use risky methods of abortion. The most recent instance of unjustly limiting abortion is in the United States, where new state prohibitions are being introduced as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the legal protection for abortion put in place in the 1970s.
More than 200 million people who want contemporary contraception still do not have access to it. This includes teenagers and unmarried women who face stigmas about using such protection, as well as women who live in rural areas where such services are frequently unavailable.
Anti-choice organizations have openly promoted stigma and misinformation, which have led to laws criminalizing abortion, the suppression of correct sexual health information, and a culture of shame and silence surrounding people’s reproductive decisions. The most impacted are low-income, rural, and marginalized communities that cannot access private healthcare or travel for services.
Only 57 percent of women worldwide are making their own informed choices about sex and reproductive health as a consequence. When we are refused control over our own bodies and healthcare, and when our access to necessary, life-saving healthcare services is limited, how can equality be achieved? It’s impossible. Because of this, efforts to advance gender equality around the globe are hollow if everyone has access to reproductive healthcare, including contraception and abortion.
Women’s lives are at risk without access to safe abortion and contraception, gender equality requires these rights. I witnessed firsthand the effects of limited access to reproductive health knowledge and services in Addis Abeba, where I was raised.Another requirement for gender equity is financial independence for women, which is made possible by education. The cycle of poverty can be broken and a woman’s life, her family, and the world can be transformed when she has power over her own fertility.
Abortion must be prioritized alongside the vital task of advancing women’s rights and providing everyone who wants it with access to modern contraception. Abortion should be discussed more as it is common. Abortion requires funding and investment since it is a medical necessity. And because abortion is a human right, we must remove obstacles to it.It seems obvious that having access to abortion and contraception will help pave the way for gender equality.
