- Reproductive justice is a comprehensive term that includes a woman’s right to be healthy, both physically and emotionally, the right to make decisions about her body, and the ability to have economic resources (like health coverage) to plan families.
- More than 350,000 women die each year during pregnancy or childbirth. That’s one woman every 90 seconds.
- A small yet influential group in the U.S. is fighting to deny women basic reproductive care through birth control pills. This once-universal right to prevent pregnancy is now under attack and with support from state legislatures.
- In Western Europe, even though the UK is ranked second highest for contraception use, it remains one of the highest for teenage pregnancies and abortion rates.
- In sub-Saharan Africa, teenage girls ages 15-19 account for 25 percent of unsafe abortions.
- The Irish law remains that women are only permitted to an abortion if their life is in danger due to the pregnancy. In 2005, 3 women challenged that law after being forced to travel abroad for an abortion.
- In America, about half of women will have an unintended pregnancy by age 45. Nearly one-third of these pregnancies will be aborted.
- During 2012 the U.S. placed 43 abortion restrictions in 19 states.
- Adolescent girls and women in disadvantaged groups are more frequently affected by reproductive inequality, lacking proper health information and services to prevent unintended pregnancy.
- A large majority of adolescents and young people lack access to proper sexual and reproductive health services (including education) to maintain a healthy life.
- More than 60 percent of adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa were unaware of how to prevent pregnancy and more than 33 percent could not identify a source for contraceptives.
Bring sex ed to your school. GO
Sources: Amnesty, Reproductive Rights, Jezebel, Amnesty USA, NOW
