REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
The ability to make informed choices about your health and access health services should be a basic right. In Canada, even with the legislative standards and legal precedence in place, the lived reality of women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people have not always matched that right. Their autonomy, safety, self-determination, and ability to make true choices have suffered.
Gender equality.
Our clinic believes that a gender equal Canada requires true reproductive justice. This includes access to a full spectrum of supports, including abortion services, birth control, health education, and family planning. When considering the stigma that is associated with abortion, a large part of it can be attributed to the notion that all sexuality should be about reproduction. This can manifest itself into human rights violations, limited access to sexual and reproductive services that people need. Women, in particular, but all people who are
outside of any normative framework of sexuality and gender are not always prioritized -- often prevented and stigmatized from accessing the services they need.
Reproductive rights means that everyone:
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Gets to make their own choices about having or not having children.
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Can raise their children in safe and healthy environments
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Has the resources and supports they need to parent with dignity
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Has access sexual and reproductive health services, like: birth control, abortion, assisted reproductive technologies, sex education, proper care during pregnancy, childbirth, and after birth, and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of STIs.
Visit www.canadianwomen.org to learn more about reproductive justice in Canada.