Sexual and reproductive rights (Promoción de Derechos)

Profamilia Social programs are carried out under a human rights ethical framework with a particular focus on sexual and reproductive rights, with the conviction that the recognition, respect and guarantee of these depends on sound sexual and reproductive health of clients.

The finality of sexual and reproductive rights is in that all persons may live and decide on their sexuality and reproduction, free from discrimination, risks, threats, coercion and violence. In other words, they are the same human rights interpreted from sexuality and reproduction.

This includes for example sexual freedom, the right of intimacy, the freedom of thought, information or the right of health, among others.

If health is understood as a complete state of physical, mental, social well-being of a person and not simply the absence of sicknesses, a healthy sexuality supposes:

• Sufficient information regarding reproductive organs, their functions and processes and of sexual answers.
• The aptitude to enjoy sexual and reproductive activity and the possibility to regulate it conforming to a personal and social ethic that is based on the respect of human dignity and of rights of others.
• The absence of fear, shame, guilt and prejudice that inhibit sexual reaction impeding the fullness of pleasure.
• The absence of organic inconveniences, of illnesses and deficiencies that hinder sexual and reproductive activity.

Modern contraception has enabled people and couples to separate sexuality from reproduction. Materializing the possibility that paternity and maternity are an option and not an unavoidable destiny.

The recognition of these rights will contribute to women and children not being subjected to:

• Unwanted sexual relations, resulting in unwanted pregnancies or children.
• Physical, psychological and sexual violence, including rape, spousal abuse, incest and sexual harassment in both public and private environments.
• Discrimination and violence because of sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
• Rape and abuse as a weapon of war.

All people have the fundamental right of autonomy and the free development of their personality which implies the possibility to adopt decisions for themselves that affect their lives in terms of the exercise of sexuality, sexual orientation, family integration, choices of studies and family, cultural and professional inclinations.

The right to freely develop ones personality demands that the state and others respect the desires of individuals in their choices of lifestyle and manner of being.

Pregnant women have the right to receive medical attention and bring to a conclusion their pregnancy, but if this pregnancy constitutes danger for the life or health of the woman, or there is a serious malformation of the fetus that makes its extra-uterine life unviable, or the pregnancy was the result of a conduct, properly denounced, constituting a rape or non-consensual or abusive sexual act, artificial insemination or non-consensual transfer of fertile ovary, or of incest, they can request its interruption, given the fulfillment of established requirements that are basically the medical certification or criminal accusation, according to the case.

Deciding if one wants or does not want children, when to have them and how many are private and transcendental matters for the life of a woman and of a man and that cannot be subject to the wishes of others.

Thus, as an appropriate exercise of sexual and reproductive rights, this guarantees equal relations between men and women. Therefore, each person can:

• Choose their partner.
• Express their sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Decide when and how to exercise their sexuality.
• Control their sexual behavior according to their own criteria, feel and think without coercion, fear or shame.
• Make information available with respect to accessible and effective methods for the regulation of fertility.
• Decide if they join together with another person in marriage or in common-law marriage.
• Decide when and how many children they wish to have.
• Be free of illnesses and deficiencies that could interfere with their sexual and reproductive functions.
• Have access to quality sexual and reproductive health services.

The state must facilitate the exercise of these rights and make the means for people to make them effective accessible to all.

For example, reproductive health implies that people in a society can enjoy the highest level of protection with respect to the reproductive function and to the organs committed to it, with the objective of permitting the exercise of their sexuality to people without any risk. If one of the members of the couple is infertile, the state is to supply the respective treatments in order to guarantee their reproductive sexuality.

Reproductive health supposes, in addition, the development of campaigns for the prevention and detection of uterus and breast cancer as well as the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and especially HIV/AIDS. That also means that decisions about sexuality and reproduction should be adopted freely, without discrimination, coercion or violence.

For women, regardless of age or marital status, they are helped the right to decide about their sexual relations, are owners of their bodies, with the right to decide about it, without the prior consent of their partner being necessary.

If citizenship is understood as the right to have rights, it can be affirmed that without sexual and reproductive rights there is no full citizenship.