Council of Europe: ensure women’s access to sexual and reproductive health and rights
May 7, 2020. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights published today a statement calling for the protection of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights during the pandemic. Among others, the statement calls upon member states to consider access to abortion care, contraception, including emergency contraception, and maternal healthcare, as essential health care services to be maintained during the crisis and take all necessary accompanying measures.
In words of the Commissioner, Dunja Mijatović, “we should see this crisis as a magnifying glass on the persisting violence against women, gender inequalities and barriers in women’s access to sexual and reproductive health care. Measures taken to remove these barriers should be sustained after the crisis as key elements of building a long-lasting transformative equality that will benefit women and society as a whole.”
The full statement can be found here.
