Reproductive Law

Reproductive Law

Introduction

The research paper examines the relationship, between state and federal policies and several significant aspects of women's reproductive health and well-being. The paper focuses on Women Reproductive (relationships between public policy and the timing of abortions obtained by minors, parental support for pregnant and parenting teenagers). In examining these topics, I explore a variety of policy issues that affect the health and well-being of subpopulations of women and girls who may be hidden or marginalized, and who frequently have little or no voice in the policymaking process. The laws mentioned in the paper are from Obama Act healthcare reform.

Discussion

Reproductive rights are rights pertaining to reproduction and reproductive and sexual health. Reproductive rights apply to all men and women at all stages of reproductive maturity, but particularly to women and girls of childbearing age. Maternal mortality is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age, particularly in poor and developing countries. Approximately 560,000 women die every year from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and anywhere from 16 to 50 million women experience preventable pregnancy-related injuries, including hemorrhage, infection, brain seizures, hypertension, anemia, obstetric fistulae, and complications from unsafe abortions(Teitler, Reichman, Nepomnyaschy, 2004).

Although reproductive rights are most commonly associated with women's rights and the right to family planning, or more specifically, abortion rights, the scope of reproductive rights is quite broad.

Healthy Baltimore 2015 is the comprehensive health policy for Baltimore City Health Department. It is the programme for the city; articulate its main concern areas and indicator for action. This plan emphasizes area where it can have the largest impact on reducing morbidity and mortality and improve the quality of life for city residents (Healthy Baltimore 2015, 2011).

Reproductive Rights as Women's Rights

Reproductive rights, or reproductive freedom, have become one of the central tenets in many feminist movements throughout the world, as the lack of freedom to control one's own body, sexuality, and reproductive destiny is seen as a fundamental way in which women experience economic, social, cultural and political discrimination. Access to safe and legal abortion and contraception are seen by some feminists, particularly American and other Western feminists, as the most important reproductive rights necessary for women's full and equal participation in society. They are also the most controversial reproductive rights and the most subject to political, legal, and cultural contestation worldwide(California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, 2008).

Reproductive Rights as Human Rights

The right to family planning was first explicitly recognized as an aspect of human rights at the United Nations' (UN) International Conference on Human Rights in Teheran, Iran in 1968. This includes the ability to have a satisfying and safe sex life, the capacity to reproduce and to decide if and when to do so, access to safe and affordable family planning, and the right to health care services that enable a woman to have a healthy pregnancy and childbirth and provide parents with the opportunity to raise a healthy child (Spjeldnesa, Choi, 2008). The Obama Programme also explicitly defined reproductive rights, emphasizing ...