Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health

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CHANGE believes that comprehensive sexual and reproductive health programs and services are the most effective approaches for preventing maternal mortality and morbidity, fighting HIV and AIDS, and meeting the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and young people while also promoting human rights. When reproductive and sexual health programs are segregated from each other, it increases barriers to access and neglects the connections that exist among sexual and reproductive health issues.

CHANGE approaches this question from a woman’s standpoint: what combination of services, programs, and referral systems and what set of rights protections does one need to achieve optimal sexual and reproductive health? If the U.S. government is to help meet the world’s target of achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015, U.S. policymakers must ask the same question.

See CHANGE's report Reproductive Justice for All: Toward a U.S. Foreign Policy on Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Video: Making U.S. Foreign Assistance Work for Women and Girls in Ethiopia
Findings and recommendations from CHANGE's 2010 Ethiopia study tour

Urge your Senators to Support International Family Planning Funding

Tell your Senators that you support full funding for international family planning and a permanent repeal of the Global Gag Rule.

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Tell your Representative to Support the United Nations

Congress is now considering a bill (H.R. 2829) that would effectively end our relationship with the United Nations. Act now and tell your Representative to oppose this harmful piece of legislation.

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Take Action on the Global Gag Rule

Join your voice with others and urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor the Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011, a bill that would create a legislative barrier to block attempts by a future administration to re-instate the Global Gag Rule.

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Raise your voice for the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act

Ask your Representative to co-sponsor the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act (H.R. 1319), newly introduced legislation that promotes a truly comprehensive and integrated approach to U.S. international reproductive health programs.

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Tell your Representative to Oppose Elimination of International Family Planning Funding

The House is currently debating a spending bill (H.R. 1) that, as it stands, would drastically decrease funding for international family planning and reproductive health, global HIV/AIDS, and maternal and child health programs and services. We need you to speak out for women's health and rights today!

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Help Make U.S. Global AIDS Programs Work for Women

Send a postcard to Ambassador Goosby, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and urge him to make U.S. global AIDS programs and policies work harder and better for women and girls worldwide.

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Urge your Representative to Co-Sponsor the ICPD Resolution

Urge your member of Congress to support sexual and reproductive health and rights and sustainable development globally by co-sponsoring Rep. Lee's ICPD resolution.

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Source8 - In sub-Saharan Africa, women 15-24 years old are 8 times more likely than men to be HIV positive.

Source340 million - Each year there are 340 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Source0 - Emergency contraception (EC) is not distributed by USAID.

Source$6.7 billion - Fulfilling the unmet need for modern family planning methods would cost, in total, $6.7 billion annually.

Source50% - Only 50% of women who give birth each year receive antenatal, delivery, and newborn care.

Source20 million - Worldwide, there are over 20 million unsafe abortions every year.

Source215 million - Worldwide, 215 million women who want to avoid a pregnancy are not using an effective method of contraception.

Source35 - In real terms, U.S. support for family planning is at the same level now as it was 35 years ago.

Nigerian senate passes anti-gay bill, defying British aid threat

(CNN) -- The Nigerian senate has passed a bill banning same-sex marriages, defying a threat from Britain to withhold aid from nations violating gay rights. The bill by Africa's most populous nation calls for a 14-year sentence for anyone convicted of homosexuality. Anyone who aids or "abets" same-sex unions faces 10 years in prison, a provision that could target rights groups.

Posted on November 30, 2011

Why African Americans Support Abortion Rights

I'm constantly frustrated by the heated discussions I hear about abortion and African-American women. My friends and family members are never short on strong opinions -- nor, it seems, is anyone else.

Posted on August 11, 2011

Women and HIV

What is it with women and girls? Why are we always left behind? Why can’t we choose the things we want to be a part of? Why must we always race to the front, rather than be left peacefully alone when we would rather not partake? Is it because, as women, we are strong, powerful, and the foundation of our society?

Posted on June 3, 2011

ETHIOPIA: Tackling the perils of pregnancy

Childbirth will prove fatal for one in 27 women in Ethiopia and much of the rest of the continent, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), versus a rate of one in 8,000 in industrialized countries

Posted on August 17, 2010

Hillary Clinton Touts Global Health Initiative as Key Foreign Policy Tool

"What exactly does maternal health or immunizations or the fight against HIV and AIDS have to do with foreign policy?" Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton queried a packed crowd of faculty and students at the Johns Hopkins School of Advance International Studies on Monday. "Well, my answer is 'everything.' "

Posted on August 17, 2010

SWAZILAND: ABC approach to be shelved

"If you look at the increase of HIV in the country while we've been applying the ABC concept all these years, then it is evident that ABC is not the answer," said Dr Derek von Wissell, Director of the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA).

Posted on August 16, 2010

Ethiopia: U.S. foreign policy and unsafe abortion in Africa

United States foreign policy abortion restrictions have often hampered African NGOs’ efforts to reduce deaths and disabilities associated with unsafe abortion procedures. In a positive recent development, however, the fight for African women’s access to safe abortion services took a small but important step forward.

Posted on August 5, 2010

MDG Goals Panned for Isolating Women’s Rights

The Millennium Development Goals' treatment of gender equality and women's empowerment as a "key goal in itself" and not as a "basic human right."

Posted on August 5, 2010

The U.S. Global Health Initiative and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: Integration

Read our new publication on integration, the Global Health Initiative, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights.

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What Does Family Planning Have to do With HIV? Everything.

Voluntary family planning is an indispensible component of HIV prevention and treatment.

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File Under: Fact Sheets

Fact Sheet: Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011

The Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011 provides that the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act cannot impose eligibility restrictions on international recipients of U.S. aid that would be illegal if imposed nationally. Would constitute a legislative repeal of the Mexico City Policy, also called the Global Gag Rule.

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Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women’s Health

Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women's Health, summarizes U.S. support for female condoms, identifies barriers, and offers concrete recommendations for improving U.S. efforts to increase access and availability of female condoms.

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File Under: Research Documents

Fact Sheet: Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act

The Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act (H.R. 1319) establishes U.S. policy and authorizes assistance to support universal access to sexual and reproductive health care in developing countries, including contraception and safe abortion.

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Policy Recommendations: Married Women and HIV: Comprehensive Prevention

In the absence of community-based efforts to alter the social structures that promote infidelity, public health programs which aim to reduce married women’s risk by telling men to be faithful will not succeed.

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Research Summary: Marital Sex and the HIV Risk for Women Worldwide

Globally, women’s risk of contracting HIV is heightened if they are married, largely due to men’s extramarital sexual relationships. Despite this clear risk, current efforts to prevent the spread of HIV fall far short of protecting married women.

Marital Sex and HIV/AIDS

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Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Ethiopia

On July 5-9, 2010, three U.S. state legislators traveled to Ethiopia to better understand the role of U.S. foreign assistance aimed at improving the quality of reproductive health care. This report documents that trip and makes recommendations for improving effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance to advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls in Ethiopia.

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File Under: Research Documents