Sexual and Reproductive Rights of Women with Disabilities, by Carol Constantino

Have you heard about women's sexual and reproductive rights?
No!?

:: REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

• Decide, freely and responsibly, whether or not they want to have children, how many and at what point in their lives;
• Access information, means, methods and techniques to have children or not;
• Exercise sexuality and reproduction free of discrimination, imposition and
violence;
• Exercise motherhood, with the appropriate attention and support needed in
pregnancy, delivery, puerperium and raising children;
• Choosing to terminate the pregnancy when it is unwanted or not
planned.

:: SEXUAL RIGHTS

• Live and freely express sexuality without violence, discrimination;
• Choosing a sexual partner;
• Fully living sexuality without fear, shame, guilt and false beliefs;
• Living sexuality regardless of marital status, age or physical condition;
• Choose whether or not to have sexual intercourse;
• Freely express your sexual orientation;
• Having sexual intercourse independent of reproduction;
• Safe sex to prevent unwanted pregnancies and STD/HIV/AIDS;
• Health services with privacy, secrecy and quality care and without
discrimination;
• Right to information and sexual and reproductive education.

It seems obvious that every woman has these rights and can freely choose whether she wants to be a mother or not, whether she wants to use contraceptive methods or not, whether she wants to have sex or not... These are such simple choices, but they end up not being that simple. for women with disabilities.

I say this because I am a woman with a disability and I also live in this totally empowering and prejudiced society, where most see us in a childish way, they believe that we are not experienced enough to know how to make our own choices and they think they know what is best for us .

Many people think this way and, without realizing it, end up "meddling" in the lives of women with disabilities, judging their decisions, choosing for them and even creating opinions based on nothing, without even knowing the reality of each woman.

These "opinions" are very harmful to our lives and it is enough to be a woman with a disability to hear phrases like: "Women using a wheelchair should not have children. How are they going to take care of a child?"... "Women in a wheelchair are more difficult to marry, because she can't even do the housework...".

However, in addition to these comments, we are also victims of the lack of information and prejudice coming from most health professionals, mainly gynecologists, who, instead of clarifying doubts about issues related to sexuality and reproduction, end up not studying the different pathologies, passing totally wrong information, or, still, they don't care about having their medical offices accessible to assist women with disabilities.

I'm tired of hearing reports of women with disabilities who failed to take the exams because they were embarrassed and humiliated by the lack of preparation in these places - I've been there too.

Of course, we shouldn't generalize, but unfortunately, most of these professionals interfere in decisions that can completely change our lives. As in the case of a friend I once heard... she is a mutable and, when she was young, her gynecologist always informed her that she would not be able to bear a pregnancy. A while later, she had an unplanned pregnancy and chose not to abort her daughter, as she was already 4 months old. It turns out that if she had found out months earlier, on the advice of her doctor, she would have terminated the pregnancy. Today she is happy for not having listened to her doctor, as her daughter is now 7 years old and her pregnancy went perfectly well.

I myself grew up listening to all these things and, without realizing it, I was already agreeing with these ideas and thinking the same way. However, after studying the subject and talking to other women with disabilities, I realized that this happens to everyone and that these thoughts were not mine, but the opinions of others that were being imposed on me!

It is clear that not every woman can really get pregnant, or that, for health reasons, she should not use certain contraceptives... But there are many women with disabilities who are mothers, others simply do not want to have children, they freely choose their partners (as), make use of contraceptives, make their own choices, without letting the opinion and prejudice of other people interfere.

That's why we do need to talk openly about sexuality, we should also talk about our right to choose and be able to enjoy our sexuality and reproduction with freedom and dignity. We certainly shouldn't stop doing medical consultations just because the doctors are not qualified to assist us, in fact, we need to claim our rights and show that we exist!


-

Access the contents of the Booklet in PDF HERE .
Access the contents of the Booklet in DOCx HERE.
Access the description of the Booklet images in DOCx HERE.
Access the audio booklet HERE.
Access HERE the description of images of the Booklet in audio.

Be sure to access and learn about the information booklet of the group of women with disabilities - Inclusivess.

( • )

Carol Constantino is a Social Work student, blogger and wheelchair user since she was a child, as she was born with muscle atrophy. On her blog she shares everything related to wheelchair users and other disabilities. In addition to posting stories of other wheelchair users from all over Brazil. Follow her on INSTAGRAM , like her page on FACEBOOK and access her BLOG .

( • )

Illustration "Self-portrait" by Paloma Santos. Follow her on instagram @partes.art