Chronicle EditorKudzai Rukainga, [email protected]
CONTRACEPTIVE access is a critical component of women’s health and empowerment. In the case of Zimbabwe, it is either contraceptives are unavailable in Government health service institutions where they are free, cheap or affordable for all groups of women or the available choices of contraceptive methods such as the implant or intrauterine devices are expensive for women from marginalised groups and are mostly accessible in big cities such as Harare and Bulawayo. Experts say it is a priority to ensure that women of reproductive age have access to family planning services, and great strides have been made in improving the availability and accessibility of contraception for women.
However, this has not been the reality for a significant number of women in rural areas as they sometimes struggle to access all forms of contraception. Early this year, a relative living in a small town in Zimbabwe sent me to purchase her monthly supply of control pills in Harare saying she had been visiting various health services institutions in her town in search of these birth control pills to no avail.
This is typical of how some women end up with unplanned pregnancies, as there is rarely enough contraception to cater for the needs of all women, and the fact that sometimes one is forced to travel long distances to ensure they have enough supplies for themselves. Due to this scarcity in birth control pills, they end up being sold on the black market where prices are high, making them inaccessible to most vulnerable women.
It is difficult especially for married women to negotiate for protected sex with their partners under the given circumstances where there is no other form of contraception. As a result, they are the ones who are affected the most as they get pregnant and are forced to bear children even when they are not prepared for this responsibility.
According to UNAIDS, Zimbabwe’s need for family planning is the highest in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa especially for married women, whose rate of unmet need is at 15,2 percent. Contraception has no other alternative outside itself, except for abortion which is illegal in countries such as Zimbabwe where termination of pregnancy can only be allowed in special cases.
As a result, we have a situation where women’s rights to their sexual reproductive health is violated in many ways than one, as women are deprived of their right to choose contraceptive methods, their right to control their own bodies and their right to determine the number of children and child spacing as illustrated in Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol.
There is a violation of women’s reproductive rights as outlined in General Recommendation No. 21- Equality in marriage and family relations (paragraph 21) which says women are entitled to decide on the number and spacing of their children. Article 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) emphasises on the elimination of discrimination against women in health care services. General recommendation 24 of Article 12 of CEDAW emphasises the need to prioritise the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, through family planning and ensuring health services are consistent with the rights of women. There is also violation of the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Act (1985), which has provisions for contraception and the government’s obligation to ensure the availability of family planning services as part of primary health care services.
The State should ensure the availability of contraceptives at all times in all health service centres. Health facilities should also be at a reasonable distance for women of all groups to benefit. Policies that control and monitor the prices of these services should also be enforced in order to enable every woman to afford contraceptives without having to forgo other human needs. We can also make use of advocacy strategies through Civil Society Organisations in raising awareness on the state of affairs as well as building alliances with other organisations and individuals for public interest litigation to decriminalise abortion so that women may have a choice and not be disadvantaged at all levels. With sustained efforts, policy reforms and continued support, further advancements in contraceptive access can be achieved, leading to improved health outcomes and empowerment for women across the country.
Online Reporter