Family planning is a human right

Throughout all of human history, efforts to plan, avoid or delay pregnancy had been a

private struggle endured by women and girls. But at the 1968 International Conference on

Human Rights, family planning became a human rights obligation of every country, government

and policymaker. The conference’s outcome document, known as the Teheran Proclamation,

stated unequivocally: “Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the

number and spacing of their children.” Embedded in this legislative language was a game-

changing realization: Women and girls have the right to avoid the exhaustion, depletion and

danger of too many pregnancies, too close together. Men and women have the right to choose

when and how often to embrace parenthood – if at all. Every individual has the human right to

determine the direction and scope of his or her future in this fundamental way. In many places,

there are efforts to limit education about family planning, to restrict the variety and availability

of contraceptive methods, and to prevent women and youth from accessing contraceptives at all.

In other places, this right is simply unrealized through lack of access to family planning

information and services.

Misinformation about family planning is rampant – and deadly. In Lebanon, one Syrian

refugee reported that her husband forbade contraception, believing it causes infertility. As a

result, she said, “I had back-to-back pregnancies. This caused me to have iron and calcium

deficiency and made my body very weak.” In fact, expanding access to family planning would

save tens of thousands of lives every year by preventing unintended pregnancies, reducing the

number of abortions, and lowering the incidence of death and disability related to complications

of pregnancy and childbirth. Until family planning is a universally available choice, this human

right will not be fully realized. UNFPA and the World Health Organization have recognized nine
standards that must be met in every community, for every individual.

(https://www.unfpa.org/news/fifty-years-ago-it-became-official-family-planning-human-right)