ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTION AND ABORTION IN MALAYSIA - Grounding Human Rights in Malaysia

ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTION AND ABORTION IN MALAYSIA Grounding Human Rights in Malaysia for All: Embracing Change ADVOCACY BRIEF ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTION AND ABORTION IN MALAYSIA Contraception and abortion are both issues that were discussed at the Cairo Programme of Action and the Beijing Platform of Action in 1944 along with their review conferences outcome documents, of which Malaysia is a part of. [...] There were three indicators identified: (i) laws to guarantee women and men aged 15 years and older access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, information and education; (ii) the proportion of women (15–49 years old) who made their own informed decisions regarding reproductive healthcare, contraceptive use, and sexual relations, and could access sexual and reproductive healthcare services in a. [...] The Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) has made a commendable effort in writing a thorough guideline for healthcare providers to bolster young people’s access to Sexual Reproductive Health services in governmental health facilities, aligned with the recommendations from the UN Special Rapporteur on Health back in 2014.1 On paper, maternity care (antenatal and postnatal services) as well as contrace. [...] This may cause the inability to determine the actual status of women and girls’ sexual reproductive health in this country and halt any further effort in improving their status. [...] The unmet need for family planning in Malaysia is 17.6% for women in reproductive age, the highest among all her ASEAN counterparts.4 The unmet need continues to grow especially amongst young unmarried women with low educational attainment, as seen with the numbers of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies to this day.