Reproductive Health of Female Adolescents with Disabilities in Thailand

Abstract

Reproductive health is a fundamental human right. However, women with disabilities cannot fully enjoy such rights due to physical barriers, information barriers and attitudinal barriers. Compared with men, women with disabilities have less access to education, employment and health services, including reproductive health services on the ground of gender as well as disabilities. Women with disabilities are more vulnerable to physical, mental and sexual abuse than those without disabilities. In many cases, they cannot avoid or stop the situations because they rely on the abusers for financial and other kinds of support and are afraid of being deprived from the support they need. Other barriers include poverty, lack of awareness on their own rights, and inability to access support system when being abused. For female adolescents with disabilities, the problems they encounter are somewhat similar to those without disabili-ties, for example, lack of knowledge and proper understanding on reproductive health, which leads to poor reproductive health, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. One reason is because school cur-riculum on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) does not meet the needs of teenagers. For female adolescents with disabilities, the problems are more complicated as there are attitudinal barriers from families and society which hinder them from enjoying their reproductive rights on an equal basis with others.