It’s impossible to talk about the human rights of women without addressing the conversation of health issues that affect women because the two happen to be somewhat synonymous. This therefore means that one of the biggest areas of interest when we are advocating for the rights of women is calling for more and better access to health services.
Through this article, we are going to briefly look at the 4 leading health issues affecting women today.
Access to reproductive health services
There are a number of challenges women from around the globe go through when it comes to access to reproductive health services and this cuts across developed, developing and underdeveloped nations. The major areas of concern are usually contraception, pregnancy and child birth, and the controversial subject of abortion. According to recent statistics, over 600,000 women die annually from around the world due to various issues associated with access to reproductive health services.
The challenge of malnutrition
When it comes to the issue of malnutrition whereas it’s an issue that cuts across entire populations, that is men, women and children, women are usually the hardest hit because they carry the extra burden of child bearing as well as menstruation. These are periods when women need sufficient nutrients in order to safely go through these stages of their life however, not all of them are lucky to have access to proper nutrition. As per statistics, over 110,000 women die each year during childbirth due to malnutrition.
Domestic and sexual violence
It’s a very disturbing statistic that over 35 per cent of women from across the globe have directly experienced domestic or sexual violence. Some of these include physical assault and battery, sexual assault, rape, forced marriage and female genital mutilation amongst others. The reality is that this statistic could even be higher because a lot of these cases actually go unreported for various reasons.
The spread of breast cancer
Breast cancer has been on an upward trajectory and it’s still not clear why this is so. Whereas a number of theories have been put forward, most haven’t been conclusive enough. The major challenge with breast cancer is that it’s diagnosed late in many women therefore making it impossible to treat and this is the reason for the many breast cancer related deaths that have been reported among women from around the globe.
As the world engages in the conversation to address to the topic of women rights, it’s very important for the above health issues to be a major part of the conversation because they are responsible for the deaths of millions of women from around the world, and these are deaths that can be prevented if women can receive better attention and care.