Sexual and reproductive health are areas of special concern in Central
and Eastern Europe. Women of the region face many barriers in accessing satisfactory
reproductive health services and in exercising their reproductive rights, i.e. the right
to free and informed decisions concerning reproduction and sexuality. It is due to the low
priority given by governments to the issues of reproductive and sexual health and rights
as well as the growing influence of anti-choice, conservative forces representing the
so-called “traditional values”. Anti-choice groups have increasing formal and informal
influence on decision – making in many countries of this region. There are cases, where
anti-choice groups find financial support from public funds. For instance, the biggest
Croatian anti-choice NGO – the Croatian Population Movement, led by a Catholic priest,
is partly funded from the state budget.
Gender stereotypes – seeing women
primarily as mothers and wives, and patriarchal attitudes remain pervasive in the
societies of this region and are a barrier in efforts to improve women’s status and to
improve the state of reproductive and sexual health and rights.
The main problems in the field of sexual
and reproductive health and rights in the region include:
lack of
commitment of governments to address issues of reproductive health and rights;
inadequate
legislation and policy in the area of reproductive and sexual health (incl. legal
restrictions towards sexual and reproductive rights);
inadequate
access to family planning information and services;
high rates of
unmet contraceptive needs and the high reliance on abortion as a mean of controlling
one’s fertility;
excessive
reliance on unsafe abortion services and poor quality of abortion services;
low priority
to adolescents reproductive health and rights, including lack of adequate sexual
education;
rapidly
growing rates of STIs, including HIV / AIDS;
violence
against women and domestic violence being a major and neglected problem in the region;
low awareness
of reproductive and sexual rights and health issues of the society.