New York: Almost half of women in some 57 countries do not have the power to make choices over their healthcare, contraception, or sex lives, a new United Nations (UN) report launched on Wednesday, has revealed.
According to the UNFPA’s State of World Population report, the lack of bodily autonomy may have worsened during the coronavirus pandemic, placing record numbers of women and girls at risk of gender-based violence and harmful practices such as early marriage.
"The fact that nearly half of women still cannot make their own decisions about whether or not to have sex, use contraception or seek healthcare, should outrage us all," Natalia Kanem, UNFPA Executive Director, said in a news release announcing the findings.
"In essence, hundreds of millions of women and girls do not own their own bodies. Their lives are governed by others," she added.
According to her, the denial of bodily autonomy is a violation of women and girls’ fundamental human rights and also reinforces inequalities and perpetuates violence arising from gender discrimination.
“It is nothing less than an annihilation of the spirit, and it must stop," she stated.
The report also noted that a woman’s power to control her own body is linked to how much control she has in other spheres of her life, with higher autonomy associated with advances in health and education, income and safety.
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