The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the fifth of which is "gender equity", namely: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.  (Click here for details)

Under this major goal, there are nine targets, the sixth of which is "Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences".

● Current Situation

About the World

55% of Women are Denied Bodily Autonomy

Reproductive health and rights are not just about poor women and girls, and in the implementation of sustainable development goals, these rights are of unprecedented relevance to each of us, both men and women, girls and boys.

Nearly half of all women are denied their bodily autonomy, according to data from 57 countries, UNFPA’s flagship report announced on 14 April 2021. The 2021 State of World Population report, titled My Body is My Own, marks the first time a United Nations report focuses on the power and agency of individuals to make choices about their bodies without fear, violence or coercion.

Text and photo source: un.org

About China

Challenges with Protecting Bodily Autonomy

In the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights, China has made a lot of progress, such as the reduction of maternal mortality and the high level of hospital delivery. Contraceptive prevalence in China has exceeded 80%.

However, China still faces many challenges. China lacks official monitoring data for most indicators of SDG 5, while data from other sources show that gender inequality and harmful gender customs and stereotypes still exist, and violence against women and girls and sexual minorities is widespread. Recent studies show that the unmet contraceptive demand in China has increased from 2% in 2001 to 8.7% in 2017. All these show that China still needs to make unremitting efforts to protect its body autonomy.

Text and photo source: sohu.com

●  Cases

About the World

Canadian Government Investing Female Reproductive Health

On March 8, 2017, in celebration of International Women's Day, the Canadian Prime Minister announced that the government would allocate a total of C $650 million over the next three years to reduce the gender gap and promote women's reproductive health and rights in the world's poorest areas. The focus of the funding support is to provide comprehensive sex education and strengthen reproductive health services.

Photo source: un.org

The funding programme aimed to establish mechanisms and procedures to promote the prevention and response of sexual violence and injuries, including forced child marriage and female circumcision, and to promote the empowerment of women and children.

Text source: chinanews.com

About China

Women's Reproductive Health Services Improved

China has continuously improved women's reproductive health with laws and regulations. In 2016, the "13th Five Year Plan for Health Plan" was issued. China implemented the free services for fundemetary programme of family planning, and promtoted the knowledge of contraception and birth control, eugenics and reproductive health, and improve the accessibility and convenience of medication services. China has done a good job in reproductive technology guidance services, and improved the level of reproductive health. 

Photo source: sohu.com

In 2018, the "Maternal and Child Safety Action Plan" and were issued to carry out the five major actions of pregnancy risk prevention, critical treatment, quality and safety improvement, specialist capacity building, convenient and high-quality service, especially providing free pre-pregnancy eugenic services such as health education and examination for rural planned pregnant couples. 

Text source: xinhua news agency

●  Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiated by the United Nations

On January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.