The project will examine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health services in their encounters with people with different disabilities in relation to their reproductive rights.
The aim of the project is to examine the factors that hinder and those that promote reproductive health and rights among the diverse population of people with disabilities. Reproductive health is a fundamental part of people’s lives and encompasses sexuality, social relationships, and the right to health care, counselling, and information.
By reproductive health, we refer to contraception, family planning, pregnancy and postnatal care, including the right to be informed about and have access to contraception, the right to control one’s own fertility, and, for women in particular, the right to safe and legal abortion.
For people with disabilities, this also includes the right to enter into consensual sexual relationships and the right to have and raise their own children.
We will examine the accessibility of services, as well as health professionals’ assessments of and attitudes towards individuals’ self-determination and capacity to consent. To shed light on these issues, we will adopt an exploratory approach, with data collected through interviews and vignettes.
