Director of Research, Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Program Specialist, Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Sex Reprod Health Matters. 2024 Dec;32(1):2336770. doi: 10.1080/26410397.2024.2336770. Epub 2024 Apr 22.
Access to sexual health services and information is critical to achieving the highest attainable standard of sexual health, and enabling legal environments are key to advancing progress in this area. In determining overall alignment with human rights standards to respect, protect, and fulfil sexual health-related rights without discrimination, there are many aspects of laws, including their specificity and content, which impact which sexual health services and information are availed, which are restricted, and for whom. To understand the nature of existing legal provisions surrounding access to sexual health services and information, we analysed the content of 40 laws in English, French, and Spanish from 18 countries for the specific sexual health services and information to which access is ensured or prohibited, and the non-discrimination provisions within these laws. Overall, there was wide variation across countries in the types of laws covering these services and the types and number of services and information ensured. Some countries covered different services through multiple laws, and most of the laws dedicated specifically to sexual health addressed only a narrow aspect of sexual health and covered a small range of services. The protected characteristics in non-discrimination provisions and the specificity of these provisions with regard to sexual health services also varied. Findings may inform national legal and policy dialogues around sexual health to identify opportunities for positive change, as well as to guide further investigation to understand the relationship between such legal provisions, the implementation of these laws within countries, and relevant sexual health outcomes.
获取性健康服务和信息对于实现性健康的最高标准至关重要，而有利的法律环境是推动这一领域取得进展的关键。在确定是否完全符合尊重、保护和落实不受歧视的性健康相关权利的人权标准时，法律的许多方面，包括其具体性和内容，都影响着可获得哪些性健康服务和信息、哪些服务和信息受到限制以及为谁提供。为了了解围绕获取性健康服务和信息的现有法律规定的性质，我们分析了来自 18 个国家的 40 部英文、法文和西班牙文法律中的内容，这些法律规定了可获得性健康服务和信息的具体内容，以及禁止或限制的服务和信息，以及这些法律中的非歧视性规定。总体而言，各国在涵盖这些服务的法律类型以及所涵盖的服务和信息的类型和数量方面存在广泛差异。一些国家通过多项法律涵盖不同的服务，而大多数专门针对性健康的法律仅涉及性健康的一个狭窄方面，并且涵盖的服务范围很小。非歧视性规定中的受保护特征以及这些规定在性健康服务方面的具体性也有所不同。调查结果可能为国家性健康法律和政策对话提供信息，以确定积极变革的机会，并指导进一步调查，以了解这些法律规定、国家内部这些法律的执行情况以及相关性健康结果之间的关系。
