Women's Reproductive Health: A Gender-Sensitive Human Rights Approach

In general, two broad schemes of analysis have been used recently in the social sciences literature to examine reproductive health. The first type identifies a number of social-structural characteristics associated with reproductive health. The second, the reproductive rights explanation, is of recent origin and advocated by a number of scholars from the public health field. Using data from 125 developing countries, this study tests the two explanations of women's reproductive health. The empirical findings indicate the importance of fertility decline and reproductive rights in predicting reproductive health. An inverse direct relationship between women's reproductive health and their economic status is found. We argue for a gender-sensitive human rights approach toward women's reproductive health.