- What good is a Constitution that purports to give a woman the right to family planning if the reality is she can't afford to buy contraceptives, she can't get access to them, her husband doesn't want her to use them, or she has never been taught how her menstrual cycle works? This is the reality for many women in Guatemala. And the national government is doing little about it.
On Monday, December 4, at a meeting on reproductive rights in Guatemala City convened by the POLICY Project/Guatemala and the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Center for Reproductive Rights will announce the release of a new report entitled, An Unfulfilled Human Right: Family Planning in Guatemala. The report, available in both English and Spanish, demonstrates that the Guatemalan government has fallen woefully short in meeting its international human rights obligations related to the provision of family planning services and information, and makes strong recommendations for improvement.
"The human right of every person to access family planning services and information has been affirmed by the international community at UN conferences beginning in 1968," says Katherine Hall Martinez, Deputy Director of the International Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights. "It is deplorable that the government's lack of political will to address this right continues to be at issue over 30 years later."
The 100-page report details the reality in Guatemala: the prevailing socio-economic indicators; how the government provides reproductive health, yet fails to adequately integrate family planning services and information; and the existing consensus among all segments of the Guatemalan population concerning the need for such services and information.
Through interviews conducted over a 10-week period from October through December 1998, researchers discovered that women in Guatemala would like to limit the number and spacing of their children, but many women, particularly rural and indigenous women, do not have the resources or information to do so. This fact is exacerbated by the strong impact of the Catholic Church in Guatemala, which discourages many Guatemalans from using or seeking information about family planning.
While the Guatemalan government has made attempts to introduce legislative and policy changes to better address reproductive health needs, no comprehensive legislation or policy is in place to ensure access to family planning services and information. The new government, elected in December 1999, has the responsibility under both international human rights law and national law for addressing its citizens' rights to family planning services and information.
"Until the government takes its obligation to address Guatemalan women's need for family planning services seriously," says Center for Reproductive Rights staff attorney Luisa Cabal, "Guatemala will continue to have indicators among the worst in Latin America, including high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity, and unwanted pregnancy, as well as many women's, particularly rural and indigenous women's, continued economic, political and social marginalization."
Facts Related to Family Planning in Guatemala:
- The maternal mortality rate in Guatemala is 190/100,000 births (UNFPA), compared to 12/100,000 births in the United States (World Bank 1999). The infant mortality is 45/1,000 births (Guatemalan National Statistics Institute).
- The total fertility rate in Guatemala is 4.5 births per woman (World Bank 1999).
- Almost 60% of Guatemalans - mostly indigenous women and children - do not have access to health services (Women's Environmental and Development Organization - WEDO).
- Although 69% of all women know of a family planning method, only 15% use one (UNPFA). While 61.3% of women in relationships do not want to have more children, only 38.2% use contraception (Guatemalan National Statistics Institute). This is a very low contraceptive prevalence rate compared to other countries in the region.
- Forty-two percent of Guatemalan children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition. This percentage is the highest in Latin America. In Haiti, the figure is 32%; in Bolivia and Peru, 26% (Guatemalan National Statistics Institute).
- The fertility rate of adolescents (ages 15-19) is 119/1,000, one of the highest in the region (UNFPA).
See the related RFN story: Give Choice a Chance: New Report on Guatemala
