ISSWSH supports WAS Declaration

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  Created: Friday, 01 July 2022

The International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH) remains committed to affirming and supporting the sexual rights of all people worldwide, in accordance with the World Association for Sexual Health Declaration of Sexual Rights. As an international society, we support the WAS Declaration in its totality as it addresses sociopolitical and cultural issues related to sexual health in the various situations that may exist in different countries across the globe.

More specifically, the recent US Supreme Court ruling that overturned the legal decision on Roe v Wade in 1973 violates multiple rights that are included in the WAS Declaration including the right to equality and non-discrimination, the right to autonomy and bodily integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to privacy, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual health, with the possibility of pleasurable, satisfying and safe experiences, the right to information, and the right to decide whether to have children, the number and spacing of children, and to have information and the means to do so.

As a professional medical and scientific society, we further oppose government interference in the physician-patient relationship and any criminalization of clinicians for providing quality patient care. Sexuality is a fundamental human right and therefore the ISSWSH supports the rights of people to make their own decisions about their bodies, to have access to safe reproductive healthcare services without discrimination, harassment, or violence, and to be able to maintain both dignity and well-being. This violation of the rights of people, in particular of marginalized populations, must not be tolerated.