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The purpose of this paper is to assess the situation of accessibility to reproductive health rights, and the conditional factors of accessibility to such rights of adolescents.

A qualitative method was used to extract information from 80 informants. Data were collected through in-depth interview, focus group discussion, observation, data recording, audio recording and the review of related documents during August to October 2016.

Adolescents had not accessed to their right on informing of their decision making; information and education; health; confidentiality and privacy; and treating with equity and no discrimination. Also, the conditional factors influenced to the accessibility on such rights were lacking of knowledge on reproductive health and negative attitude toward this matter among the people concerned. There were still no regulations or policies on the performance of authority agencies and the factors on social dimensions, traditions, customs, sexual culture and religion.

The findings from this study would be a help to promote the accessibility for adolescents to reproductive health rights under the Prevention and Solution of Adolescent Pregnancy Problem Act, B.E. 2559 (2016) specific on standard criteria reproductive health services from hospitals and the involvement from Ministry of Education for the development of sex life skill and reproductive health for the teacher.

This paper assessed factors affecting adolescent-friendly health services (AFHS), education and utilization among youth (10–19 years) in Kumbungu district, Ghana.

The study used a cross-sectional design involving 416 adolescents from households using a random sampling technique. The authors collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, education and utilization of AFHS using a semi-structured questionnaire between June and September 2017. Logistic regression models were used to determine the factors associated with AFHS education and utilization.

Of the 416 adolescents interviewed, 66% were between 15 and 19 years. Half (50%) of the adolescents received AFHS education, 54% utilized existing services and 85% knew about health challenges. Females (aOR = 0.64; p = 0.031) were less likely to receive AFHS education compared to males. Muslims (aOR = 0.21; p < 0.001) were less likely to utilize AFHS compared to Christians. Adolescents with primary (aOR = 6.65; p = 0.020), junor high school (JHS) (aOR = 10.66, p = 0.079) or senior high school (SHS) (aOR = 1.04; p = 0.954) education were more likely to utilize AFHSs compared to those with no education.

This study reports a moderate level of education and the utilization of adolescent health services. Sex, religion and education are the key predictors of AFHS education and utilization. This study contributes to the understanding of adolescent health services and the foundation for future studies. It may be used for the planning of adolescent health service programs in disadvantaged settings.

This study aims to assess the associations of early marriage and spousal age difference (independent of early marriage) with reproductive and sexual health and autonomy in decision-making among married women before conception.

The present study was a part of a three-year community intervention to improve the preconception health of young married women (20–35 years) in the West Delhi district of India. The six key outcomes assessed were: knowledge of reproductive health, discussions related to sexual health, history of anemia, use of contraceptives by women, frequency of consumption of meals per day and the autonomy in decision-making for household expenditures. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models were used to explore the associations between the two key predictors (early marriage or spousal age difference), sociodemographic variables and six outcomes. The results were expressed as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of 2,324 women, enrolled from four wards in the district using cluster-based sampling, were interviewed.

Around 17% of women were married by the exact age of 18, and 20% were elder or just one year younger than their husbands. Women who were married early had low reproductive health knowledge (OR (95% CI): 0.48 (0.38–0.60)) and a lower probability of expressing autonomy (OR (95% CI): 0.78 (0.62–0.97)). However, women older than men or younger by just one year in the married relationship had higher reproductive health knowledge (OR (95% CI): 1.25 (1.01–1.54)) than women younger than men more than two years.

Under the umbrella of the preconception care domain, frontline workers should emphasize counseling girls and young women to marry late and delay the first pregnancy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore an association between women experience lifetime intimate partner violence (IPV) and women decision making with utilization of reproductive and maternal health services in Cambodia.

An analysis of secondary data of Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS) 2014. The total number of sample size was 1,539 married women who had birth in the last five years prior to the time of interview and completed the domestic violence module in the CDHS 2014 questionnaire. χ² test and binary logistic regression were performed in this study.

Results give an evidence that emotional violence had significant impact on receiving sufficient antenatal care (ANC) (OR: 0.7, 95%CI: 0.43–0.86) while physical violence had significant association with deliver with skilled birth attendance (SBA) (OR: 0.5, 95%CI: 0.27–0.79). Further, women’s participation in household decision making played as important factor in enabling women revive sufficient ANC (OR: 1.7, 95%CI: 1.19–2.29), and utilization of modern contraceptive method (OR: 1.5, 95%CI: 1.09–1.97).

This study provides significant finding on the impact of IPV and women’s decision making on reproductive and maternal health in Cambodia. Result has drawn an attention to policy makers, related ministries and stakeholder to promulgate and effectiveness of policies and program implementation within the country.

Indonesia subscribes to rights-based principles of family planning. However, a chasm between principles and practice has long been noted on a global basis, and progress has not been well-documented. This paper aims to assess the extent to which the Indonesian national family planning program has evolved in a manner that is consistent with rights-based principles.

The primary source of data was five Indonesian Demographic Health Surveys undertaken from 1997 to 2017. The analyses were organized around three major categories of family planning-related human rights. Trend analysis and logistic regression were used in analyzing the data.

Indonesian women have considerable autonomy in family planning decision, reporting that family planning decisions were mainly made by themselves or jointly with their spouse. Although contraceptive method awareness and demand for family planning are high, Indonesia fares poorly with regard to informed choice in contraceptive method selection. Access to family planning services is comparatively high as judged by contraceptive prevalence, family planning demand satisfaction and unmet need for family planning. However, significant geographic and socioeconomic inequity were observed on many indicators, with eastern Indonesian provinces consistently lagging behind.

This paper focuses on married couple, as Indonesia has a restrictive policy to limiting access and information of family planning for other groups, unmarried youth in particular.

This paper makes an important contribution to document how effectively the prohuman rights policy orientation toward family planning has been translated into services.

The purpose of this paper is to understand women’s experiences, acceptability and outcomes of using the medical termination of pregnancy (MTP). The study is conducted at nine reproductive health and family planning clinics at university hospitals as well as regional and provincial hospitals located in Bangkok and the locations within Thailand.

This is a descriptive research recruiting healthy women with pregnancy up to 63 days since the last menstrual period (LMP) who opted for MTP during 2012–2014.

A total of 443 women who were referred from the reproductive health networks voluntarily participated in the study. Overall, 92.6 percent of participants had a complete abortion. No serious adverse events were found for cases using misoprostol at home or at clinic. More than 98.3 percent of the women felt satisfied or very satisfied with the method. More than 80 percent of participants thought that the side-effects of the method were as expected or less than expected. More than 95 percent of the women recommended having MTP available in Thailand.

The introduction of MTP that uses a mifepristone and misoprostol regimen (Medabon®) in pregnancies up to 63 days, since LMP demonstrates that misoprostol can be safely used by women at home or at clinic. The administration of misoprostol at home reduces the number of hospital visits, which saves time and costs for traveling from home to the facility. In addition, women have more privacy and control over their bodies by self-administering misoprostol. The MTP’s introductory results also show that MTP service provision is well integrated into reproductive health and family planning services. It is useful for stakeholders who would be involved in design and planning of health system services before the MTP is made broadly available throughout the country.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) is home to 21% of the world’s population of people who inject drugs and it is the region with the fastest-growing HIV epidemic. HIV prevalence among women who inject drugs is significantly higher than among men in EECA. Even in places with high coverage of needle syringe programmes and HIV testing and treatment, women’s access to opioid substitution treatment is lower than men, and women’s sexual and reproductive health needs remain unaddressed. EECA has a unique system of drug registries that store the personal data of people who use drugs. Registration lowers the chances of employment and access to education and for women and increases the risk of losing custody of their children. The system of drug registries contributes to drug-related stigma. Breaches of confidentiality of drug registry data lead to the further marginalisation of women who use drugs. Criminalisation, past experience of police violence and poverty contribute to healthcare access barriers for women. There is a need for legislative changes to improve personal data protection, decriminalise drug use and reduce police violence. The positive effects of these changes would only be seen in the long term. In the interim, women need special access programmes that are designed specifically to address their needs, that provide free-of-charge services and that ensure the safety and confidentiality of personal data.