Written by Marindah Putri, Winner of IPAS Indonesia Foundation’s Reproductive Justice Writing Competition
“When I use birth control, I feel dizzy, nauseous, and even vomit,” said Ms. Isma (a pseudonym).
Mba Isma, is a mother of two children, works as a housewife, “…. but I am forced because I can’t let go of birth control by my husband”.
Mba Isma finally decided to stop injecting birth control, then she gave birth to two babies, bringing the number of Mba Isma’s children to four.
“Sis, I was just scolded by my husband, he said, being a wife, how come you can’t keep from getting pregnant” Mba Isma told me, ” …. Now, I’m using birth control again Sis”.
Mba Isma decided to use birth control again, but it wasn’t long before she was diagnosed with breast cancer, a few months after the birth of her fourth child. After several years of battling cancer, Mba Isma is now resting in peace forever.
Mba Isma’s story is one of many incidents of reproductive violence experienced by women. Reproductive violence is part of gender-based violence, women often experience injustice in determining their reproductive health. The patriarchal culture that is still deeply rooted in society, places women as those who are charged with controlling pregnancy and childbirth. Contraceptives are mostly made for women, so contraceptive users are still dominated by women.
Based on data from BKKBN, of the total modern family planning participants, the number of women who performed tubectomy was 856,550 participants, while men who performed vasectomy were only 36,386 participants. Based on the journal Global Health: Science and Practice, the gap between women and men in the use of permanent contraception is getting higher.
Even globally, the use of vasectomy has decreased dramatically, even though vasectomy is much simpler and safer than tubectomy in terms of medical aspects. Gender stereotypes in society assume that women have the nature to get pregnant and give birth, so women should be more concerned about contraception than men. The construction of masculinity considers that men have control over sexual relations and decide the number of children. Men are also reluctant to use family planning because of the masculinity values they believe in.
The hierarchical relationship pattern between husband and wife results in reproductive health decisions and rights not being made fairly and equally. Discussing reproductive justice is not a biological issue alone, but also needs to understand the existence of power relations, destructive traditional gender norms, patriarchal culture, which results in the emergence of discriminatory policies and regulations that are unfair to women.
Reproductive justice emphasizes the importance of the principle of individual rights to choose to have or not have children without coercion and structural barriers. Access to information and resources to achieve this freedom of choice needs to be considered, one of which is access to information on comprehensive sexual education. Reproductive justice is difficult to achieve without comprehensive sexual education, both of which are related to ensure that every individual understands the rights, access, and information needed to make conscious decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health.
A framework is needed to socialize and disseminate comprehensive sexual education programs, as a preventive measure against sexual and reproductive violence. Since in school, sexual education is only focused on women, and excludes men. Sexual education usually only focuses on material on body organs and reproductive organs. Comprehensive sexual education in Indonesia needs to emphasize the understanding of gender ideology, often gender ideology has not been substantively considered in sexual health education.
Numerous studies have found that comprehensive sexual education programs that address gender issues are more effective and have a positive impact. Emphasize contextualizing individual experiences of perceptions of masculinity and femininity, experiential reflections on gender stereotypes, and the consequences of gender bias due to societal norms and values. This understanding also needs to be combined with human rights, gender equality, and gender role transformation approaches. The gender transformation approach in comprehensive sexual education aims to explore men’s involvement in changing constructions of masculinity at the interpersonal level.
This approach seeks to create a more gender-equitable relationship. Women and men need access to adequate information about contraceptive use, the assumption that men do not need to use contraceptives needs to be ended through positive masculinity education. Men must learn about contraceptive methods, ensure that the contraceptives used by their wives are safe and do not cause harmful side effects, and also be willing to use contraceptives or sterilization methods. Men are no longer fixated on traditional norms that are destructive and harmful, they understand that women have rights over their bodies, so decisions to have children, the number of children, and birth spacing are decisions made with women fairly. Women have the right to undergo their reproductive experience in good physical and mental health, with adequate health services, and their children have the right to grow and develop in a healthy and safe environment.
Reference
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