Thomson Reuters Foundation: OPINION: Universal health coverage will remain elusive for women and adolescents unless it includes sexual and reproductive health and rights
Helen Clark, board chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and former prime minister of New Zealand; Michelle Bachelet, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, former PMNCH board chair, and former president of Chile; and Graça Machel, former PMNCH board chair and founder of the Graça Machel Trust

“This week, Nairobi plays host to global leaders, policymakers and influencers to mark the 25th anniversary of the ground breaking International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994 which established an ambitious program of action to achieve comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights for all. … The Nairobi Summit must emphatically restate that sexual and reproductive health are matters of fundamental human rights — and they are critical for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health. At a time when there is growing political momentum in countries to provide affordable, quality health for all — universal health coverage — we must ensure that the full panoply of sexual and reproductive health interventions are included in national health plans, with the financial resources to back them up. We also must direct urgent attention to the ways in which discrimination and stigma prevent the most marginalized groups, including adolescents, migrants, people with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, minorities and indigenous peoples, amongst others, from accessing sexual and reproductive health services. … On the eve of the Nairobi Summit, as current and past leaders of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, we call on other leaders, in all their diversity, to unite their voices behind fully financed health plans to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights…” (11/6).