Right to sexual and reproductive health: women with disabilities struggle to access family planning in Benin

“When a disabled woman comes to talk about reproductive health, people look at her as if she doesn’t need these services. It’s as if we aren’t counted among those who should benefit from family planning. You can hear, ‘she does that too?’”, these are, among other things, the prejudices denounced by Ms. Ameyo Ahouansou, a woman with a motor disability.

For her, reception doesn’t make things easier for women with disabilities. “When you walk in, all eyes are on you. If you’re not mentally strong, the tension rises even before the consultation.”

Prejudice, inaccessibility and lack of training: a triple burden for women with disabilities

To these material obstacles is added the inaccessibility of the premises. “You arrive with your crutches and you find yourself facing steps. They carry you like a package. It’s humiliating.” For visually impaired or deaf women, there is no signage, no sign language interpreter. “The doctor doesn’t understand, nor does the patient. How can she explain her problem?”.

For her, with these difficulties, these prejudices, these accusing looks, which woman with a disability would still go humiliate herself to ask for family planning advice. “We can’t always blame the caregivers, they haven’t been trained. The state must sensitize them, equip them so they know how to care for us. Accessibility, reception, communication—if we fix these, we will ease our burdens and finally open family planning to women with disabilities.”

Like Ameyo, other women also experience this exclusion, such as Prudence Dakè, an administrative assistant and a woman with a disability.