Women's reproductive health: A gender-sensitive human rights approach

In general, two broad schemes of analysis have been used recently in the so cial sciences literature to examine reproductive health. The first type ide ntifies a number of social-structural characteristics associated with repro ductive health. The second, the reproductive rights explanation, is of rece nt origin and advocated by a number of scholars from the public health fiel d. Using data from 125 developing countries, this study tests the two expla nations of women's reproductive health. The empirical findings indicate the importance of fertility decline and reproductive rights in predicting repr oductive health. An inverse direct relationship between women's reproductiv e health and their economic status is found. We argue for a gender-sensitiv e human rights approach toward women's reproductive health.