Sexual and Reproductive Rights (SRR) and Digital Rights are closely linked. The digital space has become essential for exercising fundamental rights and freedoms, specifically respecting and guaranteeing reproductive rights. However, it is also a disputed terrain where various actors converge to disinform, spread violence, discriminate, and perpetuate inequality.
To ensure SRR in the digital sphere, it is imperative to address access gaps, censorship, and content suppression, as well as violations of freedom of expression and other manifestations of gender violence that are transferred to the virtual world.
At a global level, political actors and anti-rights movements are pushing to reverse the rights acquired by women after years of feminist struggle, especially regarding the right to abortion. The Internet has become a new battlefield where these actors spread disinformation and hate speech against the rights of women and gender-diverse people to decide about their bodies and life projects. However, it has also allowed us to overcome barriers to accessing information on sexual and reproductive health, as well as resources related to safe abortions.
Estefany Molina Martínez, Managing Attorney of WLW for Latin America and the Caribbean, explains the connection between rights and why freedom of expression and the right to information cannot exist without reproductive justice.