25. Women with disabilities, of all ages, often have difficulty with physical access to health
services. Women with mental disabilities are particularly vulnerable, while there is limited
understanding, in general, of the broad range of risks to mental health to which women are
disproportionately susceptible as a result of gender discrimination, violence, poverty, armed
conflict, dislocation and other forms of social deprivation. States parties should take appropriate
measures to ensure that health services are sensitive to the needs of women with disabilities and
are respectful of their human rights and dignity.
Article 12 (2)
26. Reports should also include what measures States parties have taken to ensure women
appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period.
Information on the rates at which these measures have reduced maternal mortality and morbidity
in their countries, in general, and in vulnerable groups, regions and communities, in particular,
should also be included.
27. States parties should include in their reports how they supply free services where necessary
to ensure safe pregnancies, childbirth and post-partum periods for women. Many women are at
risk of death or disability from pregnancy-related causes because they lack the funds to obtain or
access the necessary services, which include antenatal, maternity and post-natal services. The
Committee notes that it is the duty of States parties to ensure women’s right to safe motherhood
and emergency obstetric services and they should allocate to these services the maximum extent
of available resources.
Other relevant articles in the Convention
28. When reporting on measures taken to comply with article 12, States parties are urged to
recognize its interconnection with other articles in the Convention that have a bearing on
women’s health. Those articles include article 5 (b), which requires States parties to ensure that
family education includes a proper understanding of maternity as a social function; article 10,
which requires States parties to ensure equal access to education, thus enabling women to access
health care more readily and reducing female student drop-out rates, which are often a result of
premature pregnancy; article 10 (h), which requires that States parties provide to women and
girls access to specific educational information to help ensure the health and well-being of
families, including information and advice on family planning; article 11, which is concerned, in
part, with the protection of women’s health and safety in working conditions, including the
safeguarding of the reproductive function, special protection from harmful types of work during
pregnancy and with the provision of paid maternity leave; article 14, paragraph 2 (b), which
requires States parties to ensure access for rural women to adequate health-care facilities,
including information, counselling and services in family planning, and (h), which obliges States
parties to take all appropriate measures to ensure adequate living conditions, particularly
housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communications, all of which are
critical for the prevention of disease and the promotion of good health care; and article 16,
paragraph 1 (e), which requires States parties to ensure that women have the same rights as men
to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access
to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise those rights. Article 16,
paragraph 2, proscribes the betrothal and marriage of children, an important factor in preventing
the physical and emotional harm which arise from early childbirth.