Shaping Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for Persons with Disabilities: A Policy Discourse Analysis of SRHR Policies from the African Union

Sammanfattning: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) is suggested to be solved by policies and action plans. However, post-structural scholars argue that discourses shape policies, and their solutions. The policy discourse on women with disabilities’ SRHR needs has not been given much attention, especially in the context of Africa. Therefore, this study questions how SRHR is represented in relation to women with disabilities, specifically concerning contraception, gender-based violence (GBV), socio-environmental aspects and information, education and communication (ICE). To answer this, it draws on four questions from Bacchi’s post-structural ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’(WPR) approach. Three primary policy documents produced by the African Union are selected for policy discourse analysis. The findings suggest that the SRHR discourse continues to be represented along the lines of reproductive health. Contraception is encouraged and represented as an individual choice, but disregards unequal power relations in society. GBV is problematised in terms of legal strengthening, and women with disabilities seem to be constituted as SRHR subjects through the problematisation of GBV. SRHR is moreover represented in terms of a rural-urban binary, which mystifies disabling social structure. This is also noted in ICE for SRHR, representing homogenous service and a silent able/disable dichotomy.