Challenges for Women with Disabilities Accessing Reproductive Health Care Around the World: A Scoping Review

Abstract

This scoping review provides an overview of access to reproductive health care for women with physical disabilities in low-middle income and high-income countries from 1995 to 2017. The paper reviews 40 qualitative studies, identified by searching 10 databases including Ovid (Health and psychosocial instruments, NHS economic evaluation database), OVID MEDLINE, Pubmed, Informit (Health and Society, Health collection, Humanities and social sciences collection), ProQuest Central (ProQuest XML), CINAHL Plus (EBSCO), ScienceDirect Journal, Wiley Online Library, Google Scholar, BioMed Central. Nine main themes were identified. They included: unavailable, unreliable or dated health information; removal of participants’ autonomy; limited reproduction-related education; health provider-derived barriers; systemic barriers to access; socio-economic barriers; transportation barriers; Family-related barriers; and reproductive technology barriers. These themes are explored across various country contexts, including high-income countries with high access to reproductive health care, high-income countries with low access, low-middle income countries with high access, and low-middle income countries with low access. Some suggestions for improvements are also outlined.