At a May 31-June 2 special United Nations meeting on HIV/AIDS, Ipas staff member Laura Villa Torres spoke about sexual and reproductive rights.

Laura Villa Torres, youth coordinator in Ipas’s Mexico City office, spoke May 31 to the U.N. General Assembly’s Special Session on AIDS (UNGASS) in New York. Villa was one of a select group of civil society representatives invited to share perspectives on themes such as gender equality and AIDS; the role of religion and the disease; and placing the global pandemic into a human rights context.

Speaking on behalf of the international Youth Coalition, 25-year-old Villa focused on sexual and reproductive rights and how they must be considered in this age of AIDS. In 2005, according to UNAIDS statistics, 38 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS, 4 million more became infected and another 2 million died.

In her remarks, Villa noted that “even though many efforts have been made in the area of sexual and reproductive rights and health, mainly from the [International] Conference of Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, we have much work ahead. At the moment, half of the new [HIV] infections globally happen in young people between 15 and 24. Of those infections, 60 percent are women.”

Villa said that now — 25 years since the discovery of AIDS, with the world’s largest-ever cohort of youth — is the time to act.

“Half of the people in the world are young. Investing economically and politically in youth today — with a comprehensive approach to sexual and reproductive rights — can mean the difference for the development of our societies for years to come, mainly in the matter of HIV/AIDS.”

Villa also confronted issues that are often considered taboo: the rights of people whose sexual identities don’t fit into heterosexual norms, abortion and how women often can’t control their reproductive lives — whether that’s due to abuse or cultural beliefs that disenfranchise them.

“How many women have to face situations where their reproductive decisions are not respected? Often, women don’t have the necessary skills to negotiate condom use and, in addition to HIV, pregnancies — unplanned, unwanted or forced — are the order of the day.”

She continued: “We’re even afraid to mention the word ‘abortion.’ But abortion is a reality for all women, including those living with HIV. Here are two fundamental premises we should respect. No woman should be forced to terminate her pregnancy because she has HIV. And every woman who lives with HIV and decides freely and voluntarily to choose abortion must have access to safe, quality services.”

The UNGASS draft political declaration includes no references to abortion services for women living with HIV/AIDS. It does, however, “commit to address the rising rates of HIV infection among young people to ensure an HIV-free future generation” through evidence-based prevention strategies and the provision of youth-friendly health services.

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