Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All

Guttmacher Launches the Neglected No More Initiative

Consider the women confronted with these real-world experiences: Abandoned by a spouse because of infertility. Forced to conceal contraceptive use for fear of retribution by their partner. Lack of access to postabortion care to treat complications. Living with the fear of a death sentence if found with a same-sex partner. Expelled from school because of pregnancy as an adolescent. 

These all-too-common, yet often-overlooked barriers to basic sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) affect millions of women around the globe every day. This year, Guttmacher’s Global Policy team launched a major new initiative, Neglected No More, to build support and visibility for these experiences, and ultimately, to change the policies that make them possible. 

Neglected No More builds upon the recommendations of the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission, a Guttmacher-led project that articulated a bold new vision for SRHR globally—one based in the latest science and rooted in human rights principles. Importantly, it incorporated rights into the definition of sexual and reproductive health for the first time. The Commission has had worldwide impact, with partners in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa using its recommendations to drive decision-making on policy development and resource allocation. 

Neglected No More aims to take the Commission’s recommendations and turn them into worldwide action. “Our vision is that SRHR is routinely embedded as part of universal health care. Everyone who needs these services should have them,” says Susheela Singh, Guttmacher’s Vice President for Global Science and Policy Integration and a founding member of the Commission. Neglected No More will amplify issues that are commonly neglected, including infertility, gender-based violence, reproductive cancers, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, abortion and STIs, as well as neglected populations such as the LGBTQ+ community and adolescents.

The first steps are already in motion. Over a two-year period, Guttmacher is organizing several forums to enable partners across various regions to co-create a shared policy agenda. The outcome will be a Policy Action Guide, “designed by the SRHR community for the SRHR community,” says Irum Taqi, Guttmacher’s Director of Global Policy, who is leading the initiative. The goal is to integrate the agendas of a range of organizations and produce a strong set of tools that will facilitate collective advocacy. 

“We wanted to center the Commission’s comprehensive definition of SRHR and at the same time, uplift these neglected issues,” says Taqi. Part of the vision for Neglected No More is to break down siloes between organizations advocating for a specific population or a specific issue. By building a bigger tent that encompasses all of the neglected issues, the movement will have access to a broader set of resources, while wielding more collective power. This cooperation is essential at a time when opponents of SRHR are advancing an extreme, antirights agenda in many parts of the world. 

This year, Guttmacher’s Global Policy team has focused on building the scaffolding for the coalition: identifying and bringing together partners, while offering the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission’s framework of neglected interventions as a resource. What comes next is for the partners to decide. 

You can learn more about Guttmacher’s impact in our 2024 Impact Report.