Empower Women by Granting Reproductive Rights

Reproductive rights are directly tied to helping fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and empowering women. Convincing arguments about the need for the UN to address the lack of reproductive rights can be found in this article by Barbara Crossette. Crossette notes:
"Much more money now goes to fight HIV/AIDS, a shift justifiably related to the continuing spread of the still-incurable disease. But people in the reproductive health field are distressed by the widening gap between AIDS and family planning campaigns and the bizarre tendency to treat these as separate issues. Effective reproductive health services for women and men should be part of the arsenal against HIV/AIDS, now becoming a women's disease in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. At least half a million women already die annually of pregnancy-related causes. Add AIDS and that's two lethal strikes against them, two terrible and often unnecessary vulnerabilities."