You have the right to access reproductive and sexual health care services and the necessary medical treatment in a timely manner. The State must ensure that you have equal access to state-paid medical services.
Access to medical treatment
You have the right to access the medical treatment you need for the protection of your sexual and reproductive health. The medical services and treatment must be qualitative and available in a timely manner. Your rights as a patient are set out in Latvian law and include the right to equal access to the medical treatment available in accordance with the conditions set out in the Medical Treatment Law. Your right to equally access and to obtain in a timely manner, those general health care services to which you are entitled under Latvian law, in accordance with the conditions set out in the Medical Treatment Law, is part of the human right to health.
Spheres of medical assistance & State funding
In the context of reproductive and sexual health, you have the right to receive medical treatment:
- during pregnancy and child birth
- for birth control and in the case of termination of pregnancy
- for sexually transmitted diseases, HIV infection and AIDS
- in order to treat diseases of the reproductive organs and infertility, including artificial procreation
Access to the reproductive and sexual health care system does not mean that the State has to provide all medical treatment free of charge. Taking into account its financial resources and other aspects, the State may decide the types of medical treatment services that it may fully or partially finance. The types of reproductive and sexual health care services that are state-funded, and the conditions and the extent to which such funding applies, are set out in Procedures for the Organisation of and Payment for Health Care Services.
example The State fully finances assistance in child birth in hospitals. However, Latvian law does not provide for free medical assistance during home birth.
Additional medical treatment services
The State has to ensure that the medical services available are safe and qualitative. It has, therefore, established a system of services which determines the requirements for the medical services themselves and the manner of providing them. The State also determines the services which should be free, and for which groups of patients. Thus, where the State has established a system of medical services in a particular sphere which are accessible to all interested persons, you do not have the right to request additional services outside this system and/or to have them funded partially or fully by the State.
example The State ensures that all women have access to free medical treatment during child birth in the medical institutions set out in law. However, you do not have the right to request medical assistance during home birth free of charge, as Latvian law does not provide financial assistance in these cases.
Information about reproductive and sexual health
Access to reproductive and sexual health care is closely connected and, to a large extent, depends on the information you receive about the state of your health and the medical treatment you need. Read more about access to information about your reproductive and sexual health.
What human rights violation may there be?
If you do not have access to the reproductive and sexual health care services you need, or they are not qualitative and available in a timely manner, your right to health may be violated. In extreme situations, a lack of adequate medical care can lead to a violation of the right to life.
Since aspects of your reproductive and sexual health are closely linked to your private life, such as your right to privacy or your choice to become a parent, this may also lead to a violation of your right to a private life.
If medical treatment is denied only because you belong to a group with certain characteristics, associated with your race, origin, religious beliefs, political affiliation, sexual orientation or other similar grounds, it may violate the prohibition on discrimination and unequal treatment.