Infertility generates disability (an impairment of function), and thus access to health care falls under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. An estimated 34 million women, predominantly from developing countries, have infertility which resulted from maternal sepsis and unsafe abortion (long term maternal morbidity resulting in a disability). Infertility in women was ranked the 5th highest serious global disability5&6 (among populations under the age of 60).

According to the Telegraph, the World Health Organization will change its definition of disabilities to classify people without a sexual partner as “infertile.”