Reproductive Rights: Knowledge and attitude in women visiting State-run health centers in Tehran

Health and access to health facilities are now regarded as basic human rights and a fundamental social objective. Reproductive health is essential to promote quality of life and satisfy the need for an enjoyable parenthood. This was a descriptive-analytic study on 430 women of reproductive age who were receiving health services from urban PHC clinics run by Tehran, Beheshti and Iran medical universities. With the help of a questionnaire we gathered data on factors related to reproductive health knowledge and attitude and analyzed the data using x2, OR, Parson correlation coefficients. Knowledge and attitude was found to be significantly related to education and employment (p<0.00). There was also an association between knowledge and attitude on one hand and husband's education and employment on the other (p<0.00). Age was not found to have an influence on knowledge and practice (p<0.757). This research shows that education can have a major effect on empowering women to demand and exercise their basic rights, including those related to reproduction and childbearing.