Learn about relationship, sexual and reproductive rights

Every person has the right to make choices about their relationships and sexuality, including people with disabilities. People with disabilities have the right to:

• develop interpersonal relationships, including friendships and emotional and sexual relationships;
• sexual expression and education, reflective of their own cultural, religious and moral values and of social responsibility;
• individualized education and information to encourage informed decision-making, including education about such issues as reproduction, marriage and family life, abstinence, safe sexual practices, sexual orientation, sexual abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases;
• education and information about having and raising children that is individualized to reflect each person’s unique ability to understand;
• make their own decisions related to having and raising children with supports as necessary;
• make their own decisions related to using birth control methods within the context of their personal or religious beliefs;
• have control over their own bodies;
• protection from sexual harassment and from physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; and
• protection from sterilization solely because of their disability.

All people also have the responsibility to respect the rights of every other person.

Summarized from The Arc and the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities position statement on sexuality