Claim: A news report by a Swaziland newspaper, Swazi Observer, claims the World Health Organization (WHO) will classify people who struggle to find a sexual partner, do not get pregnant after 12 months or more of unprotected sex will be considered disabled.
Verdict: False. WHO does not consider people who cannot find a sexual partner as disabled. According to a WHO representative for Kenya Dr. Rudi Eggers, they do not classify infertility as a disability, since disability is neither simply a biological nor a social phenomenon.
Full Text:
A resurfaced news article claims that the World Health Organization (WHO) will regard people who do not have sex or struggle to find a sexual partner disabled.
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Source: Twitter
The article further cites reports that under the new guidelines, the World Health Organization is set to release people who are unable to find a suitable sexual partner or achieve pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sex will also be regarded as disabled.
Evidently, the claim was published in a newspaper Swazi Observer on Tuesday July 17, 2019, by a journalist Nonduduzo Kunene.
The claim, which has been published by express.com and thestar.com has received several reactions on social media including Twitter and Facebook.
Verification:
First, we sought to find out what the definition of disability is according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The World Health Organization describes disability as difficulties encountered in any or all three areas of functioning, which are impairments, activity and participation limitations.
Throwing more light on the areas, WHO says “Impairments are problems in body function or alterations in body structure, for example, paralysis or blindness. Activity limitations are difficulties in executing activities, for example, walking or eating, and participation restrictions are problems with involvement in any area of life, for example, facing discrimination in employment or transportation”.
Clearly, no mention is made of the inability to find a sexual partner or to get pregnant as disability.
We also looked out for what WHO says about being infertile since the claim purported that the inability to conceive after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sex a disability.
We found a statement issued on February 5, 2020, indicating that infertility is “a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse.”
It further emphasized that, even though WHO is currently developing guidelines on the issue of infertility, the guidelines will not affect the definition of infertility in relation to disability.
“WHO is not planning to make any changes to the definition of infertility. WHO is currently developing guidelines on the diagnosis and management of infertility. These guidelines will not revise the definition of infertility,” the statement said.
This was also revealed in a tweet by the organization in reference to a published article on the claim on telegraph news portal.
Source: Twitter
Also, cited in a fact check by Africa Check, Dr. Rudi Eggers, the WHO representative for Kenya, stated that “WHO does not classify infertility as a disability, since disability is neither simply a biological nor a social phenomenon”.
“Although infertility is an impairment of biological function, WHO does not classify infertility as a disability, since disability is neither simply a biological nor a social phenomenon,” he added.
Similarly, a fact check by Reuters also flagged the claim as false.
Meanwhile, we have contacted the Regional Office of WHO in Ghana to find out if there has been an update in WHO’s stance on the matter. Thus, this fact check will be updated if their response supports the claim.
Conclusion.
Clearly, the claim that people who struggle to find a sexual partner and or achieve pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sex will be considered disabled is false.
