While each of the countries has recognized the right to health care and family planning, the last decade has been marked by a failure to ensure that laws, policies and institutions will further women's reproductive rights in the region. The report concludes that the privatization of the health care system under structural adjustment programs has led to decreased spending on health care and a deterioration in women's ability to control their fertility. Access to comprehensive reproductive health services and basic family planning, such as contraceptives, is extremely limited across the region. In spite of a history of egalitarian law under state socialism promoting the equality of women, and the adoption of major international human rights treaties including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which are equivalent to domestic law, there remains a large gap between the rights granted by law and the ability to exercise those rights.
Contraceptives are legal but inaccessible.
Women's health is seriously imperiled by illegal abortions. Modern methods of contraceptives are not widely available, and where they are available they are often prohibitively expensive. In Russia the cost of condoms is the equivalent of two-thirds of a week's worth of wages. Abortion is often the only way for women to control their fertility. Hungary has chosen a different route.