Non-discrimination is linked to equality and to providing special attention to vulnerable groups in order to secure actual equal treatment. Discrimination is unacceptable even when it is not intentional, and, by virtue of the state obligation to protect, states are accountable even if the discrimination is caused by a private actor. At the work place, for instance, a private employer cannot discriminate against a woman due to her marital status and the fact that she is in her reproductive years. If that happens, the state has the obligation to intervene. The lack of action by the state to prevent this type of discrimination is a breach of the right to non-discrimination and the violating state can be held accountable. Discrimination by private actors is especially relevant to health issues, including reproductive health issues, as it is forbidden to deny a person access to health care based on this person’s attachment to a particular group, nationality, gender, age, HIV-status etc. For example, if health professionals deny young unmarried women access to contraceptives based on marital status, a case of discrimination under state responsibility could be made. The state must ensure such incidents do not happen by passing non-discrimination legislation as well as ensuring suitable contractual provisions and education initiatives. It is prohibited to deny women access to healthcare, including reproductive healthcare, because they are women. This is understood to mean that the state cannot deny health services that only women need, such as services related to pregnancy, pregnancy related complications, and post abortion care. It is also forbidden to discriminate against women due to their marital status or 78 for any other reason, such as HIV status or pregnancy. Non-discrimination obligations go beyond states’ non-interference with individuals’ rights. Arising from their obligations to combat discrimination, states have a duty to ensure that health information and services are made available to all individuals, including marginalized and excluded groups. It is also crucial that states take action and ensure that the laws passed and their policies not only do not discriminate against specific groups but also secure actual equal treatment. Laws must take into consideration de facto differences to guarantee equality. Furthermore, states must take steps to empower women to make decisions in relation to their sexual and reproductive health free of coercion, violence and discrimination. It is the state that has to ensure that women and girls can make these decisions free from discrimination. If women and girls do not have this right, the state must take measures to ensure that they do by, for example, using affirmative measures. The principle of non-discrimination also obliges the state to make sure that all groups have similar access to (reproductive) health care, irrespective of sex, age, ethnicity, domicile, disability, etc. This entails among other things making sure that even the poorest person living far from urban centres can access reproductive health care. Non-discrimination and equality measures have to be thought through the entire state apparatus. It is not sufficient for a piece of legislation to be for example gender neutral if it in practice discriminates against women or other groups. Laws and policies approved by states have to promote de facto equality, which is to say that results and