criminal laws and other legal restrictions disempower women who may be deterred from taking steps to protect their health in order to avoid liability and out of fear of stigmatization by restricting access to sexual and reproductive healthcare goodsservices and information these laws can also have a discriminatory effect in that they disproportionately affect those in need of such resources namely women as a result women and girls are punished both when they abide by these laws and are thus subjected to poor physical and mental health outcomes and when they do not and thus face incarceration ibid