Transgender persons are not recognized as a separate category, but there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that a change of identity can be recorded in registration of identity procedures. Homosexuals, lesbians and transgender persons do however have the right to equality and non-discrimination and in other respects the other fundamental rights recognized in the Constitution. Civil remedies are recognized in the case of humiliating behavior and insult to dignity. The ordinary gender neutral provisions of the Penal Code will apply to acts of violence perpetrated against them. The argument that apart from the Penal Code provision (which is not enforced) these persons have all other rights and are not discriminated is used to justify continuing with the criminal law as stated in the Penal Code. (vi) Gender Based Sexual Violence and Pregnancy Reference has been made to the fact that gender based violence during pregnancy and forced sex to make a woman pregnant can amount to Domestic Violence which can give rise to legal remedies in the law of divorce or remedies under the Domestic Violence Act, restraining such behavior. The criminal law also addresses this issue by imposing harsher penalties for rape of a pregnant woman (S. 364 (2)(d)) and by responding to such violence within the gender neutral offences on causing physical violence to the body. (See sections on Fatal and Non-Fatal injuries.) Medical procedures covered by Health Ministry circulars in Sri Lanka require the consent of either spouse for sterilization and set an age limit, subject to a discretion given to the doctor. However contraceptives can be given without spousal consent or to unmarried women in State institutions providing health care to girls above the age of sexual consent (16 years), without the consent of parents and guardians. An attempt to prosecute health care para professionals for giving teenage girls under 16 who are cohabiting or have sexual relations access to contraception as abetment to statutory rape was stopped when the Attorney General clarified that this could be done as part of health care services. [See Annex] Sri Lanka’s norms on sex outside marriage still confer an inferior status on non-marital cohabitation and children born outside marriage. No interpersonal legal obligations flow from even long term cohabitation, though the Maintenance Act (1999) changed the law significantly, and now provides for joint and shared parental support obligations to non-marital children. The stigma of illegitimacy and social marginalization of the mother and child are a reality. This legal environment continues unchanged, despite guarantees on equality and non-discrimination in Article 12 of the Constitution. It also impacts on the pressure for termination of pregnancy by unmarried mothers, and can even push women to commit infanticide which is a serious criminal offence in the Penal Code. Abortion The high incidence of abortion has been a subject on which there is an evidence base of information. It has been the subject of controversy and discussion for decades, and professional bodies, women’s groups and gender activists have recognized the violation of the human rights of women as GBV that infringes Reproductive Health rights. However an effort to reform the law when Penal Code Amendments were made in 1995 failed. When the proposal went to Parliament as part of the amending legislation, these provisions on abortion were withdrawn. The Minister of Justice promised to decriminalize abortion in health legislation, but this has never been done. (See Annex). The violation of women’s rights that occurs as many dimensions, including the difficulty of registering 24 COMPENDIUM ON LAW, GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS