Reproductive Health Matters back issues from May 2002:
Making abortion a woman's right worldwide. (Editorial).
May 01, 2002; ... THIS is RHM's 10th anniversary year and the third journal issue in which RHM has focused on abortion since 1993 (1). Looking back, it is heartening to see how much has changed internationally in the past 10 years with regard to abortion, which is reflected in the papers published here ....
In the Service we said. (Poems).(Poem)
May 01, 2002; ... <Pre> In the Service we said In the Service we spoke clearly and distinctly: We said, This is Jane from Women's Liberation; please leave your name, your number and a message. We'll call you back. When she did, we did; then we said, What was the date of your last period? When ...
Women's Liberation. (Poems).(Poem)
May 01, 2002; ... <Pre> Women's Liberation - for Esther Every week we went to a meeting, but not like now. No one stood up and said, My name is Jane and I'm an abortionist. No. Because we didn't want to stop, we weren't trying not to do it. We sat in apartments, passing the cards. One ...
Oona Delany, 1971. (Poems).(Poem)
May 01, 2002; ... <Pre> Oona Delany, 1971A woman came to us, seventeen weeks, nervous. Maybe scared, like Julie said. Her eyes were steady, dark. I'd seen some scared, and Oona Delany was different holding back, but not afraid to do it. Her vulva was a wall, labia taut. I had to ...
Here is what happened. (Poems).(Poem)
May 01, 2002; ... <Pre> Here is what happenedShe was fifteen years old, she had to pay for college she had to pay for this, she came to my apartment on a Saturday afternoon, her parents didn't know, I didn't know her parents; her girlfriends brought her up the stairs, holding on, holding her ...
Yes and no. (Poems).(Poem)
May 01, 2002; ... <Pre> Yes and no yes; it's true, we killed babies, none of them born yet none of them born yet to mothers just born a while ago themselves mothers who were their babies' sisters, sharing the very same daddy mothers with plenty of babies already, more than enough ...
She said. (Poems).(Poem)
May 01, 2002; ... <Pre> She said - before 1973 On the phone she said, I have a friend who's got a problem, but she couldn't get to a phone so I'm call- ing for her. Do you know what I mean? Is this the right place? When she lay down, she said, Are you a doctor? Then she said, Aren't you ...
Unsafe abortion: worldwide estimates for 2000.
May 01, 2002; ... Elisabeth Ahman (a), Iqbal Shah (b,1) Abstract Unsafe abortion is preventable and yet remains a significant cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in much of the developing world. Over the last decade, the World Health Organization has developed a systematic ...
Complications of unsafe abortion: a case study and the need for abortion law reform in Nigeria.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract Complications of unsafe abortion account for 30-40% of maternal deaths in Nigeria. This paper reports a case of unsafe abortion by dilatation and curettage, carried out by a medical practitioner in a private clinic on a 20-year-old single girl in Lagos, Nigeria. The ...
Clear and compelling evidence: the Polish Tribunal on Abortion Rights.
May 01, 2002; ... Francoise Girard (a), Wanda Nowicks (b) Abstract On 25 July 2001 the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning organised a Tribunal on Abortion Rights in Warsaw, to publicise the negative consequences of the criminalisation of abortion in Poland. A panel of ...
Making abortions safe: a matter of good public health policy and practice.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract Globally, abortion mortality constitutes at least 130/0 of maternal mortality. Unsafe abortion procedures, untrained abortion providers, restrictive abortion laws and high mortality and morbidity from abortion tend to occur together. Preventing abortion mortality and ...
The struggle for abortion law reform in Thailand.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract In Thailand abortion is against the law except in cases of risk to a woman's health or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or other sexual crimes. This paper presents an overview of the history of the abortion debate in Thailand based upon research conducted from ...
Elective abortion as a primary health service in rural India: experience with manual vacuum aspiration.
May 01, 2002; ... Kirti Iyengar (a), Shared D. Iyengar (b) Abstract India allows abortion up to 20 weeks of pregnancy but places restrictions on abortion facilities and providers. Abortion services are especially deficient in rural areas. Although vacuum aspiration is safer, sharp ...
The role of village health nurses in mediating abortions in rural Tamil Nadu, India.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract This paper reports on qualitative research on abortion services in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu in south India, and the role of government village health nurses (VHNs) in assisting women to obtain abortions. The aim of the research, carried out in 1997, was to ...
Induced abortions among adolescent women in rural Maharashtra, India.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract In a study in rural Maharashtra, India, adolescents constituted 13.1% of the 1717 married women who had an induced abortion during an 18-month period in 1996-1998. The 197 adolescents who were subsequently interviewed had a lesser role in the decision-making process on ...
Constructing access to legal abortion services in Mexico City.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract For the last three decades, government and health institutions have recognised that unsafe abortion is an important social and public health problem in Mexico. Although the Penal Code in every state defines at least one situation in which abortion is legal, access to ...
Clandestine abortion in Mexico: a question of mental as well as physical health.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract This paper reports on research carried out in Mexico City in 1995-1996 on the meaning of motherhood, contraception, an unwanted pregnancy or child, and the experience of illegal, clandestine abortion, as described by 12 women of different ages, class, education and ...
Social actors and discourse on abortion in the Mexican press: the Paulina case.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract The "Paulina case" is the story of a 13-year-old girl in Mexico who became pregnant in 1999 after being raped. Although she received permission to obtain a legal abortion, the hospital convinced her mother through misleading information to decline the abortion. This ...
Should therapeutic abortion be legal in Nicaragua: the response of Nicaraguan obstetrician--gynaecologists.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract Abortion is legal in Nicaragua only to save the life of the woman. In 2002, amendments to the Penal Code to change the penalties for obtaining and providing illegal abortions and regulations on the authorisation of legal abortions are due to be debated in the ...
Making legal abortion accessible in Brazil.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract Abortion is legal in Brazil if it is the only means to save the woman's life or if the pregnancy is the result of rape. Although this has been the law for over 60 years, it has almost never been applied until recent years. In the past five years, the number of ...
Abortion in a restrictive legal context: The views of obstetrician-gynaecologists in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract In Argentina, unsafe abortions are the primary cause of maternal mortality, accounting for 32% of maternal deaths. During reform of the National Constitution in 1994, the women's movement effectively resisted the reactionary government/church position on abortion ....
Orientame: preventing and solving problems related to unwanted pregnancy for 25 years in Colombia.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract For over 25 years, the Orientame Foundation in Bogota, Colombia, has been providing reproductive health services to women, regardless of their socio-economic or marital status, race, age or religious affiliation. Orientame started by focusing primarily on unwanted ...
In memoriam: Dr Jorge Villarreal Mejia.(Obituary)
May 01, 2002 ... With sadness, we communicate the death in Bogota on 8 December 2001 of our much loved teacher and friend Dr. Jorge Villarreal, Colombian doctor, pioneer in sexual and reproductive health, founder of ESAR (Foundation for Education in Reproductive Health) and defender of women's rights. Many ...
Using the right to life to confront unsafe abortion in Africa.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in Africa. In international human rights law, there are two possible approaches to tackling the problem of unsafe abortion. One is to advocate the right of privacy, which means states must refrain from ...
Safe abortion: a right for refugees?
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract Thanks to initiatives since 1994, most reproductive health programmes for refugee women now include family planning and safe delivery care. Emergency contraception and post-abortion care for complications of unsafe abortion are recommended, but provision of these ...
Abortion: the Portuguese case.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract Abortion was completely illegal in Portugal until 1984. Illegal abortion provision was a matter of silence until then and treated as a "black market" issue rather than as a health issue. The first attempts to change the abortion law began in 1982 after two trials and a ...
The war on drugs and the war on abortion: some initial thoughts on the connections, intersections and effects *.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract While many people view the war on abortion and the war on drugs on the part of state and federal governments in the USA as distinct, there are in fact many connections and a great deal of overlap between the two. Their histories, the strategies used to control and ...
Understanding and responding to anti-choice women-centred strategies.
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract This paper discusses the rise and use of a "woman-centred" anti-choice strategy to oppose abortion in Australia and the USA. It argues that this strategy seeks to imitate and exploit aspects of the pro-choice, women-centred position on abortion. The strategy contends ...
Women on Waves: where next for the abortion boat?
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract Women on Waves was founded to contribute to the prevention of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortions throughout the world by direct action. Because national penal laws, including those governing abortion, generally extend only as far as territorial waters (12 miles), ...
Sex selection: the systematic elimination of girls. (Roundtable).
May 01, 2002; ... Abstract In strongly patriarchal societies, where the cultural and economic value of sons is at a premium, son preference manifests itself in many ways, ranging from differential allocation of household resources, medical care and neglect of girl children to female infanticide ....
Sex selection: a gender-based preference for a pregnancy.
May 01, 2002; ... THE article by Oomman and Ganatra raises important ethical, moral and legal questions with regard to the non-medical (mis)use of antenatal diagnostic technologies for sex selection. The focus of my discussion will be on sex determination and sex selective abortion and the meaning and ...
Sex selection/determination in India: contemporary developments.
May 01, 2002; ... THIS short note will deal briefly with contemporary developments relating to the decline of child sex ratios due to abuse of medical technologies. The historic contribution of the Maharashtra campaign, which first called public attention to this problem, led by the Forum against Sex ...
Why shouldn't couples be free to choose the sex of their baby?
May 01, 2002; ... If couples have the reproductive freedom to choose how many children to have and when to have them, and to terminate unwanted pregnancies, then why should they not also have the freedom to select the sex of their child if they can do so? Oomman and Ganatra are worried that ...
Sex selective abortions: short-term and long-term perspectives.
May 01, 2002; ... Resume Dans les societes patriarcales, ou la valeur culturelle et economique des fils est superieure, la preference pour les garcons se manifeste de differentes manieres, depuis l'allocation differentielle des ressources du menage et des soins medicaux jusqu a l'abandon et ...
Nepal legalises abortion. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... In March 2002, Nepal's lower house of parliament amended the civil code to partially legalise abortion and bring about sweeping changes in other discriminatory laws. Once Nepal's king signs the legislation, abortion will be legal upon request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy if the ...
Taiwanese controls drive doctors to use black market mifepristone. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... The medical abortion drug mifepristone is the only drug in Taiwan to be subjected to controls requiring all movements of the drug to be registered (apart from addictive drugs). Tight restrictions are forcing some doctors to rely on black market sources, especially when providing services ...
Anti-abortion terrorists make use of anthrax scare. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... More than 200 abortion clinics in the USA received threatening letters containing a substance resembling anthrax powder in 2001. Some of the envelopes contained letters signed by the right-wing Army of God that said the letters were contaminated. The FBI has opened an inquiry into the ...
Advocacy tool for induced abortion on non-medical grounds. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... In March 1999 the FIGO Committee for the Ethical Aspects of Human Reproduction and Women's Health published Guidelines Regarding Induced Abortion for Non-Medical Reasons. It contains recommendations on women's right to safe abortion services, measures that can be taken to protect them from ...
Abortion ban rejected in Irish referendum. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Ireland remains one of the most socially conservative countries in Europe. Divorce was only recently permitted under limited circumstances, while over-the-counter contraceptives were illegal until 10 years ago. On 6 March 2002, voters narrowly defeated a referendum by less than one per ...
Abortion law clarified in Tasmania. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Uncertainty around the legality of abortion in Tasmania, Australia, resulted in doctors at Tasmania's two public hospitals refusing to perform abortions until the matter was cleared up. The confusion followed a complaint by a male medical student that doctors at the Royal Hobart Hospital ...
UK women seeking abortions 'treated too slowly'. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... The first national audit of abortion services in England and Wales in 2000 highlighted failings across both private services and the National Health Service. Guidelines of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) on the provision of abortion services, published in 2000, ...
Switzerland makes abortion legal. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... In March 2001 the federal parliament of Switzerland legalised abortion on request up to 12 weeks of pregnancy if the woman finds herself in a situation of distress and on medical grounds after that. Doctors must counsel and give women information. The previous law treated abortion as a ...
Turkish civil code reforms recognise women's equality and rights in marriage. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Following many years of lobbying by women's rights groups, the Turkish Parliament has accepted a reform of the civil code that establishes the equality of women and men in marriage. The new code also raises the legal age for marriage to 18 both for women and men (previously 17 for men and ...
Australia addresses female genital mutilation. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Australia has a relatively small yet substantial number of migrants from countries in Africa where female genital mutilation (FGM) is practised. In 1995, federal and state governments in Australia funded the National Programme on Female Genital Mutilation with the aim of eliminating the ...
Sexual exploitation of children unchecked. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... A UNICEF report released at the end of 2001 in conjunction with the 2nd World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Yokohama, Japan, estimates that about one million children enter the sex trade each year. Five years after the first conference in Stockholm, the ...
Catholics for a Free Choice challenges Vatican condom ban. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... On World AIDS Day 2001 Catholics for a Free Choice launched a global campaign against the Catholic bishops' ban on condoms. The Condoms4life campaign includes advertising in the USA and other countries with a significant Catholic population and where AIDS is prevalent. Advertisements will ...
African women being condemned to death by stoning. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Abok Alfa Akok, an 18 year-old Sudanese Christian woman was sentenced to death by stoning, allegedly for adultery. The sentence was based on Sudan's 1991 Penal Code, the government's interpretation of the Shari'a Islamic law. Her lawyer argues that she did not receive a fair trial and an ...
Afghan Women's Summit for Democracy. (Round Up: Law and Policy).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... At the meeting of the Afghan Women's Summit for Democracy (AWSD) in December 2001, women demanded full participation in the current and future development of Afghanistan. Recommendations were made for action in all areas to meet immediate and long term needs. Health recommendations ...
Urgent need for standardised misoprostol regimens. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Despite the mounting evidence supporting the use of misoprostol for abortion induction, uterine evacuation, and labour and delivery, there are no standard or labelled regimens for its use for any of these indications. In order to document the use of misoprostol for these indications and to ...
Lessons in post-abortion care from Mexico. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Since the early 1990s, three major public sector institutions in Mexico have been dealing with abortion-related complications -- the fourth most frequent cause of maternal mortality in the country. Despite relatively conservative abortion legislation, Mexico has the broadest experience in ...
Fistula prevention in Africa. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... UNFPA, together with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics and Columbia University's Averting Maternal Death and Disability programme will lead an international campaign to prevent new cases of obstetric fistula. There are about two million reported cases worldwide, ...
Trends in caesarean sections in Brazil, Hong Kong and West Africa. (Round Up: Service Delivery).
May 01, 2002 ... Brazil is often portrayed as a country where there is an unusually large demand for caesarean sections, especially among more affluent women. The rate of caesarean sections among private patients is extremely high and twice the rate as in the public sector. About one quarter of all ...
Contraceptive commodity shortfalls globally. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Although high quality contraceptives are integral to a well-functioning reproductive health system, recent projections and comparisons of global requirements and funding trends point to a substantial shortfall at present, and increasing requirements in the future. As a result of steadily ...
Unmet condom need in Africa much higher than estimated. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Although a study by Shelton and Johnston estimated unmet need for condoms in sub-Saharan Africa to be around 1.9 billion, another study suggests that the number required is closer to 13 billion. According to the earlier survey, the number of condoms distributed in South Africa in 1999 ...
Condom distribution may not translate into condom use among indian sex workers. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... The efforts of the Indian government and NGOs to increase condom distribution among sex workers, a crucial component of national AIDS prevention strategies, may not translate into increased condom usage. Although most sex workers are aware of the need to protect themselves, the decision ...
Bangladesh to move from community-based distribution of contraceptives to a clinic-based system. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... A major change in the national health and population programme of Bangladesh is currently underway due to limited national resources, stagnation in donor support associated with reduced priorities, and the increased responsibility of national programmes to ensure a broader range of ...
Middle East black market for the Pill. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... High demand for contraceptives by women in the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia has created a black market, smuggling rackets and trafficking rings for contraceptive pills. With the exception of Egypt, where contraceptive pills are manufactured and some of the smuggling rackets operate from, ...
Morning-after pill available free and over the counter, France. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Girls in France who are 18 and over are eligible for free morning-after pills from pharmacies without a prescription or parental authorisation. The government has decreed that before giving out the pills, pharmacists must brief young women to ensure that they know how to use them correctly ...
Frequent repeat use of emergency contraception, UK. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Contrary to earlier research suggesting that repeat use of emergency contraception (EC) is low or rare, a recent study in Devon in the UK found it to be frequent. High levels of repeat use were consistent across age groups as well. Although repeat use of EC is safe, it is not effective as ...
USA approves hormonal contraceptive patch. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... The contraceptive patch, Ortho Eva, which slowly releases oestrogen and progestogen through the skin and into the bloodstream to prevent pregnancy, has been approved by US regulators. An alternative to oral contraception, the patch is ...
Urgent action needed to address cervical cancer in East, Central and Southern Africa. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Although cervical cancer is preventable, it still remains a major burden on public health resources in East, Central and Southern Africa. 95% of institutions at all health care levels have the basic infrastructure to carry out cervical cytology screening, yet only a small percentage of ...
Psychosexual impact of ovarian cancer and treatment ignored. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Women who have undergone treatment for ovarian cancer in Leeds, UK would have preferred to receive verbal or written information on the psychosexual impact of the cancer and its treatment. Women interviewed in a qualitative study said they were unprepared for the physical and psychological ...
Network of shelters for battered women in Mexico. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... Mexican NGO Alternativas Pacificas opened its first shelter for battered women in 1996. Since then it has created a programme to facilitate sharing of experiences with similar organisations throughout Mexico and set up an informal network of similar shelters operating around the country ....
Latin American countries tackle gender-based violence. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... IPPF Western Hemisphere Region together with its associates in Dominican Republic, Peru and Venezuela are exploring the definition of success when assisting a woman who has experienced gender-based violence. At present, little evidence is available on how detecting women and referring them ...
Modest contribution made by programmes for violent men in UK. (Round Up: Service Delivery).(Brief Article)
May 01, 2002 ... One of the oldest programmes for men who perpetrate violence against women in Europe, Ahimsa, based in Plymouth UK, has recognised the modest contribution made by such programmes in terms of reducing violent and abusive behaviour, albeit by very small numbers of men. Their research has ...