Sex work activism and HIV prevention
This paper explores the relationship between sexworker activism and HIV-related discourse in Bangladesh. Both sex worker activism and HIV prevention initiatives adopt pro-sex-work perspectives that emphasise individual and collective agency. The sex work movement attempted to transform sex workers’ identity from that of ‘fallen women’ to that of ‘ordinary worker’. However, by participating in HIV prevention programmes, sex workers failed to contest the imagery of themselves as ‘vectors’ of HIV. In this way, they were unwittingly complicit in reproducing their identity as ‘polluting others’. (Source: Repro...
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - May 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research
Understanding the role of collective action in addressing structural gender violence, South Africa
This study used a participatory research methodology to generate policy-relevant research that was empirically grounded and action-oriented. Participants were diverse actors engaged in addressing SGBV in urban Cape Town and a rural municipality in the Western Cape. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - May 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research
Public health conflicts in contraception and HIV transmission
This article applies a framework for managing ethical challenges in public health practice to the issues of HIV prevention and prevention of unplanned pregnancy in high-risk groups, focusing specifically on the implications of the finding that certain hormonal contraceptives might increase rates of HIV transmission. Given poor utilisation of barrier contraceptive methods for women at risk of HIV, appeal to population-level utility may call into question the wisdom of removing the one practical and highly effective pregnancy prevention system in the region. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - May 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research
Behaviour change to improve abortion knowledge, India
A quasi-experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a behaviour change communication intervention to improve women’s knowledge about India’s abortion law and their perceptions about abortion. The campaign was implemented in 2008–2009 in Bihar and Jharkhand. Using a fictitious young woman as the main character, the campaign provided information on the legality of abortion, the locations of the nearest public sector facilities offering safe abortion and contraceptive services, and the health consequences of unsafe abortion. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - May 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research
Adapting to new technologies for sexual and reproductive health, South Africa
This report examines the linkages between policies on, and implementation of, sexual and reproductive health and rights and information and communication technologies (ICT) in rural and peri-urban spaces in South Africa. A review of sexual and reproductive health and rights policies and ICT policies, and key informant interviews with stakeholders in the health and ICT domain, finds that many stakeholders have a limited conceptualisation of the implementation of sexual and reproductive health and rights. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - May 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research
A reluctant sex radical explores barriers for women with disabilities to achieve sexual pleasure
This US-focused opinion piece investigated a variety of popular and professional discourses about the cultural expectations surrounding sexual pleasure that create barriers to access for women with disabilities. The study uses autoethnography, highlighting the author’s experience in critical care, graduate education and professional training roles in order to look at how to integrate sexual pleasure into social work practice. Medical educators have been dealing with reluctance and avoidance of health care professionals to discussions of sexual pleasure for decades. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - May 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research
Demystifying data to advocate for young people’s sexual and reproductive health
This guide aims to help health care providers, educators and advocates in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights to better understand and use evidence on adolescents’ knowledge and behaviours. The guide provides demographic and socioeconomic information about adolescents, as well as measures of their access to, need for, and use of sexual and reproductive health information and services. Presenting the latest available data for 30 countries, the guide explains the practical meaning of the data in clear, nontechnical language. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - May 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research
Editorial Board
(Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - May 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research
Title, Table of contents and Acknowledgments
(Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - February 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Tags: Supplement Source Type: research
The role of auxiliary nurse-midwives and community
health volunteers in expanding access to medical abortion in rural Nepal
Medical abortion was introduced in Nepal in
2009, but rural women’s access to medical abortion services remained
limited. We conducted a district-level operations research study to assess
the effectiveness of training 13 auxiliary nurse-midwives as medical
abortion providers, and 120 female community health volunteers as
communicators and referral agents for expanding access to medical abortion
for rural women. Interviews with service providers and women who received
medical abortion were undertaken and service statistics were analysed. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - February 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Mahesh Puri, Anand Tamang, Prabhakar Shrestha, Deepak Joshi Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
Pharmacy workers in Nepal can provide the correct
information about using mifepristone and misoprostol to women seeking
medication to induce abortion
In Nepal, despite policy restrictions, both
registered and unregistered brands of mifepristone and misoprostol can
easily be obtained at pharmacies. Since many women visit pharmacies for
abortion information, ensuring that they receive effective care from
pharmacy workers remains an important challenge. We conducted an
operations research study to examine whether trained pharmacy workers can
correctly provide information on safe use of mifepristone and misoprostol
for early first trimester medical abortion. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - February 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Anand Tamang, Mahesh Puri, Kalyan Lama, Prabhakar Shrestha Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
Women’s experiences with the use of medical abortion
in a legally restricted context: the case of Argentina
This article presents the findings of a
qualitative study exploring the experiences of women living in Buenos
Aires Metropolitan Area, Argentina, with the use of misoprostol for
inducing an abortion. We asked women about the range of decisions they had
to make, their emotions, the physical experience, strategies they needed
to use, including seeking health care advice and in dealing with a
clandestine medical abortion, and their overall evaluation of the
experience. An in-depth interview schedule was used. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - February 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Silvina Ramos, Mariana Romero, Lila Aizenberg Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
Physicians’ and non-physicians’ views about provision
of medical abortion by nurses and AYUSH physicians in Maharashtra and
Bihar, India
There is only limited evidence on whether
certified and uncertified health care providers in India support reforming
the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act to expand the abortion
provider base to allow trained nurses and AYUSH physicians (who are
trained in Indian systems of medicine) to provide medical abortion. To
explore their views, we conducted a survey of 1,200 physicians and other
health care providers in Maharashtra and Bihar states and in-depth
interviews with 34 of them who had used medical abortion in their
practices. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - February 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Rajib Acharya, Shveta Kalyanwala Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
Medical abortion and manual vacuum aspiration for
legal abortion protect women’s health and reduce costs to the health
system: findings from Colombia
The majority of abortions in Colombia continue
to take place outside the formal health system under a range of
conditions, with the majority of women obtaining misoprostol from a
thriving black market for the drug and self-administering the medication.
We conducted a cost analysis to compare the costs to the health system of
three approaches to the provision of abortion care in Colombia:
post-abortion care for complications of unsafe abortions, and for legal
abortions in a health facility, misoprostol-only medical abortion and
vacuum aspiration abortion. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - February 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Maria Isabel Rodriguez, Willis Simancas Mendoza, Camilo Guerra-Palacio, Nelson Alvis Guzman, Jorge E Tolosa Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
Safe, accessible medical abortion in a rural Tamil
Nadu clinic, India, but what about sexual and reproductive rights?
This study reports on interviews with 15 women in rural South
India who had a medical abortion. It examines the circumstances under
which they chose to have an abortion and their perspectives on medical
abortion. Women in this study decided to have an abortion when multiple
factors like lack of spousal support for child care or contraception,
hostile in-laws, economic hardship, poor health of the woman herself,
spousal violence, lack of access to suitable contraceptive methods, and
societal norms regarding reproduction and sexuality converged to oppress
them. (Source: Reproductive Health Matters)
Source: Reproductive Health Matters - February 1, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Subha Sri B, TK Sundari Ravindran Tags: FEATURE Source Type: research
