Year: 2012
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FGM: condemn globally, act locally
Lisa Hallgarten, Reproductive Health Matters We should all celebrate the news that on Thursday 20th December 2012, the United Nation’s General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution banning the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Resolutions to eliminate FGM are important. When they are passed in a global forum, they may pre-empt the claims of cultural…
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Contribution of research in RHM Journal to dramatic improvements in post-abortion care, Gabon
Lisa Hallgarten, Reproductive Health Matters We know that RHM is read in the highest offices and the humblest clinics. Papers we publish provide the evidence to change government policies and support change at the level of clinical practice…and this happens. In our most recent issue of Reproductive Health Matters one paper reports on the impact…
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Pregnancy decisions of women living with HIV – and a happy World Aids Day
A new RHM supplement explores pregnancy decisions of women living with HIV. It’s free to download here. In 2007 we published this supplement on Ensuring Sexual and Reproductive Health for People Living with HIV. It will be interesting to ring the changes. With the advent of antiretroviral therapy and with continued channelling of resources into…
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The harm and benefits of breast cancer screening
Marge Berer Throughout 2011 and 2012, Peter Gøtzsche, director of the Norway Cochrane centre, and colleagues have created a publishing storm of articles against mammography screening for breast cancer. Their articles have appeared in the International Journal of Cancer, Lakartidningen, Radiology, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Cancer Causes & Control, BMJ, Journal of Royal Society of…
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Abortion time limits to 12 weeks? How did Jeremy Hunt get responsibility for the public health?
Call for a general strike against the Government’s policies on the NHS – and a fig to Jeremy Hunt’s views on abortion Marge Berer Editor, Reproductive Health Matters 6 October 2012 At the Labour conference this week, Andy Burnham accused Jeremy Hunt of failing to make any statements about important current health service issues in…
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Decriminalisation of abortion: a public health and human rights issue
International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion Public statement for: 28 September 2012 International Day of Action for the Decriminalisation of Abortion In spite of increased attention to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and particularly to maternal mortality, in spite of the development of effective technologies to make abortion very safe, and in spite…
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The Brazilian government pays compensation for a maternal death taken up by CEDAW – a decision that has global implications
Lisa Hallgarten, RHM The Brazilian government has agreed to pay compensation for the death of a pregnant woman in 2002. The decision could have implications for governments around the world where women are dying from preventable deaths in pregnancy, childbirth and abortion. The Brazilian government’s move follows landmark decisions by the Committee on the Elimination…
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China: how can the one-child policy and rights-based family planning be reconciled in the face of recently reported abuses?
Lisa Hallgarten, RHM social media and communications Marge Berer, RHM editor Two recent news stories from China have reawakened concern about overzealous enforcement of China’s one-child policy and the emergence of voices critical of the policy and its implementation. Historically, being a country with 25% of the total world population within its borders, China’s population…
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Race, Reproductive Politics and Reproductive Health Care in the Contemporary United States
This editorial from the journal Contraception offers an important analysis of population and family planning policy in the USA, both in the context of current politics and also from history, starting as far back as 100 years ago. Carole Joffe, Willie J. Parker From: Contraception [Editorial] July 2012 reprinted as a blog with kind permission of…
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Family planning and safe, legal abortion go hand in hand
Marge Berer Editor, Reproductive Health Matters One in three women in the UK will have an abortion in her lifetime, most of whom will have been using contraception of some kind. Yet since as long ago as the late 1930s, there has been a split in the UK between those who insisted on promoting contraception…