Andrea Pérez-Molina, Héctor Javier Sánchez-Pérez, Maritel Yanes-Pérez, and Marcos Arana-Cedeño Abstract This article analyzes the fulfillment of the four essential and interrelated elements of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality (AAAQ) presented in General Comment 14 of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. We examined the ways that AAAQ criteria are met in tuberculosis (TB) care by evaluating a sample of 33 primary health care units (PHCUs)…
Moral Work and the Construction of Abortion Networks: Women’s Access to Safe Abortion in Lebanon
PDF Zeina Fathallah Abstract This study explores the intersectional effects of criminalization on women’s access to safe abortion in Lebanon. Building on 119 original interviews with women who have had an abortion and physicians who offer safe abortion services, the article analyzes women’s experiences through two themes: decision making and accessibility to safe abortion services. The article finds that a woman’s decision to abort is morally conflicted and largely dependent…
Non-marital Pregnancies and Unmarried Women’s Search for Illegal Abortion in Morocco
PDF Irene Capelli Abstract Abortion in Morocco is illegal except to safeguard a woman’s life or health. Morocco has put some sexual and reproductive health policies into motion that are in line with the standards defined by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Population Fund, especially after the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, but Morocco’s Penal Code continues to criminalize the practice. This paper explores how…
The Unique Landscape of Abortion Law and Access in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
PDF Sarrah Shahawy Abstract Abortion remains a highly debated topic in women’s health in the Middle East and specifically in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), where it is illegal in most cases. Abortion access is challenging and complex due to laws, hospital policies, and the fragmented nature of the OPT and its health care system. This paper explores several barriers to accessing safe abortion care in the OPT, many of…
Neoliberal Health Restructuring, Neoconservatism and the Limits of Law: Erosion of Reproductive Rights in Turkey
PDF Ayse Dayi Abstract Through focusing on the neoliberal “Health Transformation Programme” launched in 2003 in Turkey, I show how reproductive law can be modified by neoliberal mechanisms that are implemented with neoconservative policies and pressures. The paper builds on original data collected in 2014 and 2015 through focus groups and interviews with health practitioners in family health centers and women receiving reproductive care in Izmir, Diyarbakir, Van, and Gaziantep.…
The Right to Abortion in Tunisia after the Revolution of 2011: Legal, Medical, and Social Arrangements as Seen through Seven Abortion Stories
PDF Irene Maffi and Malika Affes Abstract In this article, we explore the effects that Tunisia’s post-revolutionary democratization process has had on the right to abortion, drawing on ethnographic material, interviews, and medical files that we collected between 2013 and 2017, as well as the professional experience of one of us. We show that despite the existence of a relatively liberal abortion law for more than 40 years, women in…
Eliminating Abortion from Criminal Law in Colombia: A Just Cause
PDF Ana Cristina González-Vélez, Carolina Melo-Arévalo, and Juliana Martínez-Londoño Abstract The two main legal models governing abortion provision, indications for abortion and time limits on the number of weeks of pregnancy, both limit recognition of women’s reproductive autonomy. Each model restricts the circumstances under which women can access abortion. Yet, in most of the world these have been the main political goals for the feminist movement in the fight to…
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The Role of Reproductive Justice Movements in Challenging South Korea’s Abortion Ban
PDF Sunhye Kim, Na Young, and Yurim Lee Abstract This paper examines how issues related to abortion have historically been influenced by population control policies in South Korea and how the contemporary reproductive justice movement in South Korea has contributed to social change. On April 11, 2019, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the ban on abortion was unconstitutional. As a result, South Korea’s legislature must revise the 66-year-old anti-abortion…
EDITORIAL Progress toward Decriminalization of Abortion and Universal Access to Safe Abortions: National Trends and Strategies
PDF Marge Berer and Lesley Hoggart This special section of the Health and Human Rights Journal captures a particular historical moment in the world of abortion law, policy, and practice, which is a constantly changing space. In the countries and regions covered in the papers in this special section—East Africa, Chile, Colombia, Gabon, Gambia, India, Ireland, Latin America, South Korea and United Kingdom—changes have been happening or are anticipated, some…
Abortion in Chile: The Long Road to Legalization and its Slow Implementation
PDF Gloria Maira, Lidia Casas, and Lieta Vivaldi Abstract Until as recently as September 2017, Chile was one of the few countries in the world that did not permit abortion under any circumstances. Although the Health Code had permitted therapeutic abortion (i.e., on health grounds) from in 1931, this was repealed in 1989 as one of General Pinochet’s last acts in office. It took more than 25 years to reverse…
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