Reproductive health matters
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Reprod Health Matters · Dec 2018
Irish voters repealed the eighth: now it's time to ensure access to abortion care in law and in practice.
This commentary discusses Ireland's 25 May 2018 Referendum result to repeal the Eighth Amendment and has two key aims. Firstly, it encourages policy-makers to grasp the full potential of legislative reform by enabling and protecting women's access to abortion care within a continuum of sexual and reproductive healthcare options. Secondly, it calls for urgent clarity about access to abortion care in the interim period of legislative transition.
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Reprod Health Matters · Nov 2017
Sea-change in reproductive health in emergencies: how systemic improvements to address the MISP were achieved.
The Minimum Initial Services Package (MISP) for reproductive health has been the minimum standard for reproductive health service provision in humanitarian emergencies since 1995. Assessments of acute humanitarian settings in 2004 and 2005 revealed few MISP services in place and low knowledge of the MISP among humanitarian responders. Just 10 years later, assessments of humanitarian settings in 2013 and 2015 found largely consistent availability of MISP services and high awareness of the MISP as a standard among responders. ⋯ We find that investments in fact-finding missions, awareness-raising, capacity development, policy harmonisation, targeted funding, emergency risk management, and community resilience-building have been critical to facilitating a sea-change in reproductive health responses in acute, large-scale emergencies. Efforts were underpinned by collaborative, inter-agency partnerships in which organisations were committed to working together to achieve shared goals. The strategies, activities, and achievements contain valuable lessons for the health sector, including reproductive health, and other sectors seeking to better integrate emerging or marginalised issues into humanitarian action.
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Reprod Health Matters · Nov 2017
Humanitarian response to reproductive and sexual health needs in a disaster: the Nepal Earthquake 2015 case study.
This case study describes the health response provided by the Ministry of Health of Nepal with support from UN agencies and several other organisations, to the 1.4 million women and adolescent girls affected by the major earthquake that struck Nepal in April 2015. After a post-disaster needs assessment, the response was provided to cater for the identified sexual and reproductive health (RH) needs, following the guidance of the Minimum Initial Service Package for RH developed by the global Inter-Agency Working Group. ⋯ We report on the establishment of female-friendly spaces near health facilities to offer a multisectoral response to gender-based violence, the setting up of adolescent-friendly service corners in outreach RH camps, the development of a menstrual health and hygiene management programme and the linkages established between adolescent-friendly information corners of schools and adolescent-friendly service centres in health facilities. Finally, we outline the gaps, challenges and lessons learned and suggest recommendations for preparedness and response interventions for future disasters.
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The election of Donald Trump to the presidency came as a severe and unexpected shock to the already beleaguered pro-choice movement in the US. This article will review what the president-elect said during the campaign about abortion and what his administration is likely to do after his inauguration.