Reproductive health matters
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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 national campaign for legal abortion and contraception. ⋯ At the end of 2001 the biggest trial on illegal abortion started in Maia, a small town in the north of the country, which had an immediate and enormous impact on public opinion. An increasing number of public opinion-makers, some prestigious health professionals and even the President of the Republic have recently declared that the law should be changed. The election of a right-wing parliamentary majority in March 2002, however, means that abortion law reform will again be postponed.
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Reprod Health Matters · May 2002
Abortion in a restrictive legal context: the views of obstetrician-gynaecologists in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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. Health professionals, including obstetrician-gynaecologists, played conflicting roles in this debate. ⋯ Some 40% thought abortion should not be penalized if it is a woman's autonomous decision. Those who were better disposed towards the de-penalization of abortion cited a combination of public health reasons and the need for social equity. The women's health and rights movement should do advocacy work with this professional community on women's needs and rights, given the prominent role they play in reproductive health care provision and in the public sphere.
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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 legal abortion services is restricted for women throughout Mexico. In August 2000, the Mexico City Legislative Assembly reformed the Penal Code to include a wider range of grounds on which abortion is legal and added regulations to ensure access to legal abortion services in cases of rape and forced artificial insemination. ⋯ It describes a model of care being introduced into 15 public general and maternal-child health hospitals in Mexico City through a programme of multi-disciplinary consciousness-raising workshops and training courses on sexual violence and legal abortion. Few health care providers have had prior training in service provision for survivors of sexual violence or abortion service delivery. Workshop participants showed a high level of willingness to participate in legal abortion services for survivors of sexual violence when and if they are receive solid institutional support.