Entries from Byline Portal tagged with 'Reproductive Health'
Pitfalls of Surrogacy in India Exposed
by Neeta Lal, Asia Times, Hong Kong - IVF experts say that under the terms of most surrogacy contracts in India, the surrogate mother and her partner agree that if the childbearing woman is injured or diagnosed with a life-threatening...
Family Planning Is a Right.
by Frieda Werden, WINGS, Canada - Hillary Clinton reminds us that reproductive health care, safe motherhood, family planning and education are women's rights that governments pledged to implement by 2015. Feminist media activist Maria Suarez Toro of FIRE describes ways...
Sex, Reproduction, and the MDGs
by Mandy Van Deven, RH Reality Check, USA - Why Funding for Reproductive Health Care is Critical to Combatting Global Poverty...
The GOP Rush to Deny Coverage of Birth Control
by Carolyn Maloney, Huffington Post, USA - The Republican crusade to limit access to birth control for women across the country took an ugly turn last week. As our Republican colleagues continued their effort to extend the reach of the...
How Birth Control And Abortion Became Politicized
by Jill Lepore, NPR, USA - The first birth control clinic in the United States opened in 1916. It was operated by Margaret Sanger, who started the clinic after becoming outraged that she couldn't give her patients — poor women...
Then They Came for Your Birth Control
by Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones, USA -The "personhood" amendment on the Mississippi ballot on November 8 doesn't just ban all abortions. It would also likely outlaw several types of birth control and possibly make all forms of hormonal contraception illegal...
When Sexual Liberation Arrived By Mail
by Katja Iken, Der Spiegel, Germany - In the 1950s, Germany was a place where many women were terrified of getting pregnant and kept woefully ignorant about sexual matters. One dauntless woman changed that almost single-handedly. The empire of Beate...
Costa Rica Company Helping Fight Cervical Cancer
by Karla Arias Alvarado, Tico Times, Costa Rica - Founders of the Costa Rican company BioTD found a quicker alternative to the 80-year-old Pap smear. It could save lives....
Family Planning Saves Lives
by Alexandra Gordon, Miami Herald, USA - One mother dies nearly every 90 seconds during pregnancy or childbirth — and millions more are left with life-altering disabilities. Many of these girls are 19 or under....
Embryo Ethics: Finding a Home for Canada’s Frozen 'Orphans'
by Sharon Kirkey, The Province, Canada - Embryo donation has been called the most humane answer to an sticky ethical situation: How to dispose of leftover embryos that are created by infertility treatments and then literally frozen in time?...
The Curious Case Of Commercial Surrogacy
by Sneha Banerjee, Counter Currents, India - The social construction of ‘infertility’ often drives the commissioning parents to spend an insane amount of money to have a ‘biological’ child, while adoption is rendered an unfortunate option of ‘last resort’....
Why Families Mourned on Women’s Day
by Agnes Odhiambo, Daily Nation, Kenya - The world celebrated the International Women’s Day on Tuesday, but the family of Salapei L. was mourning. Salapei died in mid-January because she was pregnant, poor and from a remote village in Turkana...
Collateral Damage: Poor Women Pay the Price in the Right’s War on Women’s Health
by Anika Rahman, Igniting Change, USA - Whatever your stance on abortion may be, there's no mistaking that providing preventative health care to millions of women, men and families is in fact a good thing. Preventative services save lives, and,...
Women Head East for Wombs to Rent
by Doroteya Nicolova, The Sofia Echo, Bulgaria - Most women heading for Ukraine come from western Europe and the Americas – only they can usually afford the fees. But a growing number, like Nencheva, are middle-class professionals from the Balkans...
Midwives Get Mobile
by Brooke Lewis and Mom Kunthear, Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia - Midwives on Motos is about how to access women and men who are really underserved with family planning services and sexual reproductive health services....
Namibia: Abortion Ban Risks Women's Lives
by Jana-Mari Smith, The Namibian, Namibia - A 1998 survey conducted on unsafe abortions in Namibia concluded that unsafe abortions contributed significantly to maternal deaths in Namibia - 16 per cent compared with 12 per cent worldwide....
Abortion and HIV at the AIDS Conference
by Aziza Ahmed, Sexuality Policy Watch, Brazil - The International AIDS Conference in 2010 held one of the first plenary sessions dedicated to abortion and HIV. The plenary focused on the needs of HIV positive women to obtain a full...
No Woman Should Die Giving Birth
by Njeri Mwangi-Kinyoho, Daily Monitor, Uganda - The 15th Ordinary Session of the Summit of the Africa Union will be taking place in Kampala, Uganda between July 19 – 27. The theme of the Summit is “Maternal, Infant and...
Political Will For Mothers
by Rina Jimenez-David, The Inquirer, Philippines - The ideal ratio of midwives to the population, says Pat Gomez, president of the Integrated Midwives Association of the Philippines, is one midwife for every 4,000 population.the country is not lacking for...
Ghanaian Midwife Receives International Midwife Award
by Linda Asante Agyei, Ghana News Agency, Ghana - In a developing country like Ghana, midwives are the front-line maternal and child health care providers. They give advice and lifesaving information to pregnant women; they counsel HIV-positive women on how...
Bitter Pill for Muslim Women
by Mariam Mokhtar, Asia Sentinel, China -In the 50 years since it was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in the United States and swept much of the planet, the lack of birth control methods in the Muslim...
Dutch Award for Saviour of Raped Women
by Sophie van Leeuwen, Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - A woman goes to the doctor. She smells of urine. Her private parts are ravaged: she was raped by a group of men. "How beautiful you are," doctor Denis Mukwege reassures her....
Why Unpaid Maternity Leave Isn't Enough
by Sharon Lerner, Washington Post, USA - When it comes to paid maternity leave, the United States is in the postpartum dark ages....
Pregnant Teens Still Face Stigma, Isolation, Even Death
by Titania Veda, Jakarta Globe, Indonesia -Of the three logical options open to pregnant teens — keeping the child, which involves living with the stigma that comes with it; putting the baby up for adoption; or going through an...
Mommy Dearest
by Sarah Mishkin, Egypt Today, Egypt - Egypt has been lauded for pronounced drop in maternal mortality. One reason why maternal mortality has been comparatively easy for Egypt to tackle is because it’s a “safe” issue, according to Dr....
Government and Contraception
by Rina Jimenez-David, Inquirer, Philippines - Contraceptive use has hardly increased among Filipino women. And yet “women are having, on average, about one more child than they would like.”...
Women Petition Against Forced Sterilization
by Catherine Sasman, New Era, Namibia - Bus loads of women and men with their mouths gagged with sellotape, marched from Katutura to the head office of the Ministry of Health and Social Services to hand over a petition...
When Teen Pregnancy Is No Accident
by Lynn Harris, The Nation, USA - Two new studies have quantified what advocates for young women’s health have observed for years: the striking frequency with which it is in fact young men who try to force their partners to...
The Choices Mothers Make
by Ariadne Massa, Times of Malta, Malta - Shirlene Henkeman, 21, sobbed helplessly as she waited alone in the clinic, knowing her parents were outside to ensure she went through with the abortion....
Where Women Still Don't Own Their Bodies
by Nina Funnell, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - As a young woman it is easy to fall into the trap of assuming female reproductive rights have been secured, and not at risk or being eroded by right-wing, conservative ideologues. Wrong...
Role of Big Pharma in Question after Half a Century of the Pill
by Leslie Cannold, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - An independent study is needed of the pill's impact on women's lives....
Forced Sterilization Scare Feeds On Uzbek Distrust
by Farangis Najibullah, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - Health authorities in Uzbekistan felt obliged recently to deny the existence of any order on the forced sterilization of women, saying surgical contraception is performed only as a last resort and...
The ABCs of Family Planning
by Dorothy Shaw, Globe and Mail, Canada - The ability to determine whether to become pregnant and how many children to have has long been recognized as a human right....
Population Policy: Will It Work?
by Huma Yusuf, Dawn, Pakistan - In many ways, the story of Pakistan is one of a failure of family planning. Although the Family Planning Association of Pakistan was set up as early as 1952, we have seen a five-fold...
Uighurs in East Turkistan Suffer from China’s Forced Abortions
by Fatma Disli, Today's Zaman, Turkey - China, which introduced a controversial one-child-per-family policy in 1979 as a measure to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems in the country, has been forcing Uighur mothers in East Turkistan to have abortions...
On the Anniversary of Roe - A Call to Action
by Kate Michelman, Amplify, USA - On this anniversary of Roe, in the context of the extraordinary election of President Obama, America stands at the brink; but we have not yet crossed it....
The Handmaid's Tale Comes to Life
by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network, USA - The hijacking of abortion rights as a bargaining chip for the provision of health care is morally reprehensible and if it stands will result in significant harms to women’s health....
Study Shows Young Women Would Rather Get AIDS than Fall Pregnant
by Caroline Njung’e, Daily Nation, Kenya - More teenagers are growing up without sex education since schools, parents and religious organisation find the subject a taboo. Left on their own, the young adults rely on information gathered at such discotheques...
Family Planning: Experts Proffer Solutions to Reduce Maternal Deaths
by Victoria Ibanga, Champion, Nigeria - The benefits of Family planning cannot be under-estimated. It is, among other things, key in development, and, above all, in achieving the Millennium Development Goal 4 and 5....
Black Women Can’t Afford to Be Silent on Health Care Reform
by Talia Whyte, The Grio, USA - With health reform close to becoming a reality, now is the time that black women make sure we have a seat at the decision table....
Maternal Health - Where Do We Stand?
by Paidamoyo Chipunza, The Herald, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe still has a long way to go in achieving universal access to reproductive health with almost half of women in rural areas failing to access family planning methods....
Untold Story of Abortion
by Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn, Pakistan - Many Pakistani women are paying with their health — and even their lives — to avoid births they cannot afford or do not want....
Malta 'Burying Head in Sand' on Sexual Health
by Ariadne Massa, Times of Malta, Malta - Malta is burying its head in the sand on sexual health, according to a World Health Organisation adviser who is concerned about soaring teenage pregnancies and the lack of proper sex education....
Affordable New Weapon Against Cervical Cancer
by Susan Anyangu, IPS, Italy - Faced with an increase in the number of cervical cancer cases, Kenya has adopted a simple, cheap yet effective visual inspection method of detection. Ideal for low resource settings, the test is offering reprieve...
Aborting Women's Rights
by Carolyn Cooper, The Gleaner, Jamaica - "If men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrament." This famous feminist prick (as in sharp point) goes straight to the heart of the current debate about parliamentary reform of Jamaica's backward...
Is Google Violating Women’s Rights?
by Masum Momaya, AWID, Canada - Google Inc.’s recent restrictions on ads for abortion services in fifteen countries raises questions about the influence of search engine provider policies on freedom of information....
Mexican Women Fight "Personhood" Laws
by Angela Castellanos, RH Reality Check, USA - Over the last 15 months, 16 Mexican states have approved constitutional reforms defining personhood as beginning at the moment of conception, which means that all civil rights have to be protected, including...
Delivering Hope in Somalia
by Rohina Phadnis, UNFPA, USA - Though political instability, violence and chaos surround them, surgeons and backup teams dedicated to ending the misery of obstetric fistula continue their work in Somalia....
Building Awareness to Reduce Maternal Mortality
by Jessie Boylan, IPS, Italy - In the Niassa province of northwest Mozambique, one doctor has been working with local communities to overcome the delays responsible for three-quarters of maternal deaths each year....
Experts Urge More Yemeni Mothers to Breastfeed
by Alice Hackman, Yemen Times, Yemen - As the globe marked World Breastfeeding Week last week, the United Nations' Children Fund's office in Sana'a has called for more breastfeeding campaigns, noting that the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in Yemen is...
Uganda: Nutrition Used As Bait to Lure Women Into Using Birth Control
by Irene Nabusoba, New Vision, Uganda - In Uganda, the uptake of modern contraceptive methods for family planning is still low. The 2007 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) shows that the contraceptive prevalence rate was 24%, with only 18%...
Mother Knows Best
by Limor Gal, Haaretz, Israel - Most women who opt for unassisted birth consider hospitals to be dangerous places, where they are liable to suffer iatrogenic damage - negative health effects stemming from medical treatment....
Helping Men Take the Lead in Family Planning
by Joyce Mulama, East African, Kenya - Two years ago, a United Nations Population Fund report said: “Men usually decide on the number and variety of sexual relationships, timing and frequency of sex and use of contraceptives, sometimes through coercion...
Uganda: Wider Gaps Between Pregnancies Means Healthy Mother, Happy Children
by Susan Muyiyi, New Vision, Uganda - It is estimated that 100,000 maternal deaths would be avoided each year if all women who said they did not want more children were able to stop child bearing....
Sterilised without Consent
by Mara Kardas-Nelson, Mail & Guardian, South Africa - Women's rights activists have claimed that South African and Namibian public health doctors are making HIV-infected women infertile against their will....
JAMAICA: For an Abortion Law That Reaches the Poor
by Zadie Neufville, IPS, Italy - When a Jamaican women’s group Sistren realised the voices of poor women were missing in a national debate on abortion rights, they boldly staged a play before parliamentarians reviewing a draft law that seeks...
Behind Bars for Being Pregnant and HIV-Positive
by Margo Kaplan, RH Reality Check, USA - In May, 2009, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock sentenced Quinta Layin Tuleh, who was about five months pregnant, for the crime of having fake immigration documents....
Why I Plan to Emulate Dr. George Tiller
by Rozalyn Farmer Love, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA - I plan to become an obstetrician-gynecologist. I dream of delivering healthy babies, working with families and supporting midwifery. But as part of my practice, I also envision providing abortions to women who...
RIGHTS: Honour Pledges on Reproductive Health
by Rosemary Okello, IPS, Italy - In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) proposed a groundbreaking shift in the approach to reproductive health: women’s reproductive capacity was to be transformed from an object of population control to...
The Deadly Toll of Abortion by Amateurs
by Denise Grady, New York Times, USA - Abortion is illegal in Tanzania (except to save the mother’s life or health), so women and girls turn to amateurs, who may dose them with herbs or other concoctions, pummel their bellies...
Countering Anti-Choice Terrorism
by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, The Nation, USA - I believe the murder of George Tiller was an act of domestic terrorism whose aim was not only to assassinate a single man, but also to frighten a generation of doctors and to...
Abortion Provider George Tiller Murdered at Church
by Frances Kissling, Religion Dispatches, USA - Today’s killing of a doctor who performed abortions—and saved many women’s lives—may be the result of a culture of religious extremism around the issue of abortion. Is violence the inevitable result of hate...
No Way, Baby
by Lauren Sandler, Reuters, UK - When profits radically drop, so do pregnancies. While stocks tumbled in the first few months of 2009, Nielsen reports that sales of condoms and morning-after pills rose more than 10 percent in the United...
Don't Blame It on Home Births
by Amanda van Mulligen, Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - Infant mortality rate in the Netherlands remains one of the highest in the European Union, but is this anything to do with home births?...
Teenage Mothers Lose All the Fun
by Nosheen Abbas, Dawn, Pakistan - In Pakistan one out of six women of age 15-19 is already married....
In Ethiopia, Legal Rights to Abortion Are Not Yet Access
by Sarah Seltzer, RH Reality Check, USA - In cooperation with Ipas, filmmaker Lisa Russell went to Ethiopia to study how women's lives have changed as a result of the recent liberalization of abortion law....
Can Obama Change the Lives of Women in East Timor?
by Ramona Vijeyarasa, RH Reality Check, USA - A woman in the global south is at least 100 times more likely to die of an unsafe abortion than a woman in the global north, a statistic that will hopefully change...
Rwanda: Maternal Mortality - the Unfortunate Price of Life
by Berna Namata, All Africa, USA - Child bearing is one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide and the women in the world's least developed countries are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth than those in...
Mothers and Motherhood
by Kalpana Sharma, India Together, India - Creating a supportive environment for maternal and newborn health requires challenging the social, economic and cultural barriers that perpetuate gender inequality and discrimination....
The American Heart Disassociation
by Nora Coffey, Truthout, USA - Heart disease was once thought to be less of a problem for women than for men. Research now indicates that heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death among women in the US....
Intensive Care
by Barbara Frye, Transitions Online, Czech Republic - Making the rounds with health mediators in a Romani village: birth, death, and everything in-between....
On Condoms in Schools
by Tamara Scott-Williams, Jamaica Observer, Jamaica - In Jamaica, it is reported that AIDS is the leading cause of death in the 15-40 age groups. The phrase "ignorance is bliss" takes on special meaning when you learn that our girls...
Action Health International Calls for Abolition of Harmful Sexual Health Practices
by Chioma Obinna, Vanguard, Nigeria - Agatha, 14, is the fourth in a family of seven children. They are all female, and in line with the aged-long tradition in this part of the world, six of them are circumcised. At...
Children, Women Still Endangered Species in Nigeria
by Olabisi Deji-Folutile, The Punch, Nigeria - Each day, 145 pregnant women reportedly die [in Nigera]. In other words, six pregnant women die per hour in Nigeria....
Something Like Life: Legislating a Woman’s Womb
by Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo, Business Mirror, Philippines - Our religious leaders and parents can keep preaching sexual abstinence until they are blue in the face, but we know the kids are having sex out there...about 5 million of them...
Uganda: Men Are Key to Improved Family Planning Service Delivery
by Diana N. Bateefu, All Africa, Uganda - In many cultures, men are the major decision-makers concerning health issues in the household. All too often, however, their limited involvement in activities related to the care of their wives and newborns,...
Reproductive Health: Because of, Not In Spite of, My Faith
by Nancy Northrup, RH Reality Check, USA - The attempt to legislate one set of religious beliefs about women's ability to control their reproductive lives is an offense to a bedrock commitment of America's constitutional democracy: freedom of religion and...
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