Abortion Archives - Page 18 of 51 - Protection of Conscience Project Library

The injustice of unsafe motherhood

Rebecca J Cook, Bernard M Dickens

Abstract
This paper presents an overview of the dimensions of unsafe motherhood, contrasting data from economically developed countries with some from developing countries. It addresses many common factors that shape unsafe motherhood, identifying medical, health system and societal causes, including women’s powerlessness over their reproductive lives in particular as a feature of their dependent status in general. Drawing on perceptions of Jonathan Mann, it focuses on public health dimensions of maternity risks, and equates the role of bioethics in conscientious medical care to that of human rights in public health care. The microethics of medical care translate into the macroethics of public health, but the transition compels some compromise of personal autonomy, a key feature of Western bioethics, in favour of societal analysis. Religiously-based morality is seen to have shaped laws that contribute to unsafe motherhood. Now reformed in former colonizing countries of Europe, many such laws remain in effect in countries that emerged from colonial domination. UN conferences have defined the concept of ‘reproductive health’ as one that supports women’s reproductive self-determination, but restrictive abortion laws and practices epitomize the unjust constraints to which many women remain subject, resulting in their unsafe motherhood. Pregnant women can be legally compelled to give the resources of their bodies to the support of others, while fathers are not legally compellable to provide, for instance, bone-marrow or blood donations for their children’s survival. Women’s unjust legal, political, economic and social powerlessness explains much unsafe motherhood and maternal mortality and morbidity.

Cook RJ, Dickens BM. The injustice of unsafe motherhood. Dev World Bioeth. 2002 May;2(1):64-81

Emergency contraception provision: a survey of emergency department practitioners

Reza Keshavarz, Roland C Merchant, John McGreal

Abstract
Objectives: To determine emergency department (ED) practitioner willingness to offer emergency contraception (EC) following sexual assault and consensual sex, and to compare responses of practitioners from states whose laws permit the refusal, discussion, counseling, and referral of patients for abortions (often called “opt-out” or “abortion-related conscience clauses”) with those of practitioners from states without these laws.

Methods: Using a structured questionnaire, a convenience sample of ED practitioners attending a national emergency medicine meeting was surveyed.

Results: The 600 respondents were: 71% male, 29% female; 34% academic, 26% community, and 33% resident physicians; and 7% nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Many respondents (88%) were inclined to offer EC to those sexually assaulted by unknown assailants. More practitioners said they were willing to offer EC if the assailant was known to be HIV-infected rather than if the assailant had low HIV risk factors (90% vs. 79%, p < 0.01). More respondents would prescribe EC after sexual assault than consensual sex (88% vs. 73%, p < 0.01). The rates of willingness to offer EC were the same for practitioners in states with “abortion-related conscience clauses” and those from other states.

Conclusions: Most ED practitioners said they were willing to offer EC. Although the risk of pregnancy exists after consensual sex, practitioners were less willing to prescribe EC after those exposures than for sexual assault. “Abortion-related conscience clauses” did not seem to influence willingness to offer EC.

Keshavarz R, Merchant RC, McGreal J. Emergency contraception provision: a survey of emergency department practitioners. Acad Emerg Med. 2002 Jan;9(1):69-74.

The place for individual conscience

Frances Kissling

Abstract
From a liberationist, feminist, and Catholic point of view, this article attempts to understand the decision of abortion. . . . The paper offers solutions to end the ugliness of the abortion debate by suggesting that we would be able to progress further on the issue of abortion if we looked for the good in the opposing viewpoint. The article continues with a discussion of Catholics For a Free Choice’s position on abortion, and notes firstly that there is no firm position within the Catholic Church on when the fetus becomes a person; secondly that the principle of probablism in Roman Catholicism holds that where the church cannot speak definitively on a matter of fact (in this case, on the personhood of the fetus), the consciences of individual Catholics must be primary and respected, and thirdly that the absolute prohibition on abortion by the church is not infallible. In conclusion, only the woman herself can make the abortion decision.

Kissling F. The place for individual conscience. J Med Ethics. 2001 Oct;27(suppl II):ii24-ii27.

The High Cost of Merging With A Religiously-Controlled Hospital

Monica Sloboda

Berkeley Women's Law Journal — Berkeley Women’s Law Journal

Extract
Conclusion
The trend of hospital mergers between religious and non-religious hospitals may continue to threaten access to reproductive health services, especially for patients who already have limited access because they live in rural areas or have low incomes.l” However, as this essay suggests, there are several avenues that concerned citizens and activists can take to try to prevent the loss of these vital services.l ” The creativity and determination of those who commit themselves to ensuring that reproductive health services will continue to be available to all who desire them has resulted in several viable legal and practical methods of intervention. Although I believe it is important to respect the religious rights and beliefs of others. when the expression of these beliefs encroaches on patients’ rights to access basic health services, intervention is appropriate and necessary. I hope that public outcry, in the forms of legal and grassroots action, will persuade state actors, legislatures, hospital administrators, and clergy to properly acknowledge patients’ rights and participate in the creation of acceptable solutions to the financial problems that hospitals increasingly face. We need solutions that do not deny essential health services to any group of people.

Sloboda M. The High Cost of Merging With A Religiously-Controlled Hospital. Berkeley Women’s Law J. 2001 Sep;140-156.

(Correspondence) The abortion issue

Patrick G Coffey

Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMAJ — Canadian Medical Association Journal

Extract
Having read the well-written article by Laura Eggertson, I feel that her thrust (and that of Planned Parenthood, the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League, Health Minister Allan Rock, etc.) is that it is a scandal and surprise that a “medically necessary” operation — abortion — is not universally accepted like other procedures You do not hear most of the old debating arguments about abortion any more, but the one that will not go away concerns whether abortion is a medically necessary operation. . . .Abortion is both a moral and a medical issue, and we should not be surprised if people do not regard it as a necessary procedure in the same way they view other operations.

Coffey PG. (Correspondence) The abortion issue. Can Med Assoc J. 2001 Jul 10;165(1):14-15.

(Correspondence) The abortion issue

Will Johnston

Extract
Your homey analogy of abortion as a patchwork quilt — a warm, comforting and maternal object if ever there was one — furthers the dishonourable tradition of euphemizing the medicalized killing of small human beings. . . CMA members remain deeply divided on these issues. An even-handed editorial and reporting style would show respect for this diversity of opinion.

Johnston W. (Correspondence) The abortion issue. Can Med Assoc J. 2001 Jul 10;165(1):15.

(News) Over-the-counter emergency contraception available soon across the country?

Barbara Sibbald

Extract
Following a Feb. 16 meeting with the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) and 4 other organizations, Health Canada has started working toward making emergency postcoital contraception available without a prescription across the country . . . Senikas says some opponents equate EPC with abortion and “have this misplaced notion that emergency contraception is like RU-486. It’s not. It will never displace a pregnancy.

Sibbald B. Over-the-counter emergency contraception available soon across the country? Can Med Assoc J. 2001 Mar 20;164(6):849.

(News) Teen pregnancy rate down, abortion rate up

Lynda Buske

Extract
The rate of pregnancy among Canadian teenagers aged 15 to 19 has declined by about 20% since 1974 . . . However, the proportion of live births resulting from these pregnancies has decreased relative to the proportion of teenagers receiving abortions.

Buske L. Teen pregnancy rate down, abortion rate up. Can Med Assoc J. 2001;164(3):395.

(News) Will Canada follow US lead on RU486?

Barbara Sibbald

Extract
After 17 years of debate, mifepristone (RU 486), the controversial pill that induces early abortion, is for sale in the US. The drug’s Canadian proponents hope this country will soon follow suit. . . . The SOGC passed a resolution in 1992 supporting the “legal availability” of antiprogesterone steroids such as mifepristone in order to give “Canadian women access to treatment of proven efficacy.” Lalonde says withholding approval is an “insult to women — they’re being treated like babies, being refused access to this and that when it comes to their health.” Not everyone is as enthusiastic. Mary Ellen Douglas, national organizer for Canada’s Campaign Life Coalition (www.lifesite.net), told CMAJ: “The result of taking this pill is a dead baby, and that’s certainly not a drug we need here.”

Sibbald B. Will Canada follow US lead on RU486?. Can Med Assoc J. 2001 Jan 09;164(1):82.

(News) FDA considering restricted access to “abortion pill”

Barbara Sibbald

Extract
Mifepristone, the controversial “abortion pill,” may soon be available in the US, but the distribution rules may be so strict that they “hurt access.”. . . Mifepristone has been available to women in many European countries for more than a decade. More than 500 000 women worldwide have used it, with few complications reported. When taken with misoprostol, which has already been approved in Canada, mifepristone causes abortion – in essence a miscarriage – in 95% of women who are no more than 49 days pregnant.

Sibbald B. FDA considering restricted access to “abortion pill”. Can Med Assoc J. 2000 Sep 5;163(5):586.