“Abortion and Public Health Ethics” by Dr. Mahmoud Fathalla

Congratulations and thanks to Dr. Mahmoud F. Fathalla of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Assiut University in Egypt, whose article in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of  Public Health Ethics can now be previewed online.

Mahmoud F. Fathalla, “Abortion and Public Health Ethics,” The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics, ed. Anna C. Mastroianni, Jeffrey P. Kahn, and Nancy E. Kass, Oxford Handbooks Online,  February 2019,  Article online.

Abstract:
There is an ethical imperative to take public health action to eliminate the global problem of unsafe abortion. The moral obligation is dictated by the magnitude of the problem, the health inequities and social injustices that result from lack of access to safe abortion, the voices of women calling for action, and an international consensus recognizing unsafe abortion as a global health problem. The availability of public health interventions and the cost savings associated with fewer abortion complications reinforce the obligation to address unsafe abortion. Public health actions include reducing the need for abortion through family planning, providing safe abortion to the full extent of the law, managing abortion complications, and providing post-abortion care. These actions intersect with morality, religion, law, justice, and human rights. The public health community has a collective social and ethical responsibility to stand beside and behind women as they claim their human right to health.

Keywords:
public health ethics, abortion, unsafe abortion, public health, global health, justice, family planning, human rights

The full text of this article is online here.

RELATED RESOURCE:
“Reproductive health and public health ethics” by B.M. Dickens and R.J. Cook (2007) 99 International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 75-79.
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