Congratulations and thanks to Godfrey Dalitso Kangaude, Catriona MacLeod, Ernestina Coast, and Tamara Fetters, whose article, “Integrating child rights standards in contraceptive and abortion care for minors in Africa,” suggests that African countries integrate child rights principles in clinical guidelines and protocols to provide high-quality contraceptive and abortion care for minor girls. The article appeared in the Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health section of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. The full text is available online, and we are pleased to circulate the authors’ abstract.
“Integrating child rights standards in contraceptive and abortion care for minors in Africa,” by Godfrey Dalitso Kangaude, Catriona Macleod, Ernestina Coast and Tamara Fetters, in International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 159.3 (December 2022): 998-1004. Article online.
Abstract: Minor girls in Africa face challenges in accessing high-quality contraceptive and abortion services because laws and policies are not child-friendly. Many countries maintain restrictive laws, policies or hospital practices that make it difficult for minors to access contraception and safe abortion even when the pregnancy would risk their life or health. Further, the clinical guidelines on contraceptive and abortion care are silent, vague or ambiguous regarding minors’ consent. African states should remedy the situation by ensuring that clinical guidelines integrate child rights principles and standards articulated in child rights treaties to enable health providers to facilitate full and unencumbered access to contraceptive and abortion care for minor girls. A sample of clinical guidelines is analyzed to demonstrate the importance of explicit, consistent and unambiguous language about children’s consent to ensure that health care workers provide sexual and reproductive health care in a manner that respects child rights.
Keywords: child rights; contraceptive and abortion care, Convention on the Rights of the Child; African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; evolving capacities, WHO abortion care guideline
Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health, more than 110 concise articles are online here. __________________________________________________________________________ Contributed by: the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Blog Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of this blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Congratulations and thanks to Patty Skuster, Heidi Moseson and Jamila Perritt, whose article was recently published in the “Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health” section of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Prof. Skuster holds the Beck Chair in Law at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University, Dr. Moseson is Senior Research Scientist at Ibis Reproductive Health, and Dr. Perritt is President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health. We are pleased to circulate the abstract of their co-authored article, which is now freely accessible online.
Patty Skuster, Heidi Moseson and Jamila Perritt, “Self managed abortion: aligning law and policy with medical evidence,” International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 160.2 (February 2023): 720-725. Abstract and Article.
ABSTRACT: People have always and will always find ways to try to end their pregnancies when necessary. Many do so safely without the involvement or direct supervision of healthcare professionals by self-managing their abortions. In 2022, the well-established safety and efficacy of abortion medications prompted WHO to fully endorse self-managed medication abortion as part of a comprehensive range of safe, effective options for abortion care. But despite robust evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of the self-use of medications for abortion, abortion laws and policies around the world remain at odds with clinical evidence and with the realities of self-managed medication abortion in the present day. The present article considers legal issues related to self-managed abortion and addresses the role of obstetricians, gynecologists, and other healthcare professionals in promoting clinical and legal safety in abortion care through support of self-managed abortion.
RELATED RESOURCES
World Health Organization, Abortion Care Guideline, 2022. Online here.
“The WHO Abortion Care Guideline: Law and Policy–Past, Present and Future,” by Joanna N. Erdman, in International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 162.3 (Sept 2023): 1119–1124. .Abstract and Article.
Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health, more than 110 concise articles are online here. __________________________________________________________________________ Contributed by: the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of this blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Congratulations and thanks to Dr. Elena Caruso, whose article on “The Hyper-Regulation of Abortion Care in Italy” was recently published in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics‘ “Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health” section, edited by Professors Rebecca J. Cook, Bernard M. Dickens and Charles G. Ngwena. The author, Elena Caruso, is an Italian legal scholar who completed a doctorate in Law at Kent University and who now holds an AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. We are pleased to circulate the following abstract of this article, which is now fully available online in both English and Italian:
The Hyper-Regulation of Abortion Care in Italy, by Elena Caruso in International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 163.3 (December 2023):1036-1042. PDF at Wiley Online. Italian translation.
ABSTRACT: This paper argues that the current abortion regulation by Law 194/1978 is an inadequate basis for the provision of good quality abortion care and must be reformed. First, the paper explains why Law 194/1978 creates a hyper-regulatory regime that is inconsistent with the best clinical evidence and practices in the field as well as relevant international human rights law, as outlined in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2022 Abortion Care Guideline. Second, it highlights gaps between what the law says and what happens in practice, pointing out how the everyday life of Law 194/1978, especially in the practices of gynecologists, is far removed from international standards of quality abortion care and has yet to comply with international human rights law. Third, it sets out some alternative routes to abortion access “outside” Law 194/1978. Finally, it concludes with some suggestions for a change in the practice of gynecology and a call for the reform of Law 194/1978, in favor of a bodily autonomy model of regulation grounded on decriminalization, demedicalization, dehospitalization, and self-management to ensure compliance with the WHO standards and international human rights law.
Law 194 of 1978: an English translation of this Italian law is online here.
The WHO Abortion Care Guideline: Law and Policy–Past, Present and Future,” by Joanna N. Erdman, in International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics162.3 (Sept 2023): 1119–1124. PDF at Wiley Online.
Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health – more than 110 other concise articles are online here. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Contributed by: The International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of this blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Congratulations to Leticia Bonifaz Alfonzo and Rosalba Mora Sierra, whose article on the 2023 decriminalization of abortion by the Mexican Supreme Court was recently published in the “Ethical and Legal Issues” section of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and is now freely available. Leticia Bonifaz Alfonzo, a member of the UN CEDAW committee, is affiliated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. Rosalba Mora Sierra is Director of Access to Justice at the General Unit of Scientific Knowledge and Human Rights, Mexican Supreme Court in Mexico City. The article is now freely available online:
ABSTRACT: In September 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court issued a decision disallowing any federal or local judicial authority to indict someone for the offense of voluntary or consensual abortion. This decision also declared unconstitutional penalties imposed on medical personnel who facilitate or assist such procedures. Furthermore, the Court decided that limiting access to abortion in cases of rape to a specific time frame was disproportionate. Later on, in September 2023, the Supreme Court confirmed that absolute criminalization of abortion was unconstitutional and declared that the rule supporting criminalization in the Federal Penal Code was without effects. Consequently, healthcare providers who work in public federal health institutions cannot be criminalized for guaranteeing the right to abortion. This article reviews the reasons advanced by the Supreme Court to guarantee the right of reproductive self-determination, as well as the effects of both decisions beyond the decriminalization of abortion by Mexican federal and state legislatures. The paper also examines the scope and limitations of these rulings and identifies the remaining challenges regarding voluntary abortion procedures in Mexico.
The new Mexican decision: Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación [Supreme Court], 2023. Review of Constitutional Protection. Amparo en revisión 267/2023. Sept. 6, 2023.Speaker: Justice Ana Margarita Ríos Farjat. Decided in the session of September 6, 2023. Official Press release in Spanish. Decision in Spanish.
“Recursos Jurídicos” del RepoCLACAI – For a comprehensive and searchable database of legal resources on abortion care in Latin America, visit the Legal Section of the CLACAI Repository “Recursos Juridicos” online.
Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health – more than 110 other concise articles are online here. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Contributed by: The International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of this blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Congratulations to Professor Joanna N. Erdman, MacBain Chair in Health Law and Policy at the Schulich School of Law in Dalhousie University, who served as a technical advisor with the WHO’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research and as a member of the Law and Policy Evidence and Recommendation Review Group, and the Guideline Development Group for the 2022 Abortion Care Guidelines. Her article on WHO’s new guideline was recently published in the Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health section of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. We are pleased to circulate the abstract of her article, which is freely accessible online.
Joanna N. Erdman, “The WHO Abortion Care Guideline: Law and Policy–Past, Present and Future,” in International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 162.3 (Sept 2023): 1119–1124.Abstract and Article.
Abstract: In the 2022 Abortion Care Guideline, the World Health Organization (WHO) undertook systematic evidence reviews of seven law and policy interventions to assess their health and social impacts. Distinct recommendations were formulated for each. The present article highlights how the Guideline reconceptualizes abortion regulation as a complex structural intervention that shapes clinical care and service delivery and distributes risks and resources within these systems and in the care relations that define them. It then presents the Guideline recommendations and summarizes their evidence base, drawing on recent legal and policy developments to emphasize their real-world significance. The article concludes by anticipating the future of abortion law and policy, focusing on service delivery innovations and diverse care models, drug regulation and the supply of abortion pills, and protective interventions crafted in the context of political crisis and immediate need that serve policy objectives and take regulatory forms different from the past.
RELATED RESOURCES:
World Health Organization, Abortion Care Guideline, 2022. Online here.
See also: “Self managed abortion: aligning law and policy with medical evidence,” by Patty Skuster, Heidi Moseson and Jamila Perritt, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 160.2 (February 2023): 720-725. . PDF at Wiley Online.
Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health, more than 110 concise articles are online here. __________________________________________________________________________ Contributed by: the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of our blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Congratulations to Prof. Rebecca Cook, whose edited volume, FRONTIERS OF GENDER EQUALITY: TRANSNATIONAL LEGAL PERSPECTIVES, was published in May 2023 by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Professor Cook’s entire introduction to the book is now online, as well as abstracts of each chapter through the Table of Contents below:
Rebecca J. Cook, “Many Paths to Gender Equality,” in Frontiers of Gender Equality: Transnational Legal Perspectives (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023). (publisher’s page). Introduction now online.
In “Many Paths to Gender Equality,” Rebecca Cook shows how a chorus of voices (25 authors) can introduce new and different discourses about the wrongs of gender discrimination and explain the multiple dimensions of gender equality. The wrongs of discrimination can best be understood from the perspective of the discriminated. The book illustrates how gender discrimination persists and grows in new and different contexts, how it continues to be normalized and camouflaged, and how it intersects with other axes of subordination, such as indigeneity, religion, and poverty, to create new forms of intersectional discrimination. With the benefit of hindsight, the book’s contributors reconstruct gender equalities in concrete situations, including women who were violated sexually and physically,and those needing access to necessary health care, including abortion.
Part I of the book focuses on “Understanding Gender Inequality and Equality.” Part II concerns “Advancing Gender Equality through Human Rights Treaties”. In Part III, entitled “Looking Back to Move Forward,” Chapters 16 through 20 use a “rewriting” process to “envision more fulsome gender equalities” for the future. The authors do so by analyzing and then rewriting historic decisions, documents, and even international policy guidance:
In Chapter 16, “Gender Equality in Health Care: Reenvisioning CEDAW General Recommendation 24,” Joanna N. Erdman and Mariana Prandini Assis observe how Article 12’s goal to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women in the field of health care was interpreted in 1999 through General Recommendation 24 (GR 24), within a particular gender equality paradigm of its era. After careful analysis, the authors propose text for a future general recommendation on gender equality in health care. Abstract of Chapter 16.
In Chapter 20, “Restoring Mai Mapingure’s Equal Citizenship,” Charles Ngwena and Rebecca Cook show how the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe’s 2014 decision in the case of Mai Mildred Mapingure, denied abortion after rape, exemplifies the systemic nature of status subordination that women seeking access to safe abortion may experience, especially in the health care and criminal and justice systems. After analyzing Mai Mapingure’s position as a “gendered citizen” under Zimbabwean constitutions, they rewrite the Supreme Court’s decision in ways that would restore her equal citizenship. Abstract of Chapter 20.
For abstracts of each chapter, see the Table of Contents below: —————————————————————————————————————– FRONTIERS OF GENDER EQUALITY: TRANSNATIONAL LEGAL PERSPECTIVES ed. Rebecca J. Cook (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023)
Foreword by Cecilia Medina Quiroga
Introduction: Many Paths to Gender EqualityFull text online. by Rebecca J. Cook .
Part I. UNDERSTANDING GENDER INEQUALITY AND EQUALITY
1. Faces of Gender Inequality by Sophia Moreau. Abstract online.
2. Challenging the Frontiers of Gender Equality: Women at Work by Sandra Fredman. Abstract online.
3. A Prioritarian Account of Gender Equality by Shreya Atrey. Abstract online.
4. Queer Rights Talk: The Rhetoric of Equality Rights for LGBTQ+ Peoples by Daniel Del Gobbo. Abstract online.
5. CEDAW Reservations and Contested Equality Claims by Siobhán Mullally. Abstract online.
6. Gender Equality and the Sustainable Development Goals: Discursive Practices in Uncertain Times by Marieme S. Lo. Abstract online.
Part II. ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES
International Treaties 7. Fifty Years On: The Curious Case of Intersectional Discrimination in the ICCPR, with a Postscript, by Shreya Atrey. Abstract online.
8. Like Birds of a Feather? ICESCR and Women’s Socioeconomic Equality by Meghan Campbell. Abstract online.
9. Gender Equality Untethered? CEDAW’s Contribution to Intersectionality by Loveday Hodson. Abstract online.
Regional Treaties 10. Gender Equality in the European Court of Human Rights by Stéphanie Hennette Vauchez Abstract online
11. Gender Equality within the Framework of the European Social Charter by Karin Lukas and Colm Ó Cinnéide. Abstract online.
12. Transformative Gender Equality in the Inter-American System of Human Rights by Verónica Undurraga. Abstract online.
13. African Gender Equalities, by Fareda Banda. Abstract online.
20. Restoring Mai Mapingure’s Equal Citizenship by Charles G. Ngwena and Rebecca J. Cook. Abstract online.
Conclusion. Taking Stock of Gender Equality by Francisca Pou Giménez. Abstract online.
Table of Cases Table of Legislation, Treaties, and Other Relevant Instruments Notes Index Contributors Acknowledgments
FRONTIERS OF GENDER EQUALITY: TRANSNATIONAL LEGAL PERSPECTIVES, Ed. Rebecca J. Cook, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023) Purchase options: North and South America, Rest of the Worl _________________________________________________________________________________________ Contributed by: The International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of this blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Congratulations and thanks to Isabel C Jaramillo Sierra, a Professor of Law at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. As she explains in “The new Colombian law on abortion“ published in the Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health section of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, the new law authorizes abortions on request up to week twenty-four and on an indications model for the remaining weeks of pregnancy. We are pleased to circulate the following abstract:
Abstract: On February 21, 2022, the Colombian Constitutional Court decided that the existing regulation of abortion was unconstitutional and repealed it (Sentencia C-055/2022). The new abortion law, as per the Court’s decision, considers the voluntary interruption of a pregnancy a crime only when it happens after week twenty-four and does not fall under the health, rape or malformation indications developed through precedent from 2006 to 2022. The decision is generally binding and of immediate application. The decision’s rationale builds on the right to health, substantive equality, and freedom of conscience. It acknowledges severe restrictions in access to abortion faced by Colombian women and the costs these restrictions have on their lives. It also recognizes that the indications model forces women to obtain permission from medical doctors to access abortion, and thus fails to recognize women’s freedom of conscience.
Keywords: Colombian Constitutional Law; Colombia judgment Sentencia C-055/2022; Right to health; Right to equality; Freedom of conscience; Criminal law as last resort; Reproductive health
“Recursos Jurídicos” del RepoCLACAI – For a comprehensive and searchable database of legal resources on abortion care in Latin America, visit the Legal Section of the CLACAI Repository “Recursos Juridicos” online.
Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health – more than 110 other concise articles are online here. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Contributed by: The International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of this blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Congratulations and thanks to Martha F. Davis, University Distinguished Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, MA, whose recently published contribution to the Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health section of the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics discusses how the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, has opened the door to new abortion restrictions, complicating care and threatening providers. We are pleased to circulate the following abstract:
Martha F. Davis “The state of abortion rights in the US,” International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 159.1 (October 2022): 324-329. PDF at Wiley online. Submitted text at SSRN.
Abstract: In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the US Supreme Court reversed longstanding court precedents that protected abortion as a fundamental right. Without that federal baseline, many states are passing restrictive laws that threaten providers and complicate patient care. The legal issues raised by these state restrictions are complex, including questions such as the ex-territorial application of state restrictions and federal authority to regulate access to medication abortion. Meanwhile, providers who risk criminal or civil penalties for violating these laws may be deterred from providing services to those seeking care, including for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. State variations are dramatic, with some states taking steps to strengthen their abortion protections while others are eliminating abortion access even in situations of rape or incest. As dire as these developments are, it is hoped that they can serve as a wake-up call heard worldwide, to avoid complacency and maintain vigilance to protect abortion rights.
RELATED RESOURCES:
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. _ (2022) (Supreme Court of the United States), June 24, 2022 [which held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion]. Decision online.Case summary by CRR.
Brief of International and Comparative Legal Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support of Respondents. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,Amicus brief by Martha Davis et al.
Brief of European Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support of the Respondents, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Amicus brief by European Law Professors.
[France] [Why and how to constitutionalize abortion law]: ‘Pourquoi et comment constitutionaliser le droit à l’avortement,” par Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez, Diane Roman et Serge Slama, La Revue des Droits de l’Homme, Actualités Droits-Libertés | 2022 Juillet 2022. Full text in French. Soon after the Dobbs decision in the U.S., France opened debate to formally include the right to abortion in the French Constitution with the filing of a constitutional bill, a pioneering historic opportunity to open the constitutional text to reproductive questions.
Ethical and Legal Issues in Reproductive Health – more than 100 other concise articles are online here.
______________________ Compiled by: the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and the Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of our blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Congratulations to Agustina Ramón Michel, Stephanie Kung, Alyse López-Salm, and Sonia Ariza Navarrete for their 2021 publication in the Health and Human Rights Journal about a CEDES and Ipas report in Spanish about conscientious objectors in Argentina. We are pleased to circulate abstracts for both publications:
“Regulating Conscientious Objection to Legal Abortion in Argentina: Taking into Consideration Its Uses and Consequences,” by Agustina Ramón Michel, Stephanie Kung, Alyse López-Salm, and Sonia Ariza Navarrete, Health and Human Rights Journal 22.2 (Dec 2020): 271 – 384. Abstract and article.
Abstract: Claims of conscientious objection (CO) have expanded in the health care field, particularly in relation to abortion services. In practice, CO is being used in ways beyond those originally imagined by liberalism, creating a number of barriers to abortion access. In Argentina, current CO regulation is lacking and insufficient. This issue was especially evident in the country’s 2018 legislative debate on abortion law reform, during which CO took center stage. This paper presents a mixed-method study conducted in Argentina on the uses of CO in health facilities providing legal abortion services, with the goal of proposing specific regulatory language to address CO based not only on legal standards but also on empirical findings regarding CO in everyday reproductive health services. The research includes a review of literature and comparative law, a survey answered by 269 health professionals, and 11 in-depth interviews with stakeholders. The results from our survey and interviews indicate that Argentine health professionals who use CO to deny abortion are motivated by a combination of political, social, and personal factors, including a fear of stigmatization and potential legal issues. Furthermore, we find that the preeminent consequences of CO are delays in abortion services and conflicts within the health care team. The findings of this research allowed us to propose specific regulatory recommendations on CO, including limits and obligations, and suggestions for government and health system leaders.
Una vuelta de tuerca a la objeción de conciencia: Una propuesta regulatoria a partir de las prácticas del aborto legal en Argentina, por Sonia Ariza Navarrete & Agustina Ramón Michel, (Buenos Aires: CEDES e Ipas, 2019. Informe en espanol.
Sumario: En esta publicación sobre la objeción de conciencia (OC) a la ILE en Argentina, desarrollado por Ipas y la Red de Acceso al Aborto Seguro, Argentina (REDAAS), presentamos una propuesta para regular la OC en el marco de una política pública. Esto lo hacemos de manera empíricamente informada –en particular, relevando las formas que adquiere la OC, y las opiniones de profesionales de la salud sobre las causas e impacto a través de una encuesta y una serie de entrevistas– y con un encuadre conceptual que pone en juego anhelos normativos, necesidades concretas, experiencias cotidianas tanto de los equipos de salud como de las autoridades sanitarias, así como las características estructurales de la formación médica, las condiciones institucionales de los servicios de salud y el ambiente sociopolítico.
OTHER RELEVANT RESOURCES
The first global map on norms regarding conscientious objection in healthcare, by Agustina Ramón Michel (coordinator) and Dana Repka (CEDES / REDAAS), with support from Ipas and the ELA team. The map is an exercise in comparative law which houses, describes and analyzes constitutional, legal, and regulatory standards regarding CO in healthcare of 180 of the world’s countries, and includes the most relevant law cases in national, regional, and international Human Rights courts. This interactive map is searchable by categories and multiple variables, which makes it easier to do a comparative study of the regulations and analysis of specific regulatory aspects. Updated December 15, 2022: Global Map of Norms re Conscientious Objection.
“Conscientious Objection and the Duty to Refer,” by Bernard M. Dickens, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 2021; 155: 556-560. PDF at Wiley Online. Submitted Text at SSRN.
Conscientious Objection / The Right to Conscience, an annotated bibliography, updated Feb. 15, 2021 Conscience Bibiography.
——————— Compiled by: the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of our blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Congratulations to Jordan A. Parsons and Elizabeth Chloe Romanis, whose new book has just been published by Oxford University Press. Jordan A. Parsons is a doctoral candidate at Bristol Medical School, and Elizabeth Chloe Romanis is Assistant Professor in Biolaw at Durham University’s Law School in the United Kingdom. We are pleased to circulate the publisher’s description and some related resources.
Jordan A. Parsons and Elizabeth Chloe Romanis, Early Medical Abortion, Equality of Access, and the Telemedical Imperative (Oxford University Press 2021) Publisher’s webpage.
Telemedicine has recently become a key focus of healthcare systems globally, heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased need for remote treatment. Implementing telemedicine can bring myriad benefits for both patients and providers and has the potential to make a huge impact by improving access to abortion care.
In both the United Kingdom and United States, abortion is heavily regulated – exceptionally so when compared to other routine healthcare. This regulation has had the impact of exacerbating the social and geographical circumstances that can make access to abortion clinics difficult.
This book examines early medical abortion provided by telemedicine, alongside the access barriers created by laws in the US and UK. It critically appraises a series of developments in this rapidly evolving subject providing an up to date and well-informed analysis. In doing so, it argues that there is a moral imperative to make the necessary regulatory changes that would enable the provision of telemedical early medical abortion. Discount code for recent launch: AMPROMD9
RELATED RESOURCES: “Legal and Policy Responses to the Delivery of Abortion Care During COVID-19,” by Elizabeth Chloe Romanis & Jordan A Parsons. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 151.3 (December 2020): 479-486 PDF at Wiley online. Submitted Text at SSRN.
“Early abortion care during the COVID-19 public health emergency in Ireland: implications for law, policy and service delivery” by Allison Spillane and Maeve Taylor, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 2021;154:379–384. PDF at Wiley online, Free access.
“Abortion by telemedicine in the European Union,” by Tamara K. Hervey and Sally Sheldon, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 145(2019): 125–128. PDF at Wiley Online. Submitted text at SSRN. ______________ Compiled by: the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of our blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.
Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective: Cases and Controversies, ed. Rebecca J. Cook, Joanna N. Erdman and Bernard M. Dickens, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014
El aborto en el derecho internacional: casos y controversias, por Rebecca Cook, Joanna Erdman y Bernard Dickens, 2016
Reproductive Health and Human Rights: Integrating Medicine Ethics and Law, by Rebecca J. Cook, Bernard M. Dickens, and Mahmoud F. Fathalla (Oxford UP, 2003)
Gender Stereotyping: Transnational Legal Perspectives, by Rebecca J. Cook and Simone Cusack, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2010
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