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April 24, 2006
Three women
Dr. Jose Barzelatto and Dr. Felicia Stewart put reproductive health on policymakers’ agendas, but never forgot the needs of individual women.
Photo by Richard Lord.

Ipas mourns the deaths and celebrates the work of two reproductive-health luminaries, Dr. Jose Barzelatto and Dr. Felicia Stewart.

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Dr. Barzelatto, a Chilean-born doctor who began his career in endocrinology and nuclear medicine, became a leading advocate for reproductive and sexual health. He died April 8 of complications arising from a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was 80.

Barzelatto understood that preventing and treating disease requires more than a medical approach. As a physician and ethicist, he connected with religious groups and helped them define their support for women’s and girls’ health. Barzelatto recognized gender inequality and discrimination as key factors in public health long before these topics came into the mainstream.

In a 1998 interview with The Park Ridge Center for Health, Faith, and Ethics, Barzelatto said that the needs of women must drive global population policies.

“Women should be the subjects and not the objects of policy. The whole concern should not be the number of people in the world, but the well-being of people in the world, and in particular, of women because they have been discriminated against by patriarchal societies.”

During the course of his career, Dr. Barzelatto directed the Special Program of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction at the World Health Organization in Geneva and also the Reproductive Health and Population program at the Ford Foundation. Most recently, he served as Vice President of the Center for Health and Social Policy, based in Pelham, N.Y.

As an official at these institutions, Dr. Barzelatto made sure that reproductive health would be on the agenda of international policy organizations, national governments and the philanthropy community. Known as a bridge builder, he even helped train leaders of China’s State Family Planning Commission.

Among his last publications is the upcoming English-language version of  “The Human Drama of Abortion,” co-written with colleague Anibal Faundes. This book contextualizes abortion as a medical, social and political issue — and as Barzelatto always did, incorporates women’s voices into the conversation. The English translation will be available in May from Vanderbilt University Press.

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Dr. Felicia Stewart was a San Francisco obstetrician-gynecologist and a powerful voice for women's access to emergency contraception and abortion services. Most recently, she was co-director of the Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy at the University of California at San Francisco.

Dr. Stewart was probably best known for groundbreaking research establishing that the emergency contraceptive pill is safe and effective when sold without a physician’s prescription. Without her study of thousands of California women, it is likely that “Plan B” emergency contraception (also called the “morning after” pill) would not be available by prescription or without prescription in several states.

As an active supporter of abortion rights, Dr. Stewart organized the successful effort to permit qualified midwives and nurse practitioners to perform abortions in California.

During the Clinton administration, Dr. Stewart served as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.  

After leaving her federal post, Dr. Stewart became director of reproductive-health programs at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and later served as staff physician to Planned Parenthood facilities in Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose.

Dr. Stewart died April 13 of lung cancer at her home in San Carlos, Calif. She was 63.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258