The phrase is neither a legitimate academic term, nor a political movement. It is a theory drummed up by hard-right religious activists, who present it as a gay- and feminist-led movement out to upend the traditional family and the natural order of society. It’s a catchall phrase to sell a false narrative and justify discrimination against women and LGBT people. And it is winning elections.
Women are central to families and communities, and their well-being is essential to global health and stability. Yet each year, 25 million unsafe abortions put women and girls at great risk of injury or even death. These deaths and injuries are entirely preventable. That’s why organizations like Ipas focus on making safe, high-quality abortion care and contraception available to anyone, whenever and wherever it is needed, as part of the full continuum of sexual and reproductive care.
Governments, advocates, providers, policymakers and other stakeholders who want to fully support women’s rights to access abortion across the globe must address quality of care, in addition to efforts to change abortion laws, train providers and expand service provision. Documenting and working to improve the quality of abortion care is necessary in order to improve service delivery and health outcomes, expand access to safe abortion especially in legally restricted settings, and to ensure the human right to the highest attainable standard of health, as outlined by the WHO.
We sought to determine if female community health volunteers (FCHVs) and literate women in Nepal can accurately determine success of medical abortion (MA) using an 8-question symptom checklist. Women’s and FCHVs’ assessments were compared to experienced abortion providers using standard of care. Women’s self-assessment of MA success agreed with abortion providers’ determinations 85% of the time. Agreement between FCHVs and providers was 82%. We concluded that use of a checklist to determine MA success is a promising strategy. However, further refinement of such a tool, particularly for low-literacy settings, is needed before widespread use.
The domestic and global gag rules stigmatize a simple medical procedure by disconnecting it from other health care services and by forcing doctors not to offer women the whole array or reproductive options available to them.
