Abortion. Annotated Bibliography

Abortion: Annotated Bibliography

Name

Institution

Abortion

Benson, J. (2005) Evaluating Abortion-care Programs: Old Challenges, New Directions. Studies in Family Planning 36(3). pp 189-202

In this article, Benson evaluates the challenges faced by women in their search for safe abortion and pertinent productive care services especially in the developing world. The study estimates that despite increased prevalence of contraceptive know-how and their availability in the market; approximately 36 million women still undergo abortion in the third world countries. Of all these, it is estimated that about 19million of these abortions are carried out in unhygienic settings and by untrained practitioners and are a big contributor to maternal deaths all over the world. This research points out the need for government, medical professionals as well as non-governmental organizations to work together so as to make these services available and affordable so as to save lives.

Kumar, A., Hessini, L., Mitchell, E. (2009). Conceptualising abortion stigma. Culture, Health and Sexuality 11(6), Pp 625-639

Kumar et al, in this paper, term abortion stigma as a social phenomenon that arises in society and leads to the segregation of women who have undergone abortion and even men who have supported such. It cannot be a universal truth because stigmatization does not occur in all parts of the world. Abortion stigma is more rampant in countries that have laws that prohibit abortion except when it is advices by a medical practitioner. Countries that allow abortion with the healthcare provided by the government have no cases of stigma. This study suggests that society should be enlightened on abortion and countries that prohibit it should be helped to revise and change their health policies so as to save lives.

Healy, J., Otsea, K., Benson,J. (2006). Counting abortion so that abortion counts: indicator for monitoring the availability and use of abortion care services. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 95(2) pp 209-220.

In this research paper, Healy et al propose that existence of an urgent need to address abortion and abortion-related health care needs for women so as to reduce maternal mortality. The study says that this can be done by putting up emergency obstetric care centres that can offer safe and legal abortions, address the complications that come by because of an abortion and also offer post-abortion contraception. The therefore proposes that governments and stakeholders in the health sector should assess and analyse how much the society and nation needs the services and hence provide them to those who need them.

Johnston, H., Gallo, M., Benson, J. (2007). Reducing the cost to health systems of unsafe abortion: a comparison of four strategies. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 33(4) pp 250-257

In this paper, Johnston et al proposes strategies that enables policymakers and stakeholders in the healthcare sectors to formulate policies that were feasible and sustainable in providing abortion and post-abortion care. This could be done by equipping health care facilities with the drugs and surgical equipment that are needed through abortion. Doing so would limit the exploitation of women who needed abortion services and also ensure they got the best of what they required.

Grimes. D, Benson.J., Singh. S., et al. (2006). Unsafe abortion: the preventable pandemic. The Lancet, Volume 368(9550) pp 1909-1919

This article terms unsafe abortion as a urgent health care issues that demands the attention of both law makers as well as the health care stakeholders. This is because, when abortions are carried out in the wrong way, there are numerous complications that may arise. These are: excessive bleeding, infections, infertility and in some cases results to death. This therefore can be dealt with if only governments are keen to change laws and policies regarding abortions so as to save women by providing for safe abortions.

Dah. T., Akiode. A., Awah. P., (2011). Introducing Misoprostol for the Treatment of Incomplete Abortion in Nigeria. African Journal of Reproductive Health 15(4) pp 42-50

In this article, Dah et al, point out abortion is a major health problem in Nigeria and other developing countries in Africa due to restrictive laws that prohibit abortion. It also proposes that the government should invest in Post-Abortion Care (PAC) facilities and also seeks to have Misoprostol introduced as treatment for incomplete abortions. This would reduce maternal mortal if the government gave its go ahead in public health care centres.

Calhoun. B., Thorp. J., Carroll. P., (2013). Maternal and Neonatal Health and Abortion. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 18(2) pp 42-46.

This paper provides critical information on mortality, stillbirths and preterm births that is essential in putting forth evidence-based public health policies. Such are necessary in advocating for women’s reproductive health worldwide as well as push for legal considerations and interventions. With constant changes in the medical field, it is necessary that governments keep up with them to ensure that they can provide reliable abortion services.

Giubilini A.,Minerva. F., (2011). After-birth abortion: why should the baby live. Journal of Medical Ethics doi10: 1136/medethics-2011-100411

This paper defines after-birth abortion as killing of a new-born and can also be termed as euthanasia in infants. These mostly arise in cases where a child is born with severe abnormalities or disabilities. Philosophers and medics propose this in extreme cases as they view the living of the infant with the ailments or biological defects as unnecessary suffering for the child and also a burden for the parents since in most cases, children with disabilities rarely get adopted.

Gerdts. C., Vohra. D., Ahern. J., (2013). Measuring Unsafe Abortion –Related Mortality: A systematic Review of the Existing Methods. Plosone DOI: 10. 1371/journal.pone.0053346

This article reflects on how huge a burden the issue of unsafe abortion is globally according to statistics reported by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It proposes that countries that report a high number of deaths due to abortion and post abortion complication should be swift to work on its laws and also review the existing methods that women in the country use for abortion. Doing this would go a long way in reducing maternal deaths in those countries.

Koch. E., Aracena. P., Gatica. S., et al, (2012). Fundamental discrepancies in abortion estimates and abortion related mortalities: A re-evaluation of recent studies in Mexico with special reference to the International Classification of Diseases. International Journal of Women’s Health. 2012: 4, pp 613-623.

In this article, Koch et al points out that how challenging it is to evaluate data on abortion in countries where induced abortion is induced abortion is legally restricted as there are no official records on this. This therefore means that very little can be done to propose and implement changes in abortion care provisions in a bid to save the lives of women. This means that the government has to change its policies to be accommodative of the need of abortion in society so as to save lives in future. Having credible information on abortion guides health care givers on the needs that need attention and where so as to reduce maternal deaths.

References

Benson, J. (2005). Evaluating Abortion-care Programs: Old Challenges, New Directions. Studies in Family Planning 36(3). pp 189-202