Introducing early medical abortion in Australia: there is a need to update abortion laws

Sexual Health ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline M. de Costa ◽  
Darren B. Russell ◽  
Naomi R. de Costa ◽  
Michael Carrette ◽  
Heather M. McNamee
Keyword(s):  
Medical Abortion ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Potential Barriers ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
Abortion Laws ◽  
Early Abortion

Recent changes to Federal Therapeutic Goods Administration legislation have seen the limited introduction of the drug mifepristone to Australia for the purpose of early medical abortion. At the same time it has become evident that both methotrexate and misoprostol, licenced and available for other indications, are being used safely and appropriately for early abortion by Australian medical practitioners. Early medical abortion is widely practiced overseas where its safety and effectiveness are well supported by current evidence. However, abortion law in many states is still contained within the Criminal Codes and does not reflect current evidence-based abortion practice. In other states and territories restrictions on where abortions may be performed pose potential barriers to the introduction of mifepristone for medical abortion. There is an urgent need for abortion law to be clarified and made uniform across the country so that the best possible services can be provided to Australian women.

Advancing Reproductive Rights through Legal Reform: The Example of Abortion Clinic Safe Access Zones

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronli Sifris ◽  
Tania Penovic ◽  
Caroline Henckels
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Legal Reform ◽  
Medical Abortion ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
High Court ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
The Past ◽  
Abortion Clinic ◽  
Safe Access

The past two decades have seen significant reforms in abortion law throughout Australia. From the perspective of advancing women’s reproductive rights, the most significant abortion law reforms have been the decriminalisation of abortion, removal of impediments to accessing medical abortion, the imposition of an ‘obligation to refer’ on medical practitioners with a conscientious objection to abortion, and the introduction of safe access zones around abortion clinics. This article focuses on the introduction of safe access zones as a key legal reform that has been implemented across Australia to support and promote women’s reproductive rights, drawing on empirical research conducted by the first and second authors and discussing this research in the context of the recent High Court decision confirming the constitutionality of safe access zones.

scholarly journals Experiences of women in Ireland who accessed abortion by travelling abroad or by using abortion medication at home: a qualitative study

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail R A Aiken ◽  
Dana M Johnson ◽  
Kathleen Broussard ◽  
Elisa Padron
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Health ◽  
Medical Abortion ◽  
Safe Abortion ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
Abortion Laws ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Post Abortion ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

BackgroundThe Republic of Ireland has one of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws, allowing abortion only to preserve a pregnant woman’s life. We examined the impact of the law on women’s options for accessing abortion, their decision-making regarding whichpathway to follow, and their experiences with their chosen approach.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 38 women who had either travelled abroad to access abortion in a clinic or had self-managed a medical abortion at home using online telemedicine, between 2010 and 2017. We coded interview transcripts according to an iteratively developed coding guide and performed a thematic analysis to identify key themes.ResultsWe identified four key themes: (1) self-managing a medical abortion at home using online telemedicine can be a preference over travelling abroad to access abortion services; (2) regardless of the pathway chosen, women experience a lack of pre- and post-abortion support in the Irish healthcare system; (3) feelings of desperation while searching for safe abortion care can lead to considering or attempting dangerous methods; and (4) Irish abortion law and attitudes have impacts beyond physical health considerations, engendering shame and stigma.ConclusionsDespite the country’s restrictive abortion law, women in Ireland do obtain abortions, using methods that are legal and safe elsewhere. However, the law negatively impacts women’s ability to discuss their options with their healthcare professionals and to seek follow-up care, and can have serious implications for their physical and emotional health. This study’s findings provide evidence to inform public and policy discourse on Ireland’s abortion laws.

Therapeutic Aspects of Squill; An Evidence-Based Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khadije Saket ◽  
Jalil T. Afshari ◽  
Ehsan Saburi ◽  
Mahdi Yousefi ◽  
Roshanak Salari
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Traditional Medicine ◽  
Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Helminthic Infections ◽  
Traditional Persian Medicine ◽  
Healing Of Wounds ◽  
Bioactive Agents

From ancient times, medicinal plants have been usually utilized to treat many disorders, but today, interest in these herbs is again aroused, because of their fewer side effects and low-cost. In traditional medicine, for many diseases, various medicinal herbs have been suggested so far. Drimia maritime, also named squill, is an important medicinal plant for the treatment of many diseases, especially respiratory diseases. In the current evidence-based study, we conducted a review of the general characteristics, ingredients, administration form, and side effects of squill in traditional medicine. For this purpose, traditional Persian medicine literatures and electronic databases were examined including PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Many compounds are isolated from D.maritima, including scillaren, scillirubroside, scillarenin, and bufadienolide glycosides. Oxymel is the most commonly used form of squill for various diseases, especially respiratory diseases. Besides, squill has been used in the treatment of cardiovascular, digestive, and dermatological disorders, it is also used against various cancer cells for its antioxidant and cytotoxic properties. Moreover, there is relatively reliable evidence of its benefits for bacterial and helminthic infections, rheumatism, edema, gout, abortion induction, healing of wounds and urine induction. It seems that supplementary studies are required to explore the bioactive agents and their effective mechanisms.

scholarly journals Impact of abortion law reforms on women’s health services and outcomes: a systematic review protocol

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Foluso Ishola ◽  
U. Vivian Ukah ◽  
Arijit Nandi
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
Women’S Health Services ◽  
Abortion Laws ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Study Designs ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background A country’s abortion law is a key component in determining the enabling environment for safe abortion. While restrictive abortion laws still prevail in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), many countries have reformed their abortion laws, with the majority of them moving away from an absolute ban. However, the implications of these reforms on women’s access to and use of health services, as well as their health outcomes, is uncertain. First, there are methodological challenges to the evaluation of abortion laws, since these changes are not exogenous. Second, extant evaluations may be limited in terms of their generalizability, given variation in reforms across the abortion legality spectrum and differences in levels of implementation and enforcement cross-nationally. This systematic review aims to address this gap. Our aim is to systematically collect, evaluate, and synthesize empirical research evidence concerning the impact of abortion law reforms on women’s health services and outcomes in LMICs. Methods We will conduct a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature on changes in abortion laws and women’s health services and outcomes in LMICs. We will search Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases, as well as grey literature and reference lists of included studies for further relevant literature. As our goal is to draw inference on the impact of abortion law reforms, we will include quasi-experimental studies examining the impact of change in abortion laws on at least one of our outcomes of interest. We will assess the methodological quality of studies using the quasi-experimental study designs series checklist. Due to anticipated heterogeneity in policy changes, outcomes, and study designs, we will synthesize results through a narrative description. Discussion This review will systematically appraise and synthesize the research evidence on the impact of abortion law reforms on women’s health services and outcomes in LMICs. We will examine the effect of legislative reforms and investigate the conditions that might contribute to heterogeneous effects, including whether specific groups of women are differentially affected by abortion law reforms. We will discuss gaps and future directions for research. Findings from this review could provide evidence on emerging strategies to influence policy reforms, implement abortion services and scale up accessibility. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42019126927

scholarly journals Development of Commercial Health Insurance in China: A Systematic Literature Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weng I. Choi ◽  
Honghao Shi ◽  
Ying Bian ◽  
Hao Hu
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Social Health Insurance ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Reference List ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Market Strategy ◽  
Hand Search ◽  
Commercial Health Insurance

Facing difficulties like increasing health burden and health inequity, China government started to promote commercial health insurance (CHI) in recent decades. Several policies and announcement have been issued to build up a favorable environment for development of commercial health insurance. Meanwhile, scholar tried to investigate the related issues in purpose to further improve the situation in China. Therefore, we performed this systematic review in order depict a comprehensive picture on the current evidence-based researches of CHI in China. We searched PubMed, ScienceDirect, and CNKI, supplemented with hand search in reference lists, for eligible studies published from 1990 January to 2018 April. Also, hand search was conducted to select suitable articles from international organization and reference list of eligible articles. Two independent reviewers extracted the data from eligible articles and input into a standardized form. Based on the inclusion criteria, 35 articles were included in this systematic review. Most of the studies were quantitative researches with topics such as the development level of commercial health insurance in China, the demand and supply issues related, and the relationship and influence of social health insurance, as well as the moral issues evolved from commercial health insurance system. In summary, CHI in China is still at the early development stage. Among those few evidence-based articles, the findings suggested several policy implication and different market strategy. With the initiation of new health reforms and implementation of taxes policy, more empirical researches should be conducted on issues relating to the practical operation of CHI.

scholarly journals The Use of Evidence-Based Acupuncture: Current Evidence

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dedi Ardinata
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Clinical Expertise ◽  
Quality Of Evidence ◽  
Assessment Development ◽  
Evidence Quality

Evidence-based medicine (EBM), which emphasizes that medical decisions must be based on the most recent best evidence, is gaining popularity. Individual clinical expertise is combined with the best available external clinical evidence derived from systematic research in the practice of EBM. The key and core of EBM is the hierarchical system for categorizing evidence. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) system divides evidence quality into four categories: high, moderate, low, and very low. GRADE is based on the lowest quality of evidence for any of the outcomes that are critical to making a decision, reducing the risk of mislabeling the overall evidence quality, when evidence for a critical outcome is lacking. This principle is also used in acupuncture as a complementary and integrative treatment modality, but incorporating scientific evidence is more difficult due to a number of factors. The goal of this chapter is to discuss how to establish a clinical evidence system for acupuncture, with a focus on the current quality of evidence for a variety of conditions or diseases.

scholarly journals REVIEW: Old abortion law still holds sway

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Sue Kedgley
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
Abortion Laws ◽  
History Of

Fighting to Choose is a fascinating, meticulously researched history of the struggle to liberalise New Zealand’s abortion laws. It examines why there is still no right to have an abortion in a progressive country like New Zealand, which has a strong record of promoting women’s rights, and why it is that an unsatisfactory abortion law, that was passed 35 years ago, is still on the statute books.

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