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Until 2018, abortion in the Republic of Ireland was banned in almost all circumstances under one of the most restrictive legal regimes in Europe. The main solution for Irish women and pregnant people seeking abortion services had been to pursue care abroad, typically in clinics in England. In this paper we focus on the hardships of waiting for abortion care experienced by Irish residents leading up to their travel for appointments in England in 2017 and 2018. Based on in-depth interviews with 53 Irish women collected at three British Pregnancy Advisory Services (BPAS) clinics in England we analyse women's experiences as they navigated an 'environment of secrecy' in Ireland. This included making specific secrecy efforts when navigating travel arrangements, conversations, movement, health records, and the travel itself. Despite the expansion of abortion access in Ireland in 2018, the need to travel abroad continues for many women. We argue that the continued need for secrecy when women have to travel abroad for care perpetuates this important phenomenon's invisibility. This argument also applies to other countries where abortion access is restricted, and women are forced to travel for care. We also caution against the presumption that all Irish residents are able to travel internationally for healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This statement summarizes key findings from anthropological and related scholarship on the harmful consequences of inadequate abortion access, leading the Society for Medical Anthropology to register profound concern about the recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson. After circulation to SMA members for input, a finalized version passed a membership vote by an overwhelming margin. This statement complements one produced by the Council for Anthropology and Reproduction, available here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, there is a dearth of studies on abortion-related mobilities within countries where abortion is legal. In France, 18% of women seek abortion care outside their department of residence care. Most of these flows take place within Île-de-France region. This paper aims at providing novel insights into the motives and experiences of women traveling within France and particularly within the Île-de-France region for abortion care. It draws upon official abortion statistics as well as quantitative and qualitative data collected in three Parisian hospitals during a five-year European research project on barriers to legal abortion and abortion travel. Despite governmental efforts to facilitate access to abortions over the past decades, our findings show that various barriers exist for why women do not find services in their department of residence (lack of services or access to preferred methods, quality of care, long waiting times). However, most of our study participants report coming to Paris as a convenience and use commuting as a strategy to overcome obstacles in receiving abortion care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2018, the right to lawful abortion in the Republic of Ireland significantly expanded, and service provision commenced on 1 January, 2019. Community provision of early medical abortion to 9 weeks plus 6 days gestation delivered by General Practitioners constitutes the backbone of the Irish abortion policy implementation. We conducted a study in 2020–2021 to examine the barriers and facilitators of the Irish abortion policy implementation. Methods: We collected data using qualitative in-depth interviews (IDIs) which were conducted in-person or remotely. We coded and analysed interview transcripts following the grounded theory approach. Results: We collected 108 IDIs in Ireland from May 2020 to March 2021. This article draws on 79 IDIs with three participant samples directly relevant to the community model of care: (a) 27 key informants involved in the abortion policy development and implementation representing government healthcare administration, medical professionals, and advocacy organisations, (b) 22 healthcare providers involved in abortion provision in community settings, and (c) 30 service users who sought abortion services in 2020. Facilitators of community-based abortion provision have been: a collaborative approach between the Irish government and the medical community to develop the model of care, and strong support systems for providers. The MyOptions helpline for service users is a successful national referral model. The main barriers to provision are the mandatory 3-day wait, unclear or slow referral pathways from primary to hospital care, barriers for migrants, and a shortage and incomplete geographic distribution of providers, especially in rural areas. Conclusions: We conclude that access to abortion care in Ireland has been greatly expanded since the policy implementation in 2019. The community delivery of care and the national helpline constitute key features of the Irish abortion policy implementation that could be duplicated in other contexts and countries. Several challenges to full abortion policy implementation remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To understand pediatric and family medicine residents' and practitioners' perceived ability to work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth, assessment of their prior educational experiences, and recommendations for medical training to better prepare physicians to provide quality care to this population. Methods: We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 24 pediatric/family medicine residents (n=20) and practicing physicians (n=4) in the U.S. Recorded interviews were professionally transcribed. Data were analyzed using Grounded Theory and qualitative content analysis approaches. Results: Most physicians did not feel adequately prepared to provide quality care to LGBQ youth, and many who felt knowledgeable obtained their knowledge from on-the-job experiences of caring for LGBQ patients. Findings regarding physicians' recommendations for implementing a formal training program revealed three themes: (I) medical school training (implemented earlier in medical school within a structured program as part of the normal curriculum), (II) training content (LGBQ-specific health needs, self-awareness of implicit biases, interviewing techniques, and resources), and (III) training strategies (panels of LGBQ patients, role-playing/standardized patients, and online modules). Conclusions: Understanding physicians' assessment of abilities and recommendations for training improvements based on their experiences is important for advancing the quality of healthcare for LGBQ youth. Guidance came mostly from residents who recently completed medical school. Thus, their perspectives are especially useful to improve medical education and, ultimately, the care provided to LGBQ youth. Findings suggest a multi-pronged approach that offers several training modalities encompassing individual, intrapersonal, and institutional/systemic/community levels can improve medical school curricula on caring for LGBQ youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale is the property of Berghahn Books and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As the 1960s U.S. environmental movement gained momentum, sustainability and justice discourses surfaced to the forefront. While environmental justice discourse considers the unequal effects of environmental burdens, the language that frames "sustainability" is often socially and politically neutral. This paper critically examines the sustainability initiatives and practices of urban farming program in Florida. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in 2017, it explores the extent to which these initiatives consider a community's race and socioeconomic class when working to provide sustainably grown food in diverse communities. We argue that the program's initiatives overlook food justice concerns and use the same approach across disparate communities that focus on environmental rather than community benefits. Therefore, the program's non‐political approach neglects to integrate the experiences of those living on the margins. This research calls for a critical examination of sustainability practices, and the incorporation of social justice themes into sustainability agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reproductive rights struggles have continued to dominate public debates in Poland since the political resurgence of the Catholic church in 1989. In 2015, the state passed a landmark "In Vitro Policy" to regulate assisted reproductive technologies. Its religiously based compromises may jeopardize other reproductive rights. I argue that the new policy negotiations demonstrate how versions of competing human rights claims are central to reproductive governance and struggles in the new Polish "ethical order." These negotiations reveal a reciprocal and temporal effect between infertility and abortion laws, in which previously enacted abortion restrictions are used to limit and define "In Vitro" rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementing effective health interventions in recent epidemics has been difficult due to the potentially global nature of their spread and sociocultural dynamics, raising questions concerning how to develop culturally-appropriate preventive measures, and how these health threats are understood locally. In Belize, health policy makers have only been marginally effective in managing infections and mosquito vectors, and Zika has been declared endemic in certain regions, particularly on the island of Caye Caulker. Based on ethnographic research conducted primarily in 2017, we examine how perspectives of Zika-related health consequences are shaped, and how state interventions to manage Zika are understood. We argue that despite its declared endemic status, Zika is not perceived as a true health concern for community members due to numerous neoliberal structural challenges. Moreover, the state’s restrictive form of reproductive governance which limits family planning services is forcing individuals to weigh conflicting conceptions of health consequences. This also contributes to an ambiguous healthcare environment for health practitioners, giving them an unclear picture of the scope of Zika as a public health concern. We also consider how critical medical anthropology and feminist analytical approaches are useful in exploring these questions and contributing to understandings of the health impacts of Zika. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented which discusses several articles within the issue on abortion policies on topics including an analysis of abortion access in Ireland; obstacles in access to abortion encountered by women in a maternity ward in Turin, Italy; and abortion in Andalusia.

This paper examines Polish women's use of the clandestine abortion underground and online networking as a form of resistance developed in response to severe reproductive rights restrictions in Poland since 1993. Rather than complying with the abortion ban, imposed unilaterally by postsocialist state and the Catholic church, Polish women's response has been to develop their own coping strategies to control fertility, including circumventing the legislation by pursuing illegal abortions and sharing this knowledge on the Internet. Based on long-term ethnographic research in Poland and an analysis of online discussion forums, I argue that this individualised and privatised form of resistance is a limited stopgap strategy for dealing with larger social and collective concerns about reproductive rights, health, as well as gender equality that should be addressed with collective policy solutions. Moreover, I consider these "anti-political" strategies in the context of the 2016 and 2018 mass protests to halt proposals for total abortion bans, and raise questions about the impact of different forms of mobilisation and resistance on reproductive rights and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship and advocacy work regarding reproductive health have often focused on women's experiences. Concerns about men's sexual and reproductive healthcare (SRH) have historically been on the margins in this context. In the United States, young men are at the greatest risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), yet are the least likely to seek SRH. Based on research with 18 healthcare providers in a large public Florida university clinic, we examined providers' perspectives about expanding men's SRH provision and utilisation. Research findings demonstrate inconsistent provider strategies in treating men's SRH needs and a clinical environment that has low expectations of men receiving preventive care, further perpetuating the placement of SRH responsibility upon women. This article contributes to applied and medical anthropology scholarship on health inequalities through its discussion of the challenges and barriers that contribute to poor SRH for young men and the critical role of providers in this context [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's rights to legal abortion in the United States are now facing their greatest social and legislative challenges since its 1973 legalization. Legislation restricting rights and access to abortion care has been passed at state and federal levels at an unprecedented rate. Given the renewed vigor of anti-abortion movements, we call on anthropologists to engage with this shifting landscape of reproductive politics. This article examines recent legislation that has severely limited abortion access and maps possible directions for future anthropological analysis. We argue that anthropology can provide unique contributions to broader abortion research. The study of abortion politics in the United States today is not only a rich opportunity for applied and policy-oriented ethnographic research. It also provides a sharply focused lens onto broader theoretical concerns in anthropology and new social formations across moral, medical, political, and scientific fields in 21st-century America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Polish birthrates during the state socialist period, 1948–1989, stayed above replacement level but since 1989 fell dramatically to one of the lowest in Europe, at 1.29 in 2010. The Polish Catholic Church and the newly-elected nationalist government of Lech Wałęsa reacted by escalating pronatalist rhetoric calling on women to increase childbearing in the name of economic and nationalist causes. Reflecting the renewed dominance of the Church, Wałęsa implemented restrictions on family planning, including abortion, contraception, and sex education, justifying them in moral and demographic terms. Plummeting fertility has been portrayed by the Church, media, and state as dangerous and unreasonable – a sign of Polish women's rejection of motherhood and the embrace of selfish priorities. Simultaneously however, the state cut back motherhood-friendly policies established by the socialist regime, including subsidized childcare, maternity leave, and healthcare. This paper draws on 19 months of fieldwork between 2000 and 2007, using interviews with 55 women in four healthcare clinics in Gdańsk area, and participant-observation at the social services offices in Krakow. This paper shows that far from irrational rejection of motherhood, Polish middle-class women are guided by pragmatic reasons when delaying parenthood in order to navigate the new political landscape marked by job insecurity and gendered discrimination in employment. Yet, rather than implementing work-family reconciliation policies that have stimulated fertility elsewhere in Europe, the Church and state insist on blaming women for ‘irrational’ non-reproduction, thus betraying a lack of political commitment to gender equity in employment, reproductive health, and in the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objective After the fall of state socialism in Poland in 1989, a Catholic-nationalist government assumed power. The new political power of the Catholic Church resulted in severe restrictions on family planning (FP) services. Yet, Poland's fertility rate declined sharply, suggesting that women are controlling their fertility despite restrictions. This study examined the Church's influence on women's contraceptive decisions, and how women reconcile religious teachings with their contraceptive use. Methods We conducted a mixed-methods study, including a cross-sectional survey and qualitative interviews, in Gdańsk, Poland with sexually active women aged 18–40. The quantitative sample included 418 respondents; the qualitative sample included 49 respondents. Results Despite restrictions on FP services, modern contraceptive use among our sample was 56%, up from 19% in 1991. Catholicism played a relatively small role in respondents' contraceptive decisions; though 94.2% of respondents were Catholic, 79% reported that the Church had little or no influence on reproductive decisions. Women's explanations for how they reconcile their reproductive practices with Catholicism included using elements of religion to support contraceptive use, prioritising responsibility for family and financial considerations over the Church's prohibitions, and challenging the Church's credibility in FP matters. Conclusions Our findings underscore women's struggles under post-socialist reproductive policies that limit FP access. Despite religious, political, and economic obstacles, contraceptive use has increased dramatically, indicating that FP is a high priority for women in Poland. Policies should respond to women's needs. Comprehensive, state-sponsored FP and sex education are urgently needed and the state should legitimise such services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on access to early medical abortion care under Section 12 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, in Ireland and identifies existing barriers resulting from gaps in current policy design. The article draws primarily on qualitative interviews with 24 service users, 20 primary healthcare providers in the community and 27 key informants, including from grassroots groups that work with women from different migrant communities, to examine service users' experiences accessing early medical abortions on request up to 12 weeks gestation. The interviews were part of a wider mixed-methods study from 2020-2021 examining the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of abortion policy in Ireland. Our findings highlight care seekers' experiences with the GP-led service provision, including delays, facing non-providers, the mandatory three-day waiting period, and oversubscribed women's health and family planning clinics. Our findings also highlight the compounding challenges for migrants and additional barriers posed by the geographical distribution of the service and the 12-week gestational limit. Finally, it focuses on the remaining challenges for racialised and other marginalised groups. In order to provide a "thick description" of women's lives and the complexity of their experiences with abortion services in Ireland, we also present two narrative vignettes of service users, and their experiences with delays and navigating the healthcare system as migrants. To this effect, this article applies a reproductive justice framework to the results to highlight the compounding effects of these barriers on people located along multiple axes of social inequality.

Objectives: This is the first study contrasting the experience of women residing in France and travelling for abortion services inside and outside their country of residence. We compare travel reasons and costs as well as our study participants' opinions of abortion legislation. The article documents legal and procedural barriers related to accessing local and timely abortions and provides policy recommendations to broaden care options., Methods: The study is based on a mixed-methods research design. Quantitative data were descriptively analysed using Stata and drawn from 100 surveys with in-country abortion seekers collected from 3 Parisian hospitals, and 57 surveys with French residents seeking abortion care in the Netherlands (42), Spain (10) and the UK (5). Qualitative data were thematically analysed using ATLAS.ti and drawn from 36 interviews with French residents (23 in-country abortion seekers and 13 cross-border abortion travellers)., Findings: Gestational age (GA) limits were the key reason for cross-border travel, while lack of close-by, timely and good quality abortion care was the main driver for in-country abortion travel. Unlike in-country travellers, cross-border abortion seekers faced significant financial costs and burdens related to such travel. Partners, family members and service providers offered important support structures to both cross-border and in-country travellers., Conclusions: Legal time limits appeared to be the key driver for abortion-related travel of French residents. Having passed or being at risk of exceeding the GA limit caused women to travel outside their country or department of residence for abortion care., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology notes that pregnant athletes require more supervision due to their involvement in strenuous training schedules throughout pregnancy. Currently, rowing is not mentioned in the guidelines despite its increasing popularity, high cardiovascular demands, and risk for abdominal trauma. Methods This study aimed to elicit information from competitive female rowers regarding exercise, training, and competition during pregnancy. We administered a survey consisting of 122 items to female Masters rowers in the United States, aged 21 to 49 years, from June to December 2013. Results A total of 224 recreational and elite rowers met the inclusion criteria. Pregnant rowers self-reported high levels of exercise engagement: 85.2% (n/N = 98/115) exercised during any past pregnancy; exercise adherence decreased throughout pregnancy with 51.3%, 42.4%, and 15.7% meeting and/or exceeding national guidelines during the first, second, and third trimesters, respectively. Rowers were significantly (p < 0.001) more likely to state that an activity at a specified intensity and trimester was unsafe if they were younger, had less rowing experience, or were nulliparous. Decreased perceived rowing safety was associated with on-water training, higher intensity exercise, competition, and increasing gestational age. Primary safety concerns were the risk of oar-induced abdominal trauma and physiological effects due to high intensities required by the sport. Novel barriers to exercise in pregnancy included guilt towards the team and a mental barrier due to decreased performance. Healthcare providers are the number one information source for rowers regarding exercise during pregnancy. Conclusion Pregnant rowers are a relevant obstetrics population and have barriers and sport-specific safety concerns not previously identified in the literature. Rowers consider exercising in pregnancy to be important and struggle to meet exercise guidelines like the general population, indicating the need for healthcare providers to provide prenatal and antenatal education and interventions to support exercise during pregnancy even amongst athletes., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.