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Background: In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of maternal deaths due to unsafe abortions has been gradually rising. In Ethiopia, unplanned pregnancies contribute to 25% of births, accounting for 6%–9% of the maternal deaths resulting from unsafe abortions. Despite several disjointed cross-sectional studies that have been carried out in the past, there is no comprehensive data on the attitudes of healthcare practitioners and other related aspects regarding safe abortion in Ethiopia. This study attempted to measure pooled health care providers' attitudes and determinants of safe abortion in Ethiopia. Methods: African Journals Online, Medline/PubMed, EMBASE, Science Direct, Hinari, and Google Scholar were the databases that were accessed. The studies were evaluated critically by using the Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal methods. The study followed the recommendations set forth by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). Data were extracted in an Excel spreadsheet and imported to STATA versions 17 software for meta-analysis. The random- effects model was used to pooled the health care providers' attitudes toward safe abortion. Heterogeneity between studies was evaluated using the Cochrane Q-test and I2 statistics (I squared statistics). To evaluate publication bias, egger's tests and funnel plots were employed. Forest plot was used to present the odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval. Results: In this review and meta-analysis, a total of eight papers with a 2,826 sample size were considered. Overall, 65.49% of Ethiopian health care professionals had a positive attitude towards safe abortion (95%CI: 49.64, 81.34; I2 = 99.20%, P = 0.000). Knowledge of the abortion law (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.06, 3.43), being a male provider (OR = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.23, 2.54), receiving training on abortion (OR = 2.91, 95% CI: 1.17, 4.65), working as a midwife (OR = 3.029, 95% CI: 1.605, 4.453) and practicing abortion procedures (OR = 2.55, 95% CI: 1.32, 3.78) were positively associated with the attitudes of the providers regarding safe abortion in Ethiopia. Conclusion: In Ethiopia, there was a low pooled prevalence of positive attitude towards safe abortion. Safe abortion services in Ethiopia are more likely to be viewed favorably by health care professionals who have received abortion service training and are familiar with abortion laws. As a result, it is imperative that all healthcare facilities and other relevant parties ensure that health professionals receive training on safe abortion services and are aware of Ethiopia's abortion laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the use of a generative metaphor for analyzing qualitative interviews on abortion attitudes. U.S. abortion attitudes are notably complex and multidimensional, thus, requiring subtle, complex, and multidimensional tools of study. We used the generative metaphor of a "doorway" as an analytic tool to enable new understandings of abortion attitudes as expressed across 24 one-on-one semi-structured qualitative interviews with U.S. adults. The doorway metaphor gave us an understanding of the ways in which participants thought of their abortion attitudes as open to revision or change to some degree while also being closed to revision in other ways. This spectrum of openness and closedness does not come into view when examining abortion attitudes through the dichotomous framings. In this methodological paper, we thoroughly describe how we used the metaphor to explicate the complexities and multidimensionalities of a person's abortion attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framing of the research. Many brands have started acting as political activists, taking public actions in favor of or against contentious issues such as immigration, police brutality, abortion, LGBTQIA + rights, or racism. Brand activism appears to be a strong paradigm change such that brand management is becoming a hot topic among scholars and companies. Purpose of the paper. Authenticity is the key variable of the activist strategy; however, its characteristic elements remain unknown. Thus, this study analyses consumers' perceptions of Ben & Jerry's-an historical activist brand-to understand, first, whether it is perceived as authentic; and second, to identify possible factors contributing to authentic brand activism. Methodology. Data was collected from the American Instagram profile of Ben & Jerry's. All comments were manually checked and analyzed using Infranodus. We performed text network analysis and topic modeling to gain insights from the collected text corpus as well as a users' sentiment analysis. Based on the obtained positive consumer perceptions, we then examined the official Ben & Jerry's website, attempting to detect constitutive elements of its authenticity. Results. Some exciting word clusters emerging from topic modeling reveal that activism is a critical element of Ben & Jerry's consumers' evaluation, becoming a topic of discussion at the same level as the brand's products. Additionally, sentiment analysis contributes important insights, confirming the crucial relevance of authenticity in brand activism strategies. Potential constitutive elements of the authenticity of Ben & Jerry's emerged from the in-depth analysis of consumer perceptions crossed with the examination of Ben & Jerry's official website. Research limitations. The study employed user comments on posts, which are declarations, not actions. This analysis was also restricted to the United States and only considered a three-year period. Managerial Implications. This research offers significant insights for practitioners who look to implement activist strategies. First, although it is challenging and uncommon to develop authenticity, we confirm its crucial role in brand activism. Second, it is essential to grasp consumers' perceptions to understand how they could react to a company's activist stances. Additionally, this study reveals potential constitutive elements of authenticity in brand activism, which can be further explored in future research and applied by companies looking to enter the political arena. Originality of the paper. This paper provides the groundwork for an in-depth identification of constitutive elements of authenticity in activist strategy. By examining a well-known activist brand and following positive consumer sentiments, we identified crucial and peculiar elements that could help to build authentic brand activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On August 2nd, 2022, Kansas held a vote to lift state constitutional protections for abortion access. The vote gained national attention, as it was the first statewide plebiscite on the subject since the U.S. Supreme Court had issued its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which had overturned the remaining U.S. Constitutional blocks on restricting abortion that had been in place since Roe v. Wade. The turnout for the election was unprecedented for a primary in the state, and to the surprise of many, the amendment failed by a large margin in deep red Kansas. In this paper, we use both precinct-level election results and individual-level voter registration and history data to explore who was mobilized to vote in the August 2022 primary and their behavior in the November 2022 general election. We find that the primary mobilized an electorate that had more women and young people, fewer Republicans, and more first-time voters than a normal primary, but that these demographics were also more likely to then abstain in the general election. Thus, the engagement of young people, especially young women, on the abortion issue remains, but preliminary findings suggest the future of this groups' electoral participation separate from abortion activism is unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Abortion has been legal for multiple indications in Ghana since 1985, and efforts have been made to expand the availability of safe abortion care in the years since. However clandestine, and potentially unsafe, abortions remain common, suggesting numerous barriers to access persist; one possible barrier is poor knowledge of the abortion law among those working in health facilities. Our study aimed to identify levels of legal knowledge among health facility staff across Ghana. Methods: Data for this paper are drawn from a nationally representative cross-sectional health facility survey conducted in 2018; our analytic sample includes 340 facilities that provide induced abortion and/or postabortion care (PAC). The survey collected data on provision of abortion and PAC, as well as knowledge of abortion legality and recommendations for reducing unsafe abortion. We used descriptive statistics to examine levels of knowledge and recommendations, and logistic regression to assess associations with individual and facility characteristics. Findings: Comprehensive knowledge of the legal indications for abortion was low among health facility staff; just 6% identified all legal indications, and the majority (83%) underestimated the number of conditions under which abortion is legal. Knowledge was higher for more restrictive indications, such as a woman's life being at risk, which was identified by 72% of respondents, than more broadly interpretable indications, such as mental health, identified by 29%. Respondents in facilities providing both induced abortion and PAC had better knowledge of several legal indications than those in facilities providing PAC only. Conclusions: Health facility staff have significant gaps in their knowledge of abortion legality. Knowledge of the law among this population is highly important for ensuring that abortion care is made available to the fullest extent of the law. Efforts are needed to improve knowledge of the law among providers and facility staff, particularly for indications with broad interpretability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, Republican-controlled legislatures across the U.S. initiated draconian abortion restrictions. In order to appeal to anti-abortion policymakers, advocates across the country have strategically separated "maternal and child health" (MCH) issues, such as increased insurance coverage for midwifery and doula care, from issues often labeled as "reproductive rights," such as access to sex education, birth control, and abortion. Advocates point out this strategic separation has likely contributed overall to the downfall of abortion rights. In this paper, we analyze legislative discourse to understand the legislative challenges advocates face, the strategic separations and allyships they employ, and the implications for other states and reproductive health more broadly. We find that legislators legitimate the same scientific evidence in some contexts while not in others in order to hold onto rhetorical purity within the abortion debate. In their attempts to parse the ideal abortion seeker, conservative legislators create legal ambiguities with serious consequences for healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medication abortion has been established globally as safe and effective. This modality has increased accessibility and the opportunity to centre individual autonomy at the heart of abortion care, by facilitating self-managed abortion. Previous research has shown how self-managed abortion is beneficial in myriad settings ranging from problematic to (relatively) unproblematic contexts of access. In this paper we explore the relationship between self-management and sources of support (including health professionals, family, and friends); as well as considering issues of reproductive control and autonomy. Drawing on qualitative, experience-centred interviews, we utilise the concept of social connectedness to examine how supported self-managed abortion was experienced in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, self-management was welcomed, with participants speaking positively about managing their own abortion at home. However, a sense of connectedness was crucial in helping participants deal with difficult experiences; and functioned to support individual autonomy in self-care. This paper is the first to examine factors of connection, support, and isolation, as experienced by those undergoing self-managed abortion in the UK in detail. Our research suggests a continued need to advocate for high quality support for self-managed abortion, as well as for choice of abortion method, to support patient-centered care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 75th anniversary of adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we can state that some of its provisions still cause discussions about a basic and inherent right – the right to life. Getting a new “breath” after the Roe v. Wade case’s overturning, the battle between women’s abortion rights supporters and the protectors of the right to life for the unborn seems to get a new round. Worldwide experts in different fields start to find new arguments or remember the old ones to have solid proof in the discussions. It is too hard to find a more fundamental international document in the human rights field than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which can be used in this case. Many scholars’ papers claim that the Declaration is only for an already-born person and does not cover the unborn one. However, such a vision is incorrect and causes many misunderstandings and false interpretations of the international basis of human rights protection. This work will try to dispel the myth that the Declaration was written only for a born person. After analyzing hundreds of documents from the Declaration drafting process, using historical facts and drafters’ statements, we hope to shed light on the real essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights about the right to life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's views on a paper by Alberto Giubilini and colleague on abortion and infanticide. The author states that Giubilini and his colleague are correct when they point to the distinction between exercises in logical thinking and public policy. The author also states that many responses to the paper were mere outpourings of outrage to the authors as well as the editor of the "Journal of MedicalEthics."

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This paper focuses on the anti-gender movement in Central and Eastern Europe, as a part of the global phenomenon. Based on both the subject literature and the author's own research, it points out its anti-democratic character and its role in de-democratizing change in the region. Although the main features and strategies of the movement are common on the global or European levels, its developments in the CEE region are unique: the state policies incorporate the political agenda of the anti-gender movement or even the actors of the anti-gender movement effectively affect the state policies. As the main actors apply the strategy of staying behind the curtain and steering from the backseat, the main research problem lies in revealing their role, which is why the most successful analyses result from combining local research with the international exchange of findings and comparative analysis. The anti-gender movement in the CEE region has succeeded in two main fields: anti- abortion and anti-LGBT+ policies, and these two fields are taken into account in the paper, while the others are only mentioned. State homophobia is associated with Putin's Russia, especially after February 24, 2022, it is also typical for several countries of the CE region, including European Union member states. Strict anti-abortion law has been developed in Poland, which is why author's research focuses on this aspect. The case study analysis of Ordo Iuris, the Polish flagship of the local anti-gender movement, offers a significant example of a local level of the anti gender network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its judgment of 22.10.2020 (K 1/20), the Constitutional Court ruled out the possibility of aborting a pregnancy due to the occurrence of a so-called embryopathological premise. It deprived women of the possibility to make an autonomous decision in the case of severe and irreversible disability or incurable disease of the fetus. The paper analyses the Court's errors in, inter alia, establishing the constitutional status of the nasciturus, conducting the dignity argument or the proportionality test. The authoress shows that the judgment is political and ideological in nature and that the Court refers to the judgment in Case K 26/96 in a selective and manipulative manner. The text to some extent polemics with the theses of P. Łącki and B. Wróblewski presented in the paper on Niekonstytucyjność tzw. aborcji eugenicznej (embriopatologicznej). Schemat argumentacji Trybunału Konstytucyjnego w sprawie K 1/20 (Unconstitutionality of the so-called eugenic (embryopathological) abortion. The pattern of argumentation of the Constitutional Tribunal in Case K 1/20), which came out in the previous issue of the "Przegląd Konstytucyjny" quarterly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Dados - Revista de Ciências Sociais is the property of DADOS 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.)

A dogma accepted in many ethical, religious, and legal frameworks is that the reasons behind conscientious objection (CO) in healthcare cannot be evaluated or judged by any institution because conscience is individual and autonomous. This paper shows that this background view is mistaken: the requirement to reveal and explain the reasons for conscientious objection in healthcare is ethically justified and legally desirable. Referring to real healthcare cases and legal regulations, this paper argues that these reasons should be evaluated either ex ante or ex post and defends novel conceptual claims that have not been analyzed in the debates on CO. First, a moral threshold requirement: CO is only justified if the reasons behind a refusal are of a moral nature and meet a certain threshold of moral importance. Second, this paper considers the rarely discussed conceptual similarities between CO in healthcare and the legal regulations concerning military refusals that place the burden of proof on conscientious objectors. This paper concludes that conscientious objection in healthcare can be accommodated only in some cases of destroying or killing human organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of user registration to an online service often represents an important step in converting a website visitor to a regular user or customer. However, poorly designed registration forms can lead to frustrations and result in the abortion of the registration process. This paper explores the use of microinteractions in registration forms for the purpose of improving usability and overall user experience. Microinteractions provide small details that can impact the performance and overall experience of using user interfaces. In the experimental part, three interactive prototypes of registration forms were tested: without microinteractions, with microinteractions focused on functional aspect of the interface and with microinteractions focused on both functional and affective aspects of the user interface. Task analysis method was used to test the usability of the forms. and User Experience Questionnaire was used to measure the user experience. Compared to the registration form without microinteractions, both forms featuring microinteractions had better performance for task completion time and number of errors as well as higher scores for user experience for every category. The study demonstrates how the use of microinteractions in the design of registration forms can significantly improve the usability and user experience of online services, providing valuable insights into how small details in interface design can impact user behavior and satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: This study characterized the extent to which (1) financial barriers and (2) abortion care-seeking within a person's country of residence were associated with delays in abortion access among those travelling to England and the Netherlands for abortion care from European countries where abortion is legal on broad grounds in the first trimester but where access past the first trimester is limited to specific circumstances. Methodology: We drew on cross-sectional survey data collected at five abortion clinics in England and the Netherlands from 2017 to 2019 (n = 164). We assessed the relationship between difficulty paying for the abortion/travel, acute financial insecurity, and in-country care seeking on delays to abortion using multivariable discrete-time hazards models. Results: Participants who reported facing both difficulty paying for the abortion procedure and/or travel and difficulty covering basic living costs in the last month reported longer delays in accessing care than those who had no financial difficulty (adjusted hazard odds ratio: 0.39 95% CI 0.21–0.74). This group delayed paying other expenses (39%) or sold something of value (13%) to fund their abortion, resulting in ~ 60% of those with financial difficulty reporting it took them over a week to raise the funds needed for their abortion. Having contacted or visited an abortion provider in the country of residence was associated with delays in presenting abroad for an abortion. Discussion: These findings point to inequities in access to timely abortion care based on socioeconomic status. Legal time limits on abortion may intersect with individuals' interactions with the health care system to delay care. Plain Language Summary: This paper explores delays in accessing abortion care associated with financial and medical system barriers. We focus on residents of countries in Europe where abortion is available on broad grounds in the first trimester seeking abortion care outside of their country of residence. This study demonstrates an association between difficulty covering abortion costs for people facing financial insecurity and in-country care seeking and delays in accessing abortion abroad. Policy barriers, medical system barriers, as well as financial barriers may interact to delay access to care for people in European countries with broad grounds for abortion access in the first trimester but restrictions thereafter, especially for people later in pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the parallel between Judith Jarvis Thomson's argument for abortion rights based on bodily autonomy and the contentious issue of vaccine refusal. Drawing on Thomson's famous thought experiment involving a violinist, I present analogous scenarios involving medical decisions. I argue that if Thomson's reasoning holds, individuals also possess the right to refuse vaccines, even if it entails serious risk to others. The paper underscores the importance of recognizing that medical decisions, including vaccine refusal, should be evaluated within the framework of bodily autonomy and individual rights, challenging the prevailing opinion on this complex issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2023, the Supreme Court declared that there was no longer a right to abortion under the federal constitution. This decision has allowed states to promulgate different restrictions on abortion, many of which implicate the practice of emergency medicine. An abortion is defined as a "medical intervention provided to individuals who need to end the medical condition of pregnancy" and includes care such as termination of an ectopic pregnancy and induction of labor for previable preterm premature rupture of membranes--interventions that emergency physicians either perform or rely on the assistance of consultants to perform. State bans on abortion must be evaluated against duties under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a federal law that preempts state law. In this paper we examine the conflict between state and federal law as it applies to emergency abortion care and describe how emergency physicians can continue caring for patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses findings of studies concerning religious attitudes of Polish Catholics belonging to the so-called Generation Z, i.e., people born during the digital revolution. The authors present religious attitudes of Generation Z representatives against the background of other European states relating to religious practices and opinions concerning the acceptability of abortion, euthanasia, divorce, contraceptives and other conduct not consistent with the Catholic Church teachings. The findings prove that even though the Polish society, including those of Generation Z, is distinguishable from European countries with its high percentage of people engaging in religious practices, the observed trends and the dominance of attitudes contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church indicate the possibility of maintaining a downward trend in the number of Catholics in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE To understand patterns of gender discrimination by exploring whether the risk of dying during infancy and childhood is correlated with not only the sex and birth order of the child but also the sex composition of previous siblings. METHODS: Event history analysis (Cox proportional hazards model) is applied to pooled data from the 2006-2007, 2012-2013, and 2017-2018 rounds of the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey to highlight patterns of mortality risk during infancy (0-11 months) and childhood (1-4 years) by the sex composition of previous siblings, birth order, and the sex of the index child. RESULTS: Females lose the survival advantage early. Evidence of generalized discrimination against all girls is reflected in higher-than-expected mortality risk during infancy and childhood. Evidence of selective preferential treatment of first sons is reflected in a survival advantage, even as early as the first year of life in large families and in all family sizes during childhood. CONTRIBUTION: This paper examines sex differentials in infant and child mortality in a context with strong son preference but with a lack of evidence on sex-selective abortions. It gives theoretical and empirical attention to the birth order and sibling composition contexts within which births and discrimination occur. The specific pattern of discrimination provides clues to the rationale for, and mechanisms causing, differential mortality risk among siblings and across genders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medication abortion with pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) challenges the spatiality of abortion provision because it creates the possibility for safe, self‐managed abortion outside of clinical infrastructure. This possibility has been contested by pro‐ and anti‐abortion actors for as long as medication abortion has been in existence. In this paper, I offer a legal geography account of medication abortion technology that examines how medication abortion has been regulated in the United States. Conceptually, the paper uses a legal geography methodology to probe the social spatialities that abortion laws construct. Empirically, the paper analyses trends in legislation to restrict medication abortion and two significant court challenges where abortion providers brought suit against medication abortion restrictions. Drawing on legislation and litigation over mifepristone, I demonstrate that restrictions on it function by anchoring mifepristone inside the clinical spaces and regulatory frameworks established for surgical abortion. In this way, mifepristone regulations circumscribe its availability in order to prevent the creation of alternative models for abortion provision that could re‐arrange its geography and expand abortion access. Medication abortion pills challenge the spatiality of abortion provision because they create the possibility for safe, self‐managed abortion outside of clinical infrastructures. This paper offers a legal geography account of medication abortion technology that examines how medication abortion has been regulated in the United States. The paper analyses trends in legislation to restrict medication abortion and two significant court challenges where abortion providers brought suit against medication abortion restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I also pointed out how they used the fetal body metaphorically, attributing consciousness and intent to it as they described the experience of an abortion from the perspective of the fetus.[4] It was much more difficult to find out what abortion providers and women seeking abortion care thought. Indeed, the argument that abortion provision is "conscientious" was first supported by sociologist Carole Joffe, who showed that skilled mainstream physicians offered safe and compassionate abortion care before I Roe i . I started to research the history of legal abortion in the early 2000s, when the papers of a North Carolina abortion provider, Dr. Takey Crist, fell into my lap. While abortion providers and women seeking abortion care have eloquently articulated why access to abortion is necessary and moral, the stigma that surrounds abortion care has continued to keep these voices hidden inside abortion clinics. [Extracted from the article]

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This paper argues that the current abortion regulation by Law 194/1978 is an inadequate basis for the provision of good quality abortion care and must be reformed. First, the paper explains why Law 194/1978 creates a hyper‐regulatory regime that is inconsistent with the best clinical evidence and practices in the field as well as relevant international human rights law, as outlined in the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2022 Abortion Care Guideline. Second, it highlights gaps between what the law says and what happens in practice, pointing out how the everyday life of Law 194/1978, especially in the practices of gynecologists, is far removed from international standards of quality abortion care and has yet to comply with international human rights law. Third, it sets out some alternative routes to abortion access "outside" Law 194/1978. Finally, it concludes with some suggestions for a change in the practice of gynecology and a call for the reform of Law 194/1978, in favor of a bodily autonomy model of regulation grounded on decriminalization, demedicalization, dehospitalization, and self‐management to ensure compliance with the WHO standards and international human rights law. Synopsis: The paper evaluates the inconsistencies of current abortion regulation and clinical practice in Italy against the 2022 WHO Abortion Care Guideline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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New modes of neoliberal and rights-based reproductive governance are emerging across the world which either paradoxically foreclose access to universal health services or promote legislative reform without providing a continuum of services on the ground. These shifts present new opportunities for the expansion but also the limitation of abortion provision conceptually and ‘on-the-ground’, both in the Global North and South. The collection of papers in this special issue examine current abortion governance discourse and practice in historical, socio-political contexts to analyse the threat posed to women's sexual and reproductive health and rights globally. Focusing on abortion politics in the context of key intersectional themes of morality, law, religion and technology, the papers conceptually ‘re-situate’ the analysis of abortion with reference to a changing global landscape where new modes of consumption, rapid flows of knowledge and information, increasingly routinised recourse to reproductive technologies and related forms of bio-sociality and solidarity amongst recipients and practitioners coalesce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is an ample body of literature in the anthropology of moralities there is a surprising dearth of research on conscience per se. In Malta over the last ten years there has been a proliferation of a public discourse of ‘conscience’ – its affordances, freedoms and its legal safeguards. This has been the result of debates over reforms leading to the liberalization of sexual and family life, including most recently debates over the legalization of abortion. While the language of conscience in various human rights instruments claims a universal character its meanings, inflections and significance can vary in important ways. There is a blurred boundary between conscience and religion. This paper examines the ways in which conscience is deployed and the significance of the appeals to a national conscience in a European confessional state. It looks at the specific meanings of conscience in Malta and a brief lexical and political history It then moves on to look at the ways objections of conscience are framed in contemporary Malta in light of theological debates and their ramifications in Catholic Malta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Psychology & Sociology is the property of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University 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.)

Authors discuss the context, implications, and major challenges of implementing the Croatian Constitutional Court's historic 2017 „Abortion decision“. Twenty-six years after it was originally challenged, the socialist era abortion-enabling 1978 law withstood the test of constitutionality against a new constitutional and value order introduced by the 1990 Croatian constitution. This preservation and constitutionalization of the periodic abortion model drew on a systemic and teleological interpretation of constitutional guarantees of the rule of law (regarding contestation of the law’s formal constitutionality, seeing as it predated the new Constitution), equality, freedom and personhood, protection of dignity, privacy, family life, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. It thus authoritatively protected a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy on demand, while simultaneously relegating to the Parliament the option of exactly pinpointing the start of „life “and underlining the necessity of modernizing this almost 50-years-old piece of legislation. However, such a parliamentary mandate to complete the constitutional architecture of the right to freely decide on childbirth comes with a few issues and potential problems. This paper thus intends to highlight the major challenges in implementing the Court's decision, the foremost among them: issue of conscientious appeal. The authors discuss the remit of this phenomenon, identifying its „hard limits “and expounding on limitations and conditions that will have to accompany its future regulation. The potential abuse of power inherent in the right to conscientious appeal and its potential to impose a health practitioner's private opinion on other citizens and thus disable access to a legal health service will, the authors hold, be a true litmus-paper of the future abortion legislation's constitutionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID - 19 pandemic that swept the world in 2020 and the reactions of state authorities to it are unparalleled events in modern history. In order to protect public health, states have limited a number of fundamental human rights that individuals have in accordance with national constitutions and international conventions. The focus of this paper is the right of access to abortion in the Member States of the European Union. In Europe, the situation with regard to the recognition of women's right to abortion is quite clear. All member states of the European Union, with the exception of Poland and Malta, recognize the rather liberal right of a woman to have an abortion in a certain period of time after conception. However, Malta and Poland, as members of the European Union, since abortion is seen as a service, must not hinder the travel of women abroad to have an abortion, nor restrict information on the provision of abortion services in other countries. In 2020, a pandemic highlighted all the weaknesses of this regime by preventing women from traveling to more liberal countries to perform abortions, thus calling into question their right to choose and protect their sexual and reproductive rights. This is not only the case in Poland and Malta, but also in countries that recognize the right to abortion but make it conditional on certain non-medical conditions, such as compulsory counselling; and the mandatory time period between applying for and performing an abortion; in situations present in certain countries where the problem of a woman exercising the right to abortion is a large number of doctors who do not provide this service based on their right to conscience. The paper is divided into three parts. The aim of the first part of the paper is to consider all the legal difficulties that women face in accessing abortion during the COVID -19 pandemic, restrictions that affect the protection of their dignity, right to life, privacy and right to equality. In the second part of the paper particular attention will be paid to the illiberal tendencies present in this period in some countries of Central and Eastern Europe, especially Poland. In the third part of the paper, emphasis will be put on the situation in Malta where there is a complete ban on abortion even in the case when the life of a pregnant woman is in danger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, 12 states banned or restricted abortion access under elective-procedure restrictions. The rationale was preserving hospital capacity and personal protective equipment (PPE); however, abortions commonly take place in clinics and use less PPE than childbirth. This paper investigates the discursive construction of abortions, the people who get them, and the fetuses in this legislation. The authors analyzed 13 antiabortion documents using an iterative process of thematic coding and memo writing. Twenty-three percent of the legislation listed abortion as banned, whereas the remaining laws implied abortion within the terms "elective" or "nonessential." Legislation used common antiabortion tactics, such as the trivialization of abortion, risk discourses, and constructions of motherhood and fetal personhood. Discourses delegitimized abortion providers and used quasi-medical justifications for banning abortion. Finally, legislation constructed abortion clinics as sites of contagion and waste and consequently as risks to public health. The results highlight the vulnerability of abortion and the connection between abortion policy and other conservative policies, and they gesture toward a strategic attempt to ban abortion federally. These findings have several implications for a post-Roe United States and for stakeholders wishing to increase abortion access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital health, including telemedicine, has increased access to abortion care. The convenience, flexibility of appointment times, and ensured privacy to abortion users may make abortion services via telemedicine preferable. This scoping review systematically mapped studies conducted on abortion services via telemedicine, including their effectiveness and acceptability for abortion users and providers. All published papers included abortion services via telemedicine in the United States were considered. Articles were searched in PubMed, CINAHL, and Google Scholar databases in September 2022. The findings were synthesized narratively, and the PRISMA-ScR guidelines were used to report this study. Out of 757 retrieved articles, 33 articles were selected based on the inclusion criteria. These studies were published between 2011 and 2022, with 24 published in the last 3 years. The study found that telemedicine increased access to abortion care in the United States, especially for people in remote areas or those worried about stigma from in-person visits. The effectiveness of abortion services via telemedicine was comparable to in-clinic visits, with 6% or fewer abortions requiring surgical intervention. Both care providers and abortion seekers expressed positive perceptions of telemedicine-based abortion services. However, abortion users reported mixed emotions, with some preferring in-person visits. The most common reasons for choosing telemedicine included the distance to the abortion clinic, convenience, privacy, cost, flexibility of appointment times, and state laws imposing waiting periods or restrictive policies. Telemedicine offered a preferable option for abortion seekers and providers. The feasibility of accessing abortion services via telemedicine in low-resource settings needs further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to discover the relations between repression and the occurrence of innovative forms of protests (hereinafter: IFP) during the All-women's Strike in Poland (2020-2021). The Authors identified two most essential features of IFP, namely the use of the Internet and avoidance of physical violence. IFP were significant for these manifestations, considering pandemic circumstances and strict restrictions on public assembly. The following questions were asked during the research: 1) What was the content of the IFP? 2) Who is the target of IFP? The study draws on process tracing to determine whether repression by law enforcement caused a public reaction against those measures. Moreover, qualitative content analysis was used to determine the content published in public domain posts on Instagram. The period examined is 20 October 2020 (tightening abortion law by the Constitutional Court) to 8 February 2021 (when the last post was published). The purposeful selection of cases included 450 posts by the most engaged Polish female celebrities. The paper provides knowledge of how specific repression triggered certain types of IFP and who was the target of these protests. The authors also explain the use of IFP during the All-women's Strike in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the development and the sociopolitical background of legislation pertaining to abortion in Finland from the nineteenth century to the current day. The first Abortion Act came to force in 1950. Before that, abortions were handled under criminal law. The 1950 law was restrictive and allowed abortions in very limited circumstances only. Its main aim was to reduce the number of abortions and especially illegal abortions. It was not very successful in reaching these goals, but, significantly, it moved abortions from the realm of the criminal law to the hands of medical professionals. The birth of the welfare state and the prenatal attitudes of 1930s and 1940s Europe played their part in shaping the law. By late 1960s, with the rise of the women's rights movement and other changes in society, there was pressure to change the outdated law. The new 1970 Abortion Act was broader and allowed abortions for limited social reasons too but left very limited, if any, room for a woman's right to choose. After a citizen's initiative in 2020, the year 2023 will see a significant amendment to the 1970 law; during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, an abortion can be performed on the woman's request alone. However, there is still a long way to go in terms of women's rights and abortion laws in Finland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade. The European Court of Human Rights is also expected to decide on several abortion cases. In this paper, the interpretative approaches of both courts are compared. Whereas the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decided on an originalist approach to the Constitution, the highest European court has always regarded the European Convention on Human Rights as a living instrument. As a result, domestic laws regulating the interruption of pregnancy are seen by the Strasbourg court as interferences with a fundamental right, the right to respect for private life. Although member states of the Council of Europe enjoy a wide margin of appreciation with regard to the circumstances in which abortion will be permitted, its highest court put forward the state's positive obligation to secure pregnant women's right to effective respect for their physical and psychological integrity in several landmark judgments. In this way, it ensures the existence of effective mechanisms in countries with a poor record of implementing the right to a lawful abortion. Albeit at a minimum, the Strasbourg court offers protection, whereas the U.S. Supreme Court no longer does. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that abortion access is an important subject for bioethics scholarship and reflects on the relationship between legal frameworks and access to care. The author uses the example of the United Kingdom to examine the benefits and limitations of abortion- permissive legal frameworks in terms of access. These are legal frameworks that enable the provision of abortion but subject to restrictions. An abortion-permissive regime—first in Great Britain and then in Northern Ireland—has gone some way to improving access to care over time. However, aspects of the regime (that lead to its description as permissive rather than supportive of abortion) have the potential to endanger abortion access in the future and so legal reform is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I will examine the Supreme Court of the United States' (SCOTUS) arguments in the majority decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and I will show how some of those arguments are flawed. Primarily, I will show that the right to bodily autonomy is a well-established right, both in the courts and in societal practices, and that the right to an abortion should be understood as an example of the right to bodily autonomy or bodily integrity. Second, I will examine the justices' arguments that viability is not a reasonable place to restrict abortion access, in contrast to both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey , and will offer arguments that defend viability as a valid point to limit abortion access. Third, I will highlight some politicians' goals to enact a federal ban on abortion, and show how the attempt to pass Personhood Amendments is a pathway for doing so. The upshot of this essay to is show how the SCOTUS decision is flawed, and how granting personhood to "potential life" has consequences that extend beyond abortion access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Collected Papers of Zagreb Law Faculty / Zbornik Pravnog Fakulteta u Zagrebu is the property of Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Pravni Fakultet 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.)

Copyright of Collected Papers of Zagreb Law Faculty / Zbornik Pravnog Fakulteta u Zagrebu is the property of Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Pravni Fakultet 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.)

A few years before the recomposed Court rejected abortion rights in Dobbs, it sustained several healthcare providers' challenge to Louisiana abortion restrictions in June Medical. History will remember that 5-4 decision mostly as one of the last major cases to interpret and apply the Casey framework. But in the little-noticed background of the June Medical litigation, a significant dispute over sealed court records boiled over. On one side, plaintiff physicians sought anonymity and confidentiality in light of potential threats to their physical safety and patient privacy. On the other side, Louisiana asserted the public's longstanding right to access court records and its own right to include information from June Medical companion cases in its Supreme Court briefing. Ultimately, the Fifth Circuit agreed with Louisiana, vacating the sealing order. June Medical evokes a larger dispute simmering in federal and state courts over public access to litigation information. Modern commerce and contemporary life generate an unprecedented volume of data. American civil discovery provides litigants with tools to discover and collect much of it. And courts have long recognized the public's First Amendment and common law rights to inspect and copy public court files. Moreover, the internet and advent of electronic filing have transformed once obscure paper court files into easily accessible databases. Proponents of expanded sealing and secrecy contend that this status quo threatens litigants' privacy and intellectual property. Proponents of more transparency posit that public access to the evidence underlying court action is essential to the integrity and proper functioning of the judiciary, as well as to public health and safety. This Article examines a largely unexplored angle of this debate: How should courts treat the unique privacy interests of litigants asserting substantive due process claims in the context of the public's right to access litigation information? Part II explains the public's court-access rights. Part III first considers whether forced identity revelation might infringe substantive due process rights. After concluding that infringement is possible, but recognizing that courts will often avoid the constitutional privacy questions posed by these scenarios, Part III goes on to consider the use and effects of subconstitutional privacy and access principles in rights cases where parties seek to proceed pseudonymously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donohue and Levitt (2001) presented evidence that the legalization of abortion in the early 1970s played an important role in the crime drop of the 1990s. That paper concluded with a strong out-of-sample prediction regarding the next two decades: "When a steady state is reached roughly twenty years from now, the impact of abortion will be roughly twice as great as the impact felt so far. Our results suggest that all else equal, legalized abortion will account for persistent declines of 1% a year in crime over the next two decades." Estimating parallel specifications to the original paper, but using the seventeen years of data generated after that paper was written, we find strong support for the prediction and the broad hypothesis, while illuminating some previously unrecognized patterns of crime and arrests. We estimate that overall crime fell 17.5% from 1998 to 2014 due to legalized abortion—a decline of 1% per year. From 1991 to 2014, the violent and property crime rates each fell by 50%. Legalized abortion is estimated to have reduced violent crime by 47% and property crime by 33% over this period, and thus can explain most of the observed crime decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]