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

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Foluso Ishola ◽  
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 Impact of abortion law reforms on women’s health services and outcomes: a systematic review protocol

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Foluso Ishola ◽  
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 BackgroundA 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.MethodsWe 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.DiscussionThis 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 registrationPROSPERO CRD42019126927

Conceptual foundations of organizational structure: re-structuring of women's health services

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Nugus ◽  
Joanne Travaglia ◽  
Maureen MacGinley ◽  
Deborah Colliver ◽  
Maud Mazaniello-Chezol ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Service ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Stakeholder Views ◽  
Women’S Health Services ◽  
Feminist Discourse

PurposeResearchers often debate health service structure. Understanding of the practical implications of this debate is often limited by researchers' neglect to integrate participants' views on structural options with discourses those views represent. As a case study, this paper aims to discern the extent to which and how conceptual underpinnings of stakeholder views on women's health contextualize different positions in the debate over the ideal structure of health services.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers chose a self-standing, comprehensive women's health service facing the prospect of being dispersed into “mainstream” health services. The researchers gathered perspectives of 53 professional and consumer stakeholders in ten focus groups and seven semi-structured interviews, analyzed through inductive thematic analysis.Findings“Women's marginalization” was the core theme of the debate over structure. The authors found clear patterns between views on the function of women's health services, women's health needs, ideal client group, ideal health service structure and particular feminist discourses. The desire to re-organize services into separate mainstream units reflected a liberal feminist discourse, conceiving marginalization as explicit demonstration of its effects, such as domestic abuse. The desire to maintain a comprehensive women's health service variously reflected post-structural feminism's emphasis on plurality of identities, and a radical feminist discourse, holding that womanhood itself constituted a category of marginalization – that is, merely being at risk of unmet health needs.Originality/valueAs a contribution to health organizational theory, the paper shows that the discernment of discursive underpinnings of particular stakeholder views can clarify options for the structure of health services.

US anti-abortion rule risks women’s health globally

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Contraceptive Services ◽  
City Policy ◽  
The Impact

Subject The impact of the 'gag rule'. Significance US President Donald Trump on January 23 re-instated the 1984 Mexico City Policy, which prevents US family planning funding from going to foreign organisations that give information about abortion, and expanded it to include all US funding assistance. Known as the ‘global gag rule’, the policy is likely to end up restricting funding for women's health services in general. Impacts The inadvertent effects of the gag rule-- eg, unsafe abortions -- could in principle be offset by higher funding for contraceptive services. However, such an increase in funding is unlikely to occur. This is set to reverse gains in maternal mortality globally.

scholarly journals Equity and women's health services for contraception, abortion and childbirth in Brazil

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (40) ◽  
pp. 94-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone G Diniz ◽  
Ana Flávia Pires Lucas d'Oliveira ◽  
Sonia Lansky
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Women’S Health Services
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