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

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.

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

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.


Stanovnistvo ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 39 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 119-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajrija Mujovic-Zornic

In this paper the author discusses the nature and importance of the right to reproduce, in particular the right to sterilisation. In the time past sterilization has been practiced only as a measure of penal policy or the prevention of mental health diseases. Today, mostly we can speak about the right to sterilization (especially reversible sterilization). The patient have a free choice to decide any method of contraception and that could be a voluntary sterilization (also called human, contraceptive, non-therapeutical in French law, and obliging in German law). Various legal questions about this right can be raised, in accordance of state of reproductive rights (how they are regulated by the law) and the protection of reproductive rights (especially the right of pregnant woman as a patient). Yugoslav law not yet has a complete regulation and adequate solutions in this area, except the abortion law. The primary gynecology care has contraceptive counseling, but concrete measures and education are insufficient. It cannot begin to give consistent answers to all of these questions without a coherent conception of the right to reproduce, which is the primary duty of legal experts.


Author(s):  
Michelle J. Anderson

Rape law often condemns females who are not chaste and excuses males who act with sexual entitlement. Rape law has been a significant site for the valorization of female chastity and constraint, on the one hand, and male prowess and freedom, on the other. It continues to reflect the sexism of a culture resistant to ceding male control over sexuality. Legal reform of rape law over the past forty years has greatly helped those who experience stranger rape that includes violence extrinsic to the rape itself. However, this generation of reform did not sufficiently help those whose experiences are more common: those raped by acquaintances without extrinsic violence. To tackle this larger problem, the law must undergo another generation of renewal, one that works affirmatively to diminish the legal impact of negative social attitudes toward acquaintance rape victims. Tis article proposes a range of legal reforms to that end.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinh Minh Thu

Washback, i.e., test effects on teaching and learning, has been emerging as an attractive research topic in language training and assessment for over the past 20 years for its significant implications of test validation and fairness for both policy-makers and practitioners. Presently, it deserves more Vietnamese researchers' interest in the context of the enactment of the National Foreign Language Project 2020 (extended to 2025), which puts language assessment as a key innovation requirement. Washback operates either positively or negatively; i.e. promoting or inhibiting learning. Teachers are considered the precursor in the washback mechanism. There is only one washback model on the washback effects on teachers, which is proposed by Shih (2009). This paper aims to critically browse other washback models besides Shin’s (2009) to generate a washback framework on teachers' perceptions and practices. Previous empirical washback research on teachers in and beyond Vietnam is, then, investigated in alignment with the aspects illustrated in the framework to point out achievements and gaps in the field. A qualitative approach of document analysis of over forty studies of differing types, i.e. books, dissertations and articles, has been adopted to reach the research aim. The discussion is divided into two major parts, including the washback models pertaining to teachers to scaffold a model for teachers' perceptions and practices, and the results in empirical research in terms of the aspects mentioned in the model. Findings show that washback on teachers' perceptions ranges from perceptions of the test itself, students' language ability, teaching contents and methodology to teachers' professional development. Plus, washback on teachers' practices concerns their selections of teaching contents and methodology in class as well as their involvement in professional development. The element of professional development can be considered a new light in the reviewed washback model. This has a significant meaning by raising teachers' awareness of developing themselves professionally. The current paper expects to contribute to elaborating the scenario of washback research for interested researchers, practitioners and policymakers not only in but beyond the context of Vietnam.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1072-1097
Author(s):  
Atina Krajewska

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between reproductive rights, democracy, and the rule of law in transitional societies. As a case study, it examines the development of abortion law in Poland. The article makes three primary claims. First, it argues that the relationship between reproductive rights and the rule of law in Poland came clearly into view through the abortion judgment K 1/20, handed down by the Constitutional Tribunal in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The judgment and the context in which it was issued and published are interpreted as reflections of deep-lying processes and problems in Polish society. Consequently, second, the article argues that analysis of the history of reproductive rights in recent decades in Poland reveals weak institutionalization of the rule of law. This is manifest in the ways in which different professional groups, especially doctors and lawyers, have addressed questions regarding abortion law. Therefore, third, the article argues that any assessment of the rule of law should take into account how powerful professional actors and organizations interact with the law. The Polish case study shows that reproductive rights should be seen as important parts of a “litmus test,” which we can use to examine the efficacy of democratic transitions and the quality of the democracies in which such transitions result.


2011 ◽  
Vol 204-210 ◽  
pp. 350-353
Author(s):  
Xiao Guang Lu ◽  
Jian Qun Zhu ◽  
Meng Ying Fan

According to the second economic census data of Jiangsu Province, this paper firstly uses PCA-HCA model based on provincial cities data to classify economic regions. And then, it uses BLR-HCA model to reclassify the economic regions based on counties data. Finally, it comes to the conclusion that the past regional classification ways of Jiangsu Province need to be updated. The research on regional economy is dynamic and timely, while deepening the division of labor and finance is an effective way to develop Jiangsu’s regional economy.


1998 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orayb Aref Najjar

This study examines press liberalization in Jordan. It argues that Jordan's evolving relations with Palestinians, its peace agreement with Israel, and media globalization have changed the context within which the Jordanian media operate and have given the government some flexibility to liberalize the press starting in 1989. However, some of the same issues that have led to press restrictions in the past have precipitated the introduction of “The Temporary Law for the Year 1997” while the parliament was not in session. The study concludes that the presence of a a loose coalition of forces working for press freedom coupled with the January 1998 High Court decision declaring the temporary law unconstitutional suggest it is premature to read a eulogy for Jordanian press freedom.


2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 125-145
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Kretek-Kamińska ◽  
Aneta Krzewińska

This article describes changes in student–teacher relations in the context of academic institutions and variation in methods of teaching. On the basis of empirical research (interviews conducted currently among employees of Polish institutions of higher learning and analysis of source materials concerning the past) the authors advance the thesis that the figure of the mentor—which was once associated with scholarship and academic institutions—has ceased to have meaning for contemporary scholars. Instead of mentors, persons who are called “quasi-mentors” have appeared; they act temporarily as guides for young scholars and most often perform only one of the functions formerly fulfilled by mentors (for instance, organizers of academic life, seekers for research funds, promoters of doctoral theses, etc.). The authors consider that these alterations have been caused by general processes of economic, technological, political, and axiological change.


Author(s):  
Mary Ziegler

This article illuminates potential obstacles facing the reproductive justice movement and the way those obstacles might be overcome. Since 2010, reproductive justice—an agenda that fuses access to reproductive health services and demands for social justice—has energized feminist scholars and activists and captured broader public attention. Abortion rights advocates in the past dismissed reproductive justice claims as risky and unlikely to appeal to a broad enough audience. These obstacles are not as daunting as they first appear. Reframing the abortion right as a matter of women’s equality may eliminate some of the constitutional hurdles facing a reproductive justice approach. The political obstacles may be just as surmountable. Understanding the history of the constitutional discourse concerning reproductive justice and reproductive rights may allow us to move beyond the impasse that has defined the relationship between the two for too long.


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