News Review – 15 September 2017
Global trends, reports and movements
As the world prepares for the UNGA, a number of relevant global reports were released to set the agenda. The Lancet launched a commission for the future of health in sub-Saharan Africa, with the goal of establishing “a path to longer and healthier lives for all Africans,” including advancing reproductive health. The UNFPA report on the State of Midwifery in the East and Southern Africa region examined the workforce responsible for provision of Sexual Reproductive Maternal, New-born and Adolescent Health (SRMAH), looking at midwives and midwifery training: “why are women and girls are not still getting optimum SRMNAH care even when the workforce is available?”
Nigeria, where in Bauci state only 2.1% of married women use contraceptives, launched a four-year comprehensive “Green Dot” family planning campaign “to ensure that 7.3 million women have access to family planning.” Kenya’s “Why I Plan” is “a new platform for young, progressive Kenyans to create engaging campaigns on the future of Kenya, personal goals and the importance of family planning.” Cameroon’s United Vision fights against tendencies and trends that deny young people, women and girls their full rights of existence.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation released its “Goalkeepers” report on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, warning that without more effort, the 2030 targets will not be attained.
The agenda of the WHO meeting in Budapest, reflecting Dr. Tedros’s focus on universal health coverage, which was “once dominated by particular medical conditions and the training of health workers, was now focused on what has come to be known as ‘Health in All Policies’.”
For inspiration, look at this year’s crop of the 120 Under 40 global young champions of family planning. The Challenge Initiative has a “business unusual” approach to urban reproductive health, working, among other things, to improve contraceptive prevalence.
What is the trend in the US? There is so much movement it’s hard to say. House Republicans proposed a budget which is “filled with reproductive health restrictions” The Cassidy-Graham proposal to replace Obamacare would cause “an unacceptable spike in uninsured patients”, and means that “states could significantly pare back their insurance coverage to cover less expensive benefits, things like maternity care”. The White House is proposing a new rule and cuts to Title X funding which could mean “the end of free birth control.” On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Bernie Sanders announced a comprehensive single-payer health bill, which includes taxpayer-funded abortion coverage. The Global Gag Rule is placing the health and lives of girls and women at risk and endangering mothers worldwide,
In California, lawmakers backed a bill to protect workers’ reproductive health choices over opposition from religious groups while in DC the House blocked a similar health non-discrimination act; Iowa is evaluating FP programs without Planned Parenthood which was forced to close all of its clinics; new abortion clinics are opening in Missouri, bizarrely and unfortunately with some help from Satanists: “The Satanic Temple argued… that the state’s abortion restrictions violate worshippers’ rights to free religious practice… challenging two Missouri laws: one that requires patients to look at unscientific anti-abortion propaganda and another that forces them to wait 72 hours between their initial consultations and a second appointments for their abortions. Satanic Temple members argue that their religion prizes rational, independent thought and that forcing Satanists to read anti-abortion pamphlets and “consider a religious proposition with which they do not agree” during the 72-hour waiting period constitutes a violation of their beliefs.”
Abortion court challenges in Arkansas and Ohio, and an electoral battle in Virginia (“For both sides of abortion debate, unusually high stakes in Virginia governor’s race). A confluence of the administration’s policies harmful to women: fighting for reproductive rights for undocumented immigrants. One suggestion for how to unify the left’s multiple constituencies – Choice, Black Lives Matter, etc. – is to rally around the concept of “bodily autonomy.”
Some reflections on abortion access in Italy (“legal but difficult to obtain”) and Germany (illegal according to the constitution but legal under statute). Ireland’s Taoiseach was non-committal: “I don’t accept the view that the unborn child, the fetus, if you prefer that term, should have equal rights to an adult woman, to the mother, I don’t share this view that the baby in the womb, the fetus, whatever term you want to use, should have no rights at all.” (Another Irish article reported “Men advised to ‘mind their own business” in the abortion debate). The Dutch government is urged to continue supporting She Decides. Indian doctors are ‘afraid to help’ child rape victims, and a Quartz article says India and the US both have “alarming realities” around reproductive rights. A not very pleasant reminiscence of when abortion was illegal in the UK (“a dark and bloody place”). The Women’s Media Center finds abortion rights in peril Sierra Leone, El Salvador, Poland, and the Dominican Republic.
Religious (and other) leaders
Religious leaders can have an effect on attitudes about, and thus uptake of, contraception. In Zambia, where a report says people are having fewer children, community-based health workers are promoting family planning and finding their biggest barrier is church teachings.
Nigerian traditional and religious leaders spoke of the need to strengthen family planning programs, with the Sultan of Sokoto declaring that Islam is not against family planning. The Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP) of the Livingstonia Synod in Malawi is integrating sexual reproductive health rights issues within already established church youth clubs. Qatar “criminalizes premarital pregnancy, nearly always to the detriment of the women but not the men involved. In the US, Catholic hospitals “are multiplying, and so is their impact on reproductive health care.”
Other leaders promoting family planning in the news this week: Namibia’s first lady and Malawi’s Maseko Ngoni king.
Media reporting on family planning is another avenue of influence, with initiatives in South Sudan, Gambia, Nigeria and Uganda, and through mobile technology in Tanzania.
Mark your calendar
September 13th was World Sepsis Day, to fight against the burden of morbidity caused by the body’s response to infection, which is responsible for roughly 11% of maternal deaths and 8% of newborn deaths worldwide. An initiative in Nigeria calls for early detection. The 13th was also #BumpDay, consisting of people posting photos of their to pregnant bellies, “as a means of addressing the fact that many mothers around the world still lack access to vital care”.
The 11th to the 17th of September is Sexual Health Week in the UK, which this year focused on more open discussions about subjects related to porn. Also in the UK the 16th was set to mark the “Festival of Choice” to address “the global challenges faced by women around the world in securing and defending reproductive and sexual health rights.” The 16th is also Global Female Condom Day. (In Kenya, a former Miss Tourism Kenya teaches girls about female condoms: “My college only had a dispenser for male condoms. Even at the chemist, they only stock male condoms. It’s not fair for a girl. You want to protect yourself.”)
The Sexual Rights Initiative is looking for organizational sign-on to a joint statement on abortion rights in anticipation of the September 28 Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion, and Imagine 2030 examines contraceptive product development, including an “all-in-one injectable”, as it looks towards World Contraception Day, September 26.
Medical discussions and research
Researchers found a hint of a link between the flu vaccine and miscarriage. Kenyan presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s claimed that the tetanus vaccine that was administered to Kenyan women in 2014 could cause permanent infertility and was roundly criticized by medical experts. While a report says that evidence for potential harms of light drinking in pregnancy is ‘surprisingly’ limited, RCOG released a statement that “as there is no proven safe amount of alcohol women can drink during pregnancy, abstinence is the safest option.” (South Africa recorded the highest number of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder cases.) A study in Obstetrics & Gynecology concludes that telemedicine for medical abortion “is totally safe”, the conservative National Review nevertheless said they “pose health risks.”
Other research and guidance releases this week: Global Burden of Disease in The Lancet, new WHO programme reporting standards for sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health programmes, a Women Help Women checklist on medical abortion, Effectiveness, safety, and acceptability of first ‐trimester medical termination of pregnancy performed by non‐doctor providers: a systematic review in BJOG, Classification of maternal deaths in The Lancet, Guttmacher’s Pregnancies, Births and Abortions Among Adolescents and Young Women in the United States, 2013: National and State Trends by Age, Race and Ethnicity and K4Health’s Meeting the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Young Married Women and First-time Parents Toolkit.
Shout-outs to the University of Michigan’s Sioban Harlow who is studying GBV in the DRC, and Nursing and Medical School faculty who are teaming up on a Gates Foundation project to examine the growth, impact and effectiveness of maternity waiting homes serving rural Liberia. And also to colleagues at the University of Gondar who published a study on local LARC utilization.
Complete News Review References:
General/Global
Join The Female Health Company on September 16 for Global Female Condom Day!, FC2, 16 Sep 2017
Festival of Choice 2017, 16 Sep 2017
5 things to know about abortion in Germany, The Local, 14 Sep 2017
TBT: When abortion wasn’t legal in Britain, I News, 14 Sep 2017
Building bridges in Budapest, BMJ, 14 Sep 2017
California lawmakers back bill to protect workers’ reproductive health choices over opposition from religious groups, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep 2017
Graham-Cassidy proposal would cause ‘unacceptable’ spike in uninsured patients, Healio, 14 Sep 2017
Fighting for reproductive rights when your family’s undocumented, MTV, 14 Sep 2017
House Passes Measures to Block D.C. Laws, Including Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act, WAMU, 14 Sep 2017
DHS To Evaluate New Family Planning Program that Excludes Planned Parenthood, Iowa Public Radio, 14 Sep 2017
Catholic hospitals are multiplying, and so is their impact on reproductive health care, STAT News, 14 Sep 2017
Requests for Organizational Sign-On: Joint Statement on Abortion Rights, Sexual Rights Initiative, 13 Sep 2017
The Launch of the State of Midwifery Report 2017 in East and Southern Africa Region, EIN News, 13 Sep 2017
People Have Multiple Abortions—and Stigmatizing Them Is Counterproductive, Rewire, 13 Sep 2017
The path to longer and healthier lives for all Africans by 2030: the Lancet Commission on the future of health in sub-Saharan Africa, The Lancet, 13 Sep 2017
- Africa and health: a Commission to accelerate success, The Lancet, 13 Sep 2017
- Longer and healthier lives for all Africans by 2030: perspectives and action of WHO AFRO, The Lancet, 13 Sep 2017
My Body, My Choice: Why the Principle of Bodily Autonomy Can Unite the Left, The Nation, 13 Sep 2017
Bernie Sanders Announces Single-Payer Bill With Major Support In Senate, Huffington Post, 13 Sep 2017
Sanders’s Medicare-for-All Bill Includes Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Coverage, Town Hall, 13 Sep 2017
Cassidy-Graham: The last GOP health plan left standing, explained, Vox, 13 Sep 2017
America’s leadership needed in global health, The Hill, 13 Sep 2017
Mexican Women Look For Alternatives To Cesarean Sections, NPR, 13 Sep 2017
Help raise awareness about the need for maternal health care worldwide, BumpDay.org, 13 Sep 2017
“Telemed” Abortions Pose Health Risks, National Review, 13 Sep 2017
Here’s Why You’re Seeing So Many Bump Pics Today, Refinery 29, 13 Sep 2017
On World Sepsis Day, Let’s Focus on Mothers and Newborns, MHTF, 13 Sep 2017
Researchers find hint of a link between flu vaccine and miscarriage, Washington Post, 13 Sep 2017
Bill and Melinda Gates: We’re on a course to miss 2030 development goals for health and poverty, Quartz, 13 Sep 2017
- The stories behind the data, Global Goals, 13 Sep 2017
120 Under 40 celebrates young champions of family planning., 120 Under 40, 12 Sep 2017
Shining a spotlight on maternal and neonatal sepsis: World Sepsis Day 2017, WHO, 12 Sep 2017
House budget filled with reproductive health restrictions, Women’s Media Center, 12 Sep 2017
RCOG statement on new research on drinking during pregnancy, RCOG, 12 Sep 2017
Abortion Access in Missouri Is Getting Easier, Thanks to Planned Parenthood and Satanists, Slate, 12 Sep 2017
Meeting Contraceptive Prevalence in African Urban Areas: IPPFAR’s Partnership with The Challenge Initiative (TCI), IPPFAR, 12 Sep 2017
Women’s bodies are under attack: The alarming reality of reproductive rights in India and the US, Quartz, 12 Sep 2017
Abortion in Italy Is Legal but Sometimes Difficult to Obtain, Teen Vogue, 12 Sep 2017
Men advised to ‘mind their own business’ in abortion debate after Sligo Co Co vote, Ocean FM, 12 Sep 2017
Fifteen no-cost abortions scheduled through Harvey relief effort, Texas Tribune, 11 Sep 2017
Kansas City Planned Parenthood starts abortion services, Columbia Missourian, 11 Sep 2017
The new “all-in-one” injectable contraceptive – putting family planning within reach, Imagine 2030/PATH, 11 Sep 2017
Let’s talk about porn, FPA, 11 Sep 2017
New Video Explains The Challenge Initiative’s ‘Business Unusual’ Approach, TCI, 11 Sep 2017
Evidence for potential harms of light drinking in pregnancy ‘surprisingly’ limited, Eurekalert/BMJ, 11 Sep 2017
Is This the End of Free Birth Control?, 5280.com, 11 Sep 2017
Ploumen calls for new government to support She Decides fund, Dutch News, 11 Sep 2017
I Gave Up Regular Contraception For A Fertility Tracking App, Refinery 29, 11 Sep 2017
The US Action Endangering Mothers Worldwide, Roll Call, 11 Sep 2017
For both sides of abortion debate, unusually high stakes in Virginia governor’s race, Washington Post, 11 Sep 2017
Join HIFA for a global discussion: Meeting the Family Planning and Contraception information needs of adolescents, girls, women, and men, HIFA, 10 Sep 2017
Leo Varadkar reveals thoughts on abortion in US interview, Irish Mirror, 10 Sep 2017
Abortion clinic dispute to be argued in Ohio Supreme Court, Times-Gazette, 10 Sep 2017
Death by embarrassment. It shouldn’t happen to women – but it does, The Age, 10 Sep 2017
When is it Okay and Not Okay to Have an Abortion?, KMMS, 9 Sep 2017
The Global Gag Rule: placing the health and lives of women and girls at risk, The Lancet, 9 Sep 2017
Planned Parenthood Is Taking Over Hollywood — & She’s The Reason Why, Refinery 29, 8 Sep 2017
Abortion Via Telemedicine Is Totally Safe, Study Says, Huffington Post, 8 Sep 2017 (See Academic reference below)
Indian doctors ‘afraid to help’ child rape victims, The Guardian, 7 Sep 2017
Abortion rights in peril: A global look, Women’s Media Center, 7 Sep 2017
Arkansas asks court not to reconsider abortion pill ruling, KY3, 7 Sep 2017
Women in Rural Counties Are Losing Access to Maternal Care, Broadly, 6 Sep 2017
Hypothetically Speaking…If We Build it, Will They Come?, Imagine 2030/FHI360, 5 Sep 2016
Criminalizing Premarital Pregnancy, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, 4 Sep 2017
Academic
Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016, The Lancet, 16 Sep 2017
Medical Abortion, Women Help Women, 14 Sep 2017
New programme reporting standards for sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health programmes, WHO, 14 Sep 2017
Meeting the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Young Married Women and First-time Parents Toolkit, K4Health, 13 Sep 2017
Global Burden of Disease, The Lancet, 12 Sep 2017
Factors associated with utilization of long-acting and permanent contraceptive methods among women who have decided not to have more children in Gondar city, BMC Women’s Health, 6 Sep 2017
Safety of Medical Abortion Provided Through Telemedicine Compared With in Person, Obstetrics & Gynecology, 5 Sep 2017
Classification of maternal deaths: where does the chain of events start?, The Lancet, 2 Sep 2017
Uterine balloon tamponade as an adjunct to misoprostol for the treatment of uncontrolled postpartum haemorrhage: a randomised controlled trial in Benin and Mali, BMJ Open, 1 Sep 2017
Effectiveness, safety, and acceptability of first ‐trimester medical termination of pregnancy performed by non‐doctor providers: a systematic review, BJOG, 17 Aug 2017
Pregnancies, Births and Abortions Among Adolescents and Young Women in the United States, 2013: National and State Trends by Age, Race and Ethnicity, Guttmacher, August 2017
Botswana
Holistic approach to sexual reproductive health curbs social ills, Daily News, 10 Sep 2017
Cameroon
We have a culture that does not encourage discussions around sex or sexuality, Real Life Heroes, 15 Sep 2017
Cote d’Ivoire
The Reason Why I am Loyal to AIBEF’s Clinic in Yopougon, IPPFAR, 11 Sep 2017
DRC
Sioban Harlow: Studying Gender-Based Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 7 Sep 2017
Gambia
UNFPA Trains Journalists On Communicating Sexual, Reproductive Health Messages, The Point, 13 Sep 2017
GFPA, UNFPA train peer health educators on reproductive health, The Point, 12 Sep 2017
Ghana
200,000 adolescents benefit from reproductive health services, Ghana News Agency, 15 Sep 2017
Free iron folic tablet for girls in the Volta Region, Ghana Web, 14 Sep 2017
Kenya
The Beauty of the Female Condom, Pathfinder, 15 Sep 2017
Why I Plan, M4ID, 14 Sep 2017
GE partners with Shining Hope for Communities Organization (SHOFCO) to improve outcomes for expectant mothers and babies at Kibera slum in Nairobi, GE, 13 Sep 2017
Shining Hope for Communities Has a Lot to Celebrate This Year, From Its First Class of Graduates to Its Game-Changing New Uniforms, Vogue, 12 Sep 2017
Doctors deny Raila infertility jab claim, Business Daily, 11 Sep 2017
“I suffer all these because of periods” Heartbreaking Njambi Koikai’s revelation about her condition, Ghafla, 11 Sep 2017
Exploring provider perspectives on respectful maternity care in Kenya: “Work with what you have”, Reproductive Health, 22 Aug 2017
Liberia
Women Initiative For Self Help Ends Workshop on Gender Base Violence, Front Page Africa, 13 Sep 2017
Sinje Women Lauds Planned Parenthood Association of Liberia Support, Front Page Africa, 13 Sep 2017
Gates grant to fund maternity waiting homes study in Liberia, Global Reach, 11 Sep 2017
Malawi
Silungwe says Livingstonia Synod softens up on sexual reproductive health, Nyasa Times, 15 Sep 2017
Maseko Ngoni king calls for abortion law reform, CSJ News, 9 Sep 2017
Implementing the WHO integrated tool to assess quality of care for mothers, newborns and children: results and lessons learnt from five districts in Malawi, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 25 Aug 2017
Mozambique
Bleeding for 1 month: the reality of unsafe abortion, Pathfinder, 14 Sep 2017
Unitaid and government of Mozambique launch TIPTOP project to prevent malaria in pregnancy, UNITAID, 11 Sep 2017
Namibia
First Lady takes #BeFree campaign to Rehoboth, NAMPA, 10 Sep 2017
Nigeria
Bauchi population to double in 19 years – Report, Daily Trust, 13 Sep 2017
Only 2.1% Married Women Use Contraceptive In Bauchi – Expert, 247ureports, 13 Sep 2017
Islam not against family planning – Sultan, Punch, 13 Sep 2017
Early detection of Sepsis, MamaYe, 13 Sep 2017
‘There Was a Huge Knowledge Gap Among These Young Women’, Johns Hopkins CCP, 12 Sep 2017
Traditional, religious leaders parley on need to strengthen family planning, Premium Times, 11 Sep 2017
Nigeria Launches “Green Dot”, Family Planning Campaign, Sahara Reporters, 9 Sep 2017
- Nigeria launches 4-year strategy for family planning, Daily Trust, 11 Sep 2017
- The Family Planning Documents launched on Monday, 11th Sept during the #FPNigeria meeting are now available online, UNFPA, 11 Sep 2017
Charity Work Remains My Biggest Passion, This Day, 9 Sep 2017
The Need for Sexual and Reproductive Health in an Emergency Context, K4Health, 17 Aug 2017
Rwanda
Rwanda needs more pediatricians – experts, New Times, 15 Sep 2017
Morning-after pills: Are they a safer family planning option?, New Times, 11 Sep 2017NewsDeeply, 7 Sep 2017
Women’s Council to focus on fighting teen pregnancies in 2018, New Times, 10 Sep 2017
Sierra Leone
Flooding, mudslides leave communities devastated, pregnant women in need, UNFPA, 14 Sep 2017
South Africa
SA records highest number of FASD cases in the world, EWN, 9 Sep 2017
South Sudan
Ministry Of Health Holds Workshop On Family Planning, Gurtong, 15 Sep 2017
South Sudan’s Mission to Help More Mothers Survive Childbirth, News Deeply, 7 Sep 2017
Patterns and determinants of pathways to reach comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care (CEmONC) in South Sudan: qualitative diagrammatic pathway analysis, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 29 Aug 2017
Improving Maternal and Child Health through Media in South Sudan, BBC Media Action, 21 Jun 2017
Tanzania
Governments told to invest more in family planning initiatives, The Citizen, 14 Sep 2017
Safe motherhood now gets Sh32bn, The Citizen, 14 Sep 2017
EngenderHealth, through Bloomberg Philanthropies & Fondation H&B Agerup support, saves women and children’s’ lives by constructing 24 and renovating 2 maternity buildings in Kigoma Region in Tanzania, Engender Health, 14 Sep 2017
Bridging the maternal healthcare divide with mobile technology, Zilient, 12 Sep 2017
Uganda
Health practitioners’ guide launched, New Vision, 14 Sep 2017
Development and preliminary validation of a post-fistula repair reintegration instrument among Ugandan women, Reproductive Health, 2 Sep 2017
Zambia
Bursting myths by community-based family planning, Zambia Daily Mail, 15 Sep 2017
Zambians having fewer children, ZNBC, 13 Sep 2017
Twitter outrage as Zambian journalist, 29, dies after giving birth, News 24, 12 Sep 2017
Zimbabwe
Maternal Deaths Up, The Herald, 11 Sep 2017
Great content. It was really informative and you also can check this https://www.fpa.org.uk/contraception-help/natural-family-planning
Love this content, really informative
When it comes to reproductive health and population issues i think the government of each country should be charged to do more instead of waiting for Foundations.