Understandings of self-managed abortion as health inequity, harm reduction and social change
Open Access
- 19 September 2018
- journal article
- editorial
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Reproductive Health Matters
- Vol. 26 (54), 13-19
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09688080.2018.1511769
Abstract
This commentary explores how self-managed abortion (SMA) has transformed understandings of and discourses on safe abortion and associated health inequities through an intersection of harm reduction, human rights and collective activism. The article examines three primary understandings of the relationship between SMA and safe abortion: first SMA as health inequity, second SMA as harm reduction, and third SMA as social change, including health system innovation and reform. A more dynamic understanding of the relationship between SMA, safe abortion and health inequities can both improve the design of interventions in the field, and more radically reset reform goals for health systems and other state institutions towards the full realisation of sexual and reproductive health and human rights.Keywords
Funding Information
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (153012)
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