For Namibian HIV positive women who need to access health services for their survival, hospitals should be a place of safety, not stigma, coercion, or forced sterilization.
After a year of unsuccessful lawsuits, a woman living with HIV and sterilized without her consent filed a complaint against Chile before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The guiding principle for global health donors of a more sustainable approach to fighting the AIDS epidemic should be that prevention and treatment for HIV/AIDS can no longer happen in isolation.
Despite international attention to the issue of maternal mortality worldwide, little progress has been made in reducing maternal deaths. In some countries, such as Zimbabwe, the situation is getting worse rather than better.
Public policy on sex, sexuality and reproduction in a pluralistic society must be based on evidence, science, justice, reason and civil discourse. So when the Catholic Bishops or others throw a political tantrum, we must never reward them.
An analysis of the criteria originally set out by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops as priorities for health reform finds that the Bishops have moved the goal posts on their original insistence that reform be "abortion-neutral."
Like bills now moving through Congress, health care reform in Massachusetts sought to reduce the number of uninsured. But recent research shows that many of those now "insured" still can't access care or afford essential prescriptions.
The old adage, think globally and act locally, is key to addressing climate change. Community-based, integrated approaches and solutions are essential to adaptation.
One unintended consequence of Massachusetts’ innovative 2007 reform legislation is reduced contraceptive access for low-income women. We can't repeat this mistake nationally.
The primary care physician leading the Montana "personhood" campaign is under multiple investigations for Medicaid fraud: She allegedly insisted that patients pray with her.
The misuse of bio-terrorism laws to prosecute an HIV positive man is but one example of how efforts to criminalize HIV stigmatize individuals and simultaneously threaten public health.
Integrating reproductive and sexual health services with HIV prevention is essential to ending the AIDS epidemic. Yet US policies continue to hamper effective strategies.
Telemundo 52 recently reported on Alma Minerva Chacon, a woman who was terrorized by Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio by being forced to give birth in chains despite the pleading of nurses and other medical staff.
Coburn says "health care should be about your needs and your health and the decisions made between you and your doctor," and the government shouldn't get involved in making decisions for you. Uh-huh. We've been saying that for a along time.
Today, the Limited-Service Pregnancy Disclaimers Bill was signed into Baltimore law. The bill ensures that women who enter Baltimore area Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) hoping to find access to birth control, information about a potential pregnancy, or referrals to abortion providers will be immediately informed if those services are not available.
