Fetal Protection Policies and Corporate Liability of the US Vinyl Chloride Industry, 1974-1991.

In the late 20th century, fetal protection policies barred women from hundreds of thousands of industrial jobs on the pretext that if women became pregnant, their fetuses might be harmed by workplace exposure to toxic chemicals. Beginning in the 1970s, these policies set off a decades-long contest between the chemical industry, government agencies, and the judicial system over how to balance the uncertain reproductive health risks against sex discrimination. This article revives the subject of reproductive health and workplace protections through a historical case study of fetal protection policies at Firestone Plastics, a leader in the postwar vinyl chloride industry. I use formerly secret industry documents to argue that Firestone used scientific uncertainty and gender essentialism to skirt new regulatory pressures and minimize corporate liability. Ultimately, fetal protection policies stymied innovative regulatory efforts to protect all workers-not just women-from reproductive hazards in the workplace. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(2):271-276. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306539).

Emergency contraception: unresolved clinical, ethical and legal quandaries still linger.

Emergency contraception (EC) has been prescribed for decades, in order to lessen the risk of unplanned and unwanted pregnancy following unprotected intercourse, ordinary contraceptive failure, or rape. EC and the linked aspect of unintended pregnancy undoubtedly constitute highly relevant public health issues, in that they involve women's self-determination, reproductive freedom and family planning. Most European countries regulate EC access quite effectively, with solid information campaigns and supply mechanisms, based on various recommendations from international institutions herein examined. However, there is still disagreement on whether EC drugs should be available without a physician's prescription and on the reimbursement policies that should be implemented. In addition, the rights of health care professionals who object to EC on conscience grounds have been subject to considerable legal and ethical scrutiny, in light of their potential to damage patients who need EC drugs in a timely fashion. Ultimately, reproductive health, freedom and conscience-based refusal on the part of operators are elements that have proven extremely hard to reconcile; hence, it is essential to strike a reasonable balance for the sake of everyone's rights and well-being.

Restricting Reasons: A New Battleground in Abortion Regulation.

The latest trend in abortion restrictions in the United States targets a woman's reasons for terminating a pregnancy. Fourteen states have attempted to enact laws prohibiting abortion on the basis of fetal sex, race, and/or genetic anomaly. These laws are different from regulations tied to a government interest in protecting women's health. Laws that restrict reasons implicate a different set of government interests to be weighed against a woman's constitutional right first recognized in Roe v. Wade. These laws also seek to reframe the nature of the right asserted by the woman. To date, the Supreme Court has declined to address the constitutionality of laws that restrict reasons, and the Court's most recent abortion decisions provide little guidance. It is possible that a conservative majority of the Supreme Court would uphold a law that prohibits reasons for having an abortion that appear discriminatory. But such laws would be difficult to enforce and therefore may be relegated to policy statements rejecting discriminatory norms as opposed to being effective means of restricting access to abortion.

"But the Law Won't Help Us": Challenges of Mobilizing Law 348 to Address Violence Against Women in Bolivia.

Drawing on findings of an original 12-month ethnographic study, this article presents the challenges that Bolivian women face in accessing a new law that has been designed to protect them, Law 348 to "Guarantee Women a Life Free from Violence." Data reveal that while the law creates opportunities for the (re)conceptualization of violence, mobilizing the law is fraught with difficulties and a culture of impunity prevails. The challenges of implementation are both nationally and internationally significant as other countries seek to enact similar legal strategies. In Bolivia, this article suggests, civil society organizations and women's voices are central to the full realization of the law.

When there are no abortion laws: A case study of Canada.

Canada decriminalized abortion, uniquely in the world, 30 years ago. We present the timeline of relevant Canadian legal, political, and policy events before and since decriminalization. We assess implications for clinical care, health service and systems decisions, health policy, and the epidemiology of abortion in the absence of criminal legislation. As the criminal abortion law was struck down, dozens of similar private member's bills, and one government bill, have been proposed, but none were passed. Key findings include that initially Canadian provinces attempted to provide restrictive regulations and legislation, all of which have been revoked and largely replaced with supportive policies that improve equitable, accessible, state-provided abortion service. Abortion rates have been stable over 30 years since decriminalization, and a falling proportion of abortions occur late in the second trimester. Canada demonstrates that abortion care can safely and effectively be regulated as a normal component of usual medical care.

Twelve years after abortion decriminalization in Mexico City: Can we still remain an island of liberties?

Latin America hosts the most restrictive abortion legislation globally. In 2007, Mexico, the second largest Catholic country in the world, decriminalized elective abortion within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy in the capital: Mexico City (also known as Federal District of Mexico). Following the reform, the Mexico City Ministry of Health (MX-MOH) implemented safe and legal services. Free services are provided to Mexico City residents and a sliding fee of up to $100 is applied to women from other Mexican states. Conscientious objection (CO) was addressed and included in service provision guidelines. Since 2007, 18 of 32 states amended their penal codes to restrict abortion. The road toward increasing access to abortion services at the MX-MOH included a shift from dilation and curettage (D&C) to medical abortion (MA), first with the misoprostol-alone regimen, followed by the combined mifepristone-misoprostol regimen. Manual vacuum aspiration is offered to out-of-state-women or to those beyond the gestational age where MA is less effective. Contraceptive uptake among abortion seekers is high (up to 95% of them prefer a free method of their choice). The Legal Interruption of Pregnancy program at the MX-MOH continues to provide effective, safe, reliable, and free services. However, women from indigenous groups residing in rural areas, those with low schooling, and adolescents with an unintended pregnancy who live in rural, urban, peri-urban districts, and at the state level are underserved despite being legally eligible to receive abortion services. Therefore, information and services for the disadvantaged groups need to be strengthened.

Conflicting abortion laws in India: Unintended barriers to safe abortion for adolescent girls.

This article examines the laws related to abortion in India, demonstrating how conflicting laws create unintended barriers to safe abortion for adolescent girls. It focuses specifically on the situation of adolescent girls seeking abortion, showcasing the unintended consequences that arise from the existing lack of clarity in the legal regime. The article also discusses the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Role of Reproductive Justice Movements in Challenging South Korea's Abortion Ban.

This paper examines how issues related to abortion have historically been influenced by population control policies in South Korea and how the contemporary reproductive justice movement in South Korea has contributed to social change. On April 11, 2019, South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled that the ban on abortion was unconstitutional. As a result, South Korea's legislature must revise the 66-year-old anti-abortion law by December 31, 2020. This historic decision was closely related to the advocacy of a number of feminist groups, doctors' organizations, disability rights groups, youth activists, and religious groups in South Korea, who collectively formed the Joint Action for Reproductive Justice (Joint Action) in 2017. This paper describes the activism and actions of Joint Action as a key part of reproductive justice movements in Korea. Joint Action was initiated by an organization for women with disabilities, and once formed, they worked collectively to frame abortion as a social justice issue that goes beyond the pro-choice versus pro-life binary. By focusing on the composition, strategies, and main agenda of Joint Action, this paper analyzes how Joint Action influenced the Constitutional Court's 2019 decision to decriminalize abortion in South Korea and how the court established that it is the government's responsibility to ensure every individual's reproductive health and rights.

Abortion in Chile: The Long Road to Legalization and its Slow Implementation.

Until as recently as September 2017, Chile was one of the few countries in the world that did not permit abortion under any circumstances. Although the Health Code had permitted therapeutic abortion (i.e., on health grounds) from 1931, this was repealed in 1989 as one of General Pinochet's last acts in office. It took more than 25 years to reverse the ban. Finally, a new act was approved allowing abortion on three grounds: when a woman's life is in danger, when there are fetal anomalies incompatible with life, and in the case of rape. Since the law allows abortion only in limited cases, most women must continue to seek illegal abortions, as previously. In this paper, we explore the historical context in which Chile's 2017 bill was finally passed. We then analyze the legislative debate leading up to the passage of the law. Lastly, we present the results of a community-based participatory research effort carried out by an alliance between feminist and human rights organizations. Chile's law was passed almost two years ago, and this research shows the persistence of various obstacles that hinder women's access to legal abortion, such as the use of conscientious objection, a lack of trained health care providers, and a lack information for women.

The Gambia's Political Transition to Democracy: Is Abortion Reform Possible?

The aim of this paper is to assess The Gambia's laws on abortion. It argues that the restrictive laws on abortion are less a function of religious doctrine and more due to the historical and contemporary structure of the Gambian state, influenced by autocratic rule. As such, the current shift from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one suggests that there may be potential for legal mobilization in the advancement of women's sexual and reproductive rights, including broadening the legal grounds for abortion. In order to achieve the right to safe abortion, the article suggests that a critical mass of support through collaborative networking between parliamentarians, health professionals, human rights activists, the media, and women's rights supporters is needed. Advocacy for expanding the grounds for safe abortion would be premised on international norms and standards, as well as support for research on the magnitude of unsafe abortion and its impact, while addressing the sociocultural context. These different strategies should be adopted to expand access to safe, legal abortion in The Gambia.

Who Was Afraid of Pregnancy Tests? Gestational Information and Reproduction Policies in France (1920-50).

Though resulting from a long-term process, the need to manage pregnancies both medically and bureaucratically became a state concern, especially from the 1920s onwards. A woman's official obligation to notify the state of her pregnancy (and therefore to know it on time) goes beyond a matter of biopolicies and poses a range of contradictions. 'Pregnant or not?' - as an issue of knowledge - is a powerful tool for apprehending the tensions between individual freedom, privacy, institutional requirements and professional powers.In order to better understand the historical meaning of pregnancy diagnostics in mid-twentieth-century France, this paper combines three dimensions: uncertainty and its management; the informational asymmetry between institutional agents and women; and the diachronic dimension of gestation. Writing this history sheds more light on an apparent paradox: while knowing and notifying one's own pregnancy became a duty, the tools that could help women eliminate some doubt right from the first months of their pregnancy - in particular the innovation of laboratory diagnosis - was seen as a danger. When, in 1938, private laboratories began publishing advertisements for the laboratory test in the most widely-read newspapers, tending to reframe it as a commercial service, the anti-abortion crusade was increasing its propaganda and its political pressure. This crusade's legal victory proved incomplete, but for a long time some of the most conservative physicians recommended great parsimony in prescribing testing. Combined with reducing the legal time limit for notification, this conflict shows how the state injunctions towards women could look like a 'double bind'.