["Humanized childbirth and the right to choose:" analysis of a public hearing in Rio de Janeiro]. / "Parto humanizado e o direito da escolha": análise de uma audiência pública no Rio de Janeiro.

This work uses a field survey to analyze a plenary session of the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly entitled "Humanized childbirth and the right to choose." Understanding this as a political space for conflicts of knowledge pertaining to the areas of medicine, nursing, and legislature, we consider the content of this session and discourses of power/knowledge surrounding the female body and reproduction. The article explores tensions around the political struggle for "humanized childbirth" via demands made by the Regional Council of Nursing. We also address the history of the medicalization of childbirth and the role of nurses, professionals specialized in low-risk births (obstetrizes), and midwives in this process.

O trabalho analisa, por meio de pesquisa de campo, uma plenária da Assembleia Legislativa do Rio de Janeiro, "Parto humanizado e o direito da escolha". Entendendo esse como um espaço político de conflitos dos saberes da área médica, da enfermagem e do Legislativo, é ponderado o conteúdo da plenária com os discursos de saber/poder acerca do corpo feminino e de sua reprodução. O artigo explora as tensões em torno da luta política pelo "parto humanizado" a partir de demandas feitas pelo Conselho Regional de Enfermagem. É abordada também a história da medicalização do parto e o papel das enfermeiras, obstetrizes e parteiras nesse processo.

"Parto humanizado e o direito da escolha": análise de uma audiência pública no Rio de Janeiro / "Humanized childbirth and the right to choose: " analysis of a public hearing in Rio de Janeiro

Resumo O trabalho analisa, por meio de pesquisa de campo, uma plenária da Assembleia Legislativa do Rio de Janeiro, "Parto humanizado e o direito da escolha". Entendendo esse como um espaço político de conflitos dos saberes da área médica, da enfermagem e do Legislativo, é ponderado o conteúdo da plenária com os discursos de saber/poder acerca do corpo feminino e de sua reprodução. O artigo explora as tensões em torno da luta política pelo "parto humanizado" a partir de demandas feitas pelo Conselho Regional de Enfermagem. É abordada também a história da medicalização do parto e o papel das enfermeiras, obstetrizes e parteiras nesse processo.

Abstract This work uses a field survey to analyze a plenary session of the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly entitled "Humanized childbirth and the right to choose." Understanding this as a political space for conflicts of knowledge pertaining to the areas of medicine, nursing, and legislature, we consider the content of this session and discourses of power/knowledge surrounding the female body and reproduction. The article explores tensions around the political struggle for "humanized childbirth" via demands made by the Regional Council of Nursing. We also address the history of the medicalization of childbirth and the role of nurses, professionals specialized in low-risk births (obstetrizes), and midwives in this process.

Understanding abortion-related stigma and incidence of unsafe abortion: experiences from community members in Machakos and Trans Nzoia counties Kenya.

INTRODUCTION: The rate of unsafe abortions in Kenya has increased from 32 per 1000 women of reproductive age in 2002 to 48 per 1000 women in 2012. This is one of the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2010, Kenya changed its Constitution to include a more enabling provision regarding the provision of abortion services. Abortion-related stigma has been identified as a key driver in silencing women's ability to reproductive choice leading to seeking to unsafe abortion. We sought to explore abortion-related stigma at the community level as a barrier to women realizing their rights to a safe, legal abortion and compare manifestations of abortion stigma at two communities from regions with high and low incidence of unsafe abortion. METHODS: A qualitative study using 26 focus group discussions with general community members in Machakos and Trans Nzoia Counties. We used thematic and content analysis to analyze and compare community member's responses regarding abortion-related stigma. RESULTS: Although abortion is recognized as being very common within communities, community members expressed various ways that stigmatize women seeking an abortion. This included being labeled as killers and are perceived to be a bad influence for women especially young women. Women reported that they were poorly treated by health providers in health facilities for seeking abortion especially young unmarried women. Institutionalization of stigma especially when Ministry of Health withdrew of standards and guidelines only heightened how stigma presents at the facilities and drives women seeking an abortion to traditional birth attendants who offer unsafe abortions leading to increased morbidity and mortality as a result of abortion-related complications. CONCLUSION: Community members located in counties in regions with high incidence of unsafe abortion also reported higher levels of how they would stigmatize a woman seeking an abortion compared to community members from counties in low incidence region. Young unmarried women bore the brunt of being stigmatized. They reported a lack of a supportive environment that provides guidance on correct information on how to prevent unwanted pregnancy and where to get help. Abortion-related stigma plays a major role in women's decision on whether to have a safe or unsafe abortion.

[ABORTION AND CHARTER FOR THE EMBRYO BETWEEN THE ANCIENT WORLD AND THE THIRD MILLENNIUM]. / DARE VOCE AI NON-NATI: ABORTO E STATUTO GIURIDICO DELL'EMBRIONE TRA TRADIZIONE IPPOCRATICA E DIRITTO CONTEMPORANEO.

In 2012 the Italian Court of Cassation recognized a young woman the right not to be born and a compensation for her Down's syndrome. Before her birth, her parents asked their gynaecologist for abortion in case he had found any patology affecting the baby. The clinical tests didn't reveal the syndrome, so, after the baby's birth, the doctor was sued for damages. A similar case had occurred in France, where the High Court affirmed that constitution is based on the right to live, not to die. A debate was opened, in which the hippocratic oath has been used to support the pro vita position. This article focuses on whether, when and why the hippocratic tradition allows abortion; when and by whom the embryo was considered to be a human being; if, according to the few sources we have, a charter for the embryo existed in ancient times.

Managing diversity and European policy: Towards a typology for sport pedagogy.

This article adds to the growing body of knowledge in sport pedagogy and focuses specifically upon the intersection of gender and disability. Its purpose is twofold, to create a typology for examining good practice in sport pedagogy that is reflective and inclusive and raises awareness of the diverse needs of all participants in physical activity 'regardless' of gender and ability for all children. We acknowledge that access to physical activity, education and sport are complex and multifaceted, however, the main purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of 'diversity' by focusing specifically upon the role of gender and ability. Through an examination of gender and disability policies in official European Union (EU) policy documents and commercial examples of policy-in-practice we propose a typology for diversity and diversity management. A close look at EU level is instructive because national policies of the member countries vary a lot with respect to diversity issues but should be in accordance in the main areas. Such a reading enables the building of a typology of recommendations for how such policy can be rendered in sport pedagogy practice. We suggest six significant, but related principles that include (1) mainstreaming; (2) teaching and coaching sensitive to difference; (3) empowerment; (4) inclusion; (5) adaptation; and (6) inner differentiation. This holistic typology seeks to 'mainstream' issues of gender and disability policy by providing a set of principles that can be applied to a range of teaching and coaching settings.

The "invention" of lesbian acts in Iran: interpretative moves, hidden assumptions, and emerging categories of sexuality.

This article describes and explains the current official status of lesbianism in Iran. Our central question is why the installation of an Islamic government in Iran resulted in extreme regulations of sexuality. The authors argue that rather than a clear adoption of "Islamic teaching on lesbianism," the current regime of sexuality was "invented" through a series of interpretative moves, adoption of hidden assumptions, and creation of sexual categories. This article is organized into two sections. The first sets the scene of official sexuality in Iran through a summary of (1) the sections of the Iranian Penal code dealing with same-sex acts and (2) government support for sexual reassignment surgeries. The second section traces the "invention" of a dominant post-revolutionary Iranian view of Islam and sexuality through identifying a number of specific interpretive moves this view builds on.

Pink truck ads: second-wave feminism and gendered marketing.

Second-wave feminist media had a contentious relationship with corporate advertisers. This article uses automotive advertisements to explore the role of gender, class, and race in the construction of consumer markets from the 1970s through the 1980s. It analyzes the struggle of Gloria Steinem and other liberal feminists to navigate the terrain between the women's movement and corporate advertisers. The increased economic power of women, stemming from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act as well as broader social and political shifts, facilitated their efforts. In the 1980s, automobiles continued to be marketed to women, albeit through "feminine" imagery conforming to the era's dominant trends.

Working through mass incarceration: gender and the politics of prison labor from east to west.

This article explores the politics and practices of labor in two penal institutions for women: a maximum security facility for women in Hungary and a community­based facility for women in California. Diverging from other accounts of imprisonment that tend to operate at either the individual or macroeconomic level, this article analyzes the concrete institutional relations of prison and complicates the assumption that they simply reflect the logic of the prison­industrial complex. Based on years of ethnographic work in two very different penal systems, I describe variation in how prisons institute labor within and across institutions and cultures: the Hungarian facility positioned wage labor as a right and an obligation that formed the basis of women's social relationships and ties to others, while the U.S. prison excluded wage labor from women's lives so they could get on with the work of self­improvement and personal healing. From the comparison, I reveal how prisons can both draw on and subvert broader social meanings assigned to women's work, making it difficult to view prison labor as wholly exploitative or abusive. I also argue that refusing to allow female inmates to engage in wage labor can be a more profound form of punishment than requiring it of them. By juxtaposing the discourses and practices of work in two very different penal contexts, this article offers a critical reflection on the political economy of prison labor from the ground up.

The mistress, the midwife, and the medical doctor: pregnancy and childbirth on the plantations of the antebellum American South, 1800-1860.

This article represents a step towards examining the relationship between three key figures in the antebellum American South: the plantation mistress, the slave-midwife, and the professional male physician. It elucidates how the experiences of pregnancy and childbirth, which brought women close to death, formed the basis of a deeper, positive relationship between the black and white women of the antebellum South, and assesses the ways in which the professionalization of medicine affected this reproductive bond. Evaluating such a complicated network of relationships necessitates dissecting numerous layers of social interaction, including black and white women's shared cultural experiences and solidarity as reproductive beings; the role, power, and significance of slave-midwives and other enslaved caretakers in white plantation births; the cooperation between pregnant bondswomen and plantation mistresses; and the impact that the burgeoning profession of medicine had on the procreative union between antebellum black and white women.

Prophecy, patriarchy, and violence in the early modern household: the revelations of Anne Wentworth.

In 1676 the apostate Baptist prophet Anne Wentworth (1629/30-1693?) published "A True Account of Anne Wentworths Being Cruelly, Unjustly, and Unchristianly Dealt with by Some of Those People called Anabaptists," the first in a series of pamphlets that would continue to the end of the decade. Orignially a member of a London Baptist church, Wentworth left the congregation and eventually her own home after her husband used physical force to stop her writing and prophesying. Yet Wentworth persisted in her "revelations." These prophecies increasingly focused on her response to those who were trying to stop her efforts, especially within her own household. This article examines Wentworth's writings as an effort by an early modern woman, using arguments of spiritual agency, to assert ideas about proper gender roles and household responsibilities to denounce her husband and rebut those who criticized and attempted to suppress her.

"What's the problem?": Australian public policy constructions of domestic and family violence.

The campaign of feminists to have domestic violence formally acknowledged as a key issue affecting Australian women succeeded in the early 1980s when governments began developing policy seeking to address the problem. Far from simply adopting feminist gendered understandings of domestic violence, however, the development of contemporary policy responses to this issue has been influenced by a number of competing discourses about the problem, its causes, and possible solutions. Drawing on Bacchi's policy analysis approach, the authors compare the discursive constructions of domestic violence inherent in how the issue is named, framed, and defined across contemporary Australian policy documents.

The right to health of prisoners in international human rights law.

This paper explores the health rights of prisoners as defined in international law, and the mechanisms that have been used to ensure the rights of persons in detention to realise the highest attainable standard of health. It examines this right as articulated within United Nations and regional human rights treaties, non-binding or so-called soft law instruments from international organisations and the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies. It explores the use of economic, social and cultural rights mechanisms, and those within civil and political rights, as they engage the right to health of prisoners, and identifies the minimum legal obligations of governments in order to remain compliant with human rights norms as defined within the international case law. In addressing these issues, this article adopts a holistic approach to the definition of the highest attainable standard of health. This includes a consideration of adequate standards of general medical care, including preventative health and mental health services. It also examines the question of environmental health, and those poor conditions of detention that may exacerbate health decline, disease transmission, mental illness or death. The paper examines the approach to prison health of the United Nations human rights system and its various monitoring bodies, as well as the regional human rights systems in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Based upon this analysis, the paper draws conclusions on the current fulfilment of the right to health of prisoners on an international scale, and proposes expanded mechanisms under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment to monitor and promote the health rights of prisoners at the international and domestic levels.

Sorcery and publicity: the Cadière-Girard scandal of 1730-1731.

The Cadière-Girard trial of 1730-1731 is an early example of a sensational, nationally publicized French trial in which the major parties were private individuals. Cadière, a female penitent, accused Girard, her Jesuit confessor, of bewitching and raping her; Girard claimed that Cadière was guilty of slander. It was to be the last witchcraft trial in the francophone world. Another notable feature of the trial was its publicity, in which the contesting parties almost immediately became stand-ins for the Society of Jesus and for its Jansenist adversaries. This paper argues that certain anti-Jesuits, particularly Cadière's defence team and in the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence, acted to prolong the trial with the aim of creating as much bad publicity as possible for the Society of Jesus; it also shows how Jansenist publicists took advantage of the lengthy process, creating literature that "burned Girard in spirit," and with him, the Jesuits as a whole.

The history of abortion-related acts and current issues in Japan.

In Japan abortion is categorized into two types by law; one is illegal feticide and the other is legal abortion. The present criminal law forbids feticide in principle and the life of a fetus is protected. However, abortion can be practiced under the "Eugenic Protection Act" established in 1948 (currently referred to as the "Maternal Protection Act"), and is readily available in Japan. In this paper, I have traced the historical origins of abortion law and attempted to clarify the problems related to the current laws relating to artificial abortion. As a result, the existence of contradictions between attitudes toward the life of the fetus and that of the mother, women's right to self determination, and women's rights under current legislation has been clarified.

Restoring rape survivors: justice, advocacy, and a call to action.

Rape results in mental and physical health, social, and legal consequences. For the latter, restorative justice-based programs might augment community response, but they generate controversy among advocates and policy makers. This article identifies survivors' needs and existing community responses to them. Survivors feel their legal needs are most poorly met due to justice system problems that can be summarized as attrition, retraumatization, and disparate treatment across gender, class, and ethnic lines. Empirical data support each problem and the conclusion that present justice options are inadequate. The article concludes by identifying common ground in advocacy and restorative justice goals and calls for a holistic approach to the needs of rape survivors that includes advocating for expanded justice alternatives. A call to action is issued to implement restorative alternatives to expand survivor choice and offender accountability. Conventional and restorative justice are often viewed as mutually exclusive whereas the author argues they are complementary.

Teresa Urrea: Mexican mystic, healer, and apocalyptic revolutionary.

This article is a study of the mystical and apocalyptic dimensions of Teresa Urrea. As explained in this article, Urrea's mystical experiences and visions are unique for their connection with a propheticapocalyptic and political worldview. This apocalyptic dimension is more than a communication of a hidden message or spiritual world; it also includes a reading of history that is catastrophic and discontinuous. The crisis and terror of history are given expression in Urrea's mystical and apocalyptic pronouncements. In particular, the chaotic and oppressive circumstances of Mexican society during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz was confronted and denounced in Urrea's mystical and apocalyptic ministry. This apocalyptic healer castigated those culpable or even complicit with the injustices affecting the indigenous communities of Mexico during the late nineteenth century. In the case of Urrea, the transformation and healing of Church and society was an important aspect of her spiritual, healing powers. Because Urrea possessed neither arms nor the weapon of the pen, her sole weapon became her mystical experiences and the insight and healing powers that flowed from them. People of Mexico­especially indigenous groups­began to flock to her hoping that she would bring God's presence to the troubled and chaotic circumstances of their lives. Her compassion and tenderness for the afflicted as well as the apocalyptic expectations that she stirred up among the indigenous groups of Northern Mexico were enough to get this mystical-political Mexican mestiza exiled from her homeland.