Understandings of Self-Managed Abortion as Health Inequity, Harm Reduction and Social Change

Authors

Joanna Erdman, Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law
Kinga Jelinska, Women Help Women
Susan Yanow, Women Help Women

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

Keywords

Self-Managed Abortion, Medical Abortion, Health Inequities, Harm Reduction, Social Change, Human Rights, Health System Reform, Reproductive Health

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 realization of sexual and reproductive health and human rights.

Comments

https://doi.org/10.1080/09688080.2018.1511769

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Joanna N Erdman, Kinga Jelinska, &Susan Yanow, "Understandings of Self-Managed Abortion as Health Inequity, Harm Reduction and Social Change" (2018) 26:54 Reproductive Health Matters 13.