Understandings of self-managed abortion as health inequity, harm reduction and social change

Authors

Joanna Erdman, Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law
K. Jelinska
S. Yanow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

Keywords

Health Law and Policy, self-managed abortion (SMA), health inequities, human rights and collective activism

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.

Comments

From Selected Works of Joanna N. Erdman

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 RHM 13-19.

Publication Abbreviation

RHM