Abstracts
Abstract
Safe abortion access is an essential aspect of reproductive justice and key to reducing global rates of maternal mortality, yet within the global health enterprise, the rhetoric of sexual and reproductive health and rights has not yet been realized in practice. Access to safe legal abortion remains inequitable globally and within nations, and deaths due to unsafe abortion take their highest toll in the Global South in jurisdictions with restrictive laws. Clandestine abortion access activist networks have been filling this gap for decades offering life, dignity and futures to the people who seek their services. What should we make of clandestine activist networks around the world that help people access medication abortion? Such groups have been important players in women’s reproductive health in many jurisdictions for decades but have typically, by necessity and design, flown under the radar. If visibility, accountability and humanitarian appeal are essential characteristics of global health work, how do we acknowledge and understand the work of clandestine abortion access activist networks? Does it count as global health? In this essay I take up the notion of “critique in action” (Biehl 2016) to further an understanding of the work of such networks and also consider the idea of abortion access activist networks as an anti-regime of global health.
Keywords:
- medication abortion,
- global health,
- global maternal health,
- pharmaceutical activism,
- sexual and reproductive health and rights,
- unsafe abortion,
- Women on Waves
Résumé
L’accès à l’avortement en toute sécurité est un aspect essentiel de la justice en matière de procréation et une clef pour réduire les taux mondiaux de mortalité maternelle. Pourtant, au sein de l’entreprise mondiale de la santé, la rhétorique de la santé et des droits sexuels et reproductifs ne s’est pas encore concrétisée dans la pratique. L’accès à un avortement légal et sécuritaire reste inégal à l’échelle mondiale et au sein des nations, et les décès dus à des avortements pratiqués dans des conditions dangereuses sont plus nombreux dans les pays du Sud, dans des juridictions ayant des lois restrictives. Des réseaux clandestins de militants pour l’accès à l’avortement comblent cette lacune depuis des décennies en offrant la vie, la dignité et l’avenir aux personnes qui font appel à leurs services. Que devons-nous penser des réseaux militants clandestins qui, dans le monde entier, aident les gens à accéder à l’avortement médicamenteux ? Depuis des décennies, ces groupes jouent un rôle important dans la santé reproductive des femmes dans de nombreux pays, mais ils sont généralement passés inaperçus, volontairement et intentionnellement. Si la visibilité, la responsabilité et la vocation humanitaire sont des caractéristiques essentielles au domanine de la santé mondiale, comment reconnaître et comprendre le travail des réseaux clandestins de militants pour l’accès à l’avortement ? S’agit-il d’un travail de santé mondiale ? Dans cet essai, je reprends la notion de « critique en action » (Biehl 2016) pour mieux comprendre le travail de ces réseaux et je considère également l’idée des réseaux militants pour l’accès à l’avortement comme un anti-régime de santé mondiale.
Mots-clés :
- avortement médicamenteux,
- santé mondiale,
- santé maternelle mondiale,
- activisme pharmaceutique,
- santé sexuelles et droits,
- santé reproductive et droits,
- avortement à risque,
- Women on Waves
Appendices
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