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[Adolescence, sexuality, and reproduction: cultural constructions, normative controversies, and interpretative alternatives].

This research note discusses the cultural and legal constructs referring to the sexual and reproductive rights of adolescents. Beginning with the expansion of human rights to include the prerogatives of children and adolescents, a veritable change occurred in the way families, society, and communities are expected to deal with these stages in life. Despite recent positive and progressive changes in legislation and healthcare for this age group, Brazil and other countries still experience difficulties in enforcing and interpreting the specific legislation, especially in dealing with teenage sexuality and reproduction. This article discusses possible alternatives and attempts to demonstrate that such legal reforms are not indispensable, since it is possible to weigh ethical and legal principles and then develop an interpretation that ensures the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights by adolescents.

Adolescent↗

[The experience in Uruguay: the Bill for the Defense of Reproductive Health].

This article reports on the recent Uruguayan experience with the debate on sexual and reproductive rights. While the Bill for the Defense of Reproductive Health did not pass in the Senate, both the prior process and the subsequent impacts have been relevant, generating a social debate that is still incipient but has involved the mass media, academia, and the political parties and spawning a discussion that has involved both houses of Congress for the first time. Within this context, an outstanding role has been played by NGOs devoted to the defense of women's rights (especially sexual and reproductive), who established a coordinating body that included the trade union movement, which supported the bill. The debate also led to international ties that projected it beyond the country's borders. The article briefly reviews the background and basis for the bill, the research it entailed, and the international commitments assumed by Uruguay, before concluding with a summary of the bill itself and the challenges it poses in terms of sexual and reproductive rights, specifically with regard to voluntary interruption of pregnancy.

Abortion, Illegal↗

Effect of the Human Genome Initiative on women's rights and reproductive decisions.

The Human Genome Project is likely to exacerbate historic tendencies to balance demographic concerns on the backs of women. This kind of policy is unjustified in law and violates classic theories of justice. Reproductive decision making, which affects women personally, is not the legitimate domain of community concern or manipulation.

Abortion, Eugenic↗

Contesting contraceptive innovation--reinventing the script.

The article describes how the merging of Southern and Northern women's health groups resulted in a powerful transnational movement, with a collective oppositional identity based on shared solidarity in campaigns for reproductive rights and against state coercion in reproductive matters. It focuses on the ways in which the movement framed issues of rights and safety and pointed to the possible abuse potential of two new longer-acting contraceptive technologies, Norplant and the anti-fertility vaccines. The contestations by women's health advocates resulted in the emergence of a strong commitment among scientists to involve women's health advocates in the development and introduction of new contraceptive technologies. By engaging in the construction of safety and efficacy claims, and by outlining conditions for the introduction of the new technologies (so-called introduction scripts) women's health advocates were able to reinscribe the technologies with representations of bodily integrity and reproductive rights, rather than population control. I argue that a split within the women's health movement on the need to ban the new technologies did not weaken its impact, but, in fact, enhanced this success. I describe, in detailed case studies on the Norplant and Anti-fertility vaccine controversies, how both strands of women's health advocacy claim to be able to represent the interest of users, but that their representations of users differ. The 'no-to-Norplant' and 'no-to-anti-fertility' vaccines strands see users as victims of a state-led medical establishment enabled power, which is inscribed in the technology. The more moderate strand of activism argue that women's interests and needs differ from one setting to another, and that they are best met by making available to women a range of contraceptive options which allow for a free and informed choice.

Adult↗

[Reproduction and sexuality in HIV-positive women, Brazil].

OBJECTIVE: To assess sexual and reproductive health needs of HIV-positive women and factors that affect their access to prevention, safer sex practices and treatment and to appraise their ability of making informed choices concerning motherhood. METHODS: This exploratory study was conducted among women of an outpatient clinic in a reference center for STD/AIDS in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, in 1997. A consecutive non-probabilistic sample of 148 HIV-positive women was investigated. The exclusion criteria included those aged under 18 years and who were physically unable. Data were collected using structured interviews. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square test and t-test. RESULTS: The participants' mean age was 32 years old. As for education, 92 women (62.2%) had completed elementary school and 12.2% had attended university. The median number of lifetime sexual partners was 4, and half of the interviewees were still sexually active after diagnosed HIV-positive. Of the total, 76% had children and 21% were still thinking about having children in future. Having many children, alive and living with their mothers were determinant factors for not wanting any more children. It was found no association between wanting children, risk perception, partner's serologic status, contraceptive use and other factors. After getting HIV infected, there was a substantial change in the contraceptive methods used. CONCLUSIONS: HIV infection did not change women's desire for having children. HIV-positive women's sexual and reproductive rights need to be discussed and respected in health care settings. Compliance to medication and safe sex practices are essential but difficult to meet requiring both counseling and support. Couples' counseling on reproductive choices is important for preventing infection of negative partners. Supportive services that promote open discussions of the sexual and reproductive rights of HIV-positive women are urgently needed.

Adult↗

Frozen life's dominion: extending reproductive autonomy rights to in vitro fertilization.

Lawyers and judges faced with a contemporary constitutional issue must try to construct a coherent, principled, and persuasive interpretation of the text of particular clauses, the structure of the Constitution as a whole, and our history under the Constitution--an interpretation that both unifies these distinct sources, so far as this is possible, and directs future adjudication. They must seek, that is, constitutional integrity.

Civil Rights↗

Tubal ligation candidates who did not get their operation.

OBJECTIVE: To identify bottlenecks in the delivery of comprehensive family planning to women in contact with the Health Services and to find ways to reduce unmet demand for contraception. DESIGN: Exploratory descriptive study. SETTING: Large Bulawayo Government Hospital and the high density areas in the same city. SUBJECTS: Case notes of 284 women who indicated together with their partners that they had completed families and who had their tubal ligation forms duly signed but who never had their operation. Follow up of a sample of patients. INTERVENTIONS: Non intervention study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Are reproductive rights taken seriously? Is there service related unmet demand for family planning. RESULTS: Even those who had all their paperwork in order for a durante or post partum sterilization did not have any guarantee that this service would be given. The main reason was found to be lack of well motivated health staff. CONCLUSION: Much can be improved in contraceptive service delivery. Reproductive rights are not respected.

Adult↗

Dispersal of first "workers" in social wasps: causes and implications of an alternative reproductive strategy.

Many "workers" in north temperate colonies of the eusocial paper wasp Polistes fuscatus disappear within a few days of eclosion. We provide evidence that these females are pursuing an alternative reproductive strategy, i.e., dispersing to overwinter and become nest foundresses the following spring, instead of helping to rear brood on their natal nests. A female is most likely to stay and help at the natal nest (i.e., least likely to disperse) when it is among the first workers to emerge and when it emerges on a nest with more pupae (even though worker-brood relatedness tends to be lower in such colonies). The latter cause may result from the fact that pupae-laden nests are especially likely to survive, and thus any direct or indirect reproductive payoffs for staying and working are less likely to be lost. Disappearing females are significantly smaller than predicted if dispersal tendency was independent of body size (emergence order-controlled), suggesting that the females likely to be most effective at challenging for reproductive rights within the natal colony (i.e., the largest females) are also most likely to stay. Thus, early dispersal is conditional on a female's emergence order, the maturity of its natal nest, and its body size. Finally, we present evidence that foundresses may actively limit the sizes of first-emerging females, perhaps to decrease the probability that the latter can effectively challenge foundresses for reproductive rights. The degree to which foundresses limit the size of first-emerging females accords well with the predictions of the theory of staying incentives.

Animals↗

Control of centrosome reproduction: the right number at the right time.

It is of great importance for the cell to precisely coordinate the doubling of the interphase centrosome with nuclear events during the cell cycle and limit the number of centrosomes it contains at the onset of mitosis to two and only two. The penalties for mistakes are abnormal spindle assembly, inappropriate chromosome distribution, and consequently, genomic instability. We review the functional properties of the mechanisms that control when the centrosome duplicates in the cell cycle and the controls for centrosome copy number. We look to limits that are intrinsic to the centrosome itself and controls imposed by cell cycle linked changes in cytoplasmic conditions. Control of centrosome reproduction is exercised at both levels.

Animals↗

[Challenges facing Caribbean countries 10 years after the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt].

At the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) that was held in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994, participants acknowledged that population, economic growth, and sustainable development are concepts that are closely linked, and important strides were made in terms of increased recognition of sexual and reproductive rights. The Programme of Action ratified at that Conference was adopted as a platform for designing national and international policies in the areas of population and development for a period of twenty years. However, in Latin America and the Caribbean all types of obstacles-financial, institutional, and human-still stand in the way of attaining the goals of the Programme of Action, and some governments have established measures that undermine their people's exercise of sexual and reproductive rights. The Caribbean Subregional Meeting to Assess the Implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 10 Years after its Adoption was held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in November of 2003. At the meeting, which was attended by representatives from 20 Caribbean countries and territories, a call was made for more rational use of available resources and for mobilization of additional funds for developing and implementing population and development programs and policies in the Caribbean. The meeting also saw the approval of the Caribbean Declaration, which lays out the challenges that should serve as the roadmap for taking actions to consolidate the progress achieved so far and come closer to attaining the goals established by the ICPD. In the Declaration, the countries and territories of the Caribbean asserted their commitment to continue legislative reforms at the national level while seeking to enforce these reforms in an effort to ensure implementation of the ICPD's Programme of Action and of the Caribbean Plan of Action for Population and Development that was adopted in 1996 by the Economic Community for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Caribbean Region↗

Organising and financing for sexual and reproductive health and rights: the perspective of an NGO activist turned donor.

This paper is a reflection on some of the successess and challenges that followed in the aftermath of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Cairo, 1994, and the capacity of civil society and of donors to address them. It is written with two voices--from my experience as an NGO activist for sexual and reproductive rights since the early 1980s and my experience as a programme officer for a donor for the last 18 months. It calls for a focus on implementation of services within public health and education systems, the need to deepen the capacities of activists and build new leaders, and the value of alliances with other movements whose goals are also being challenged by macro-economic forces and fundamentalist movements. At national level, I suggest three major goals: monitoring public sector spending, strengthening public health system capacity for implementation, and advocacy and community organisation to enable shifts in public understanding of sexual and reproductive rights. Lastly, as regards funding, it calls for dialogue about funding issues between NGOs and donors, for donors to increase national capacity development in the global south and for all those committed to change in relation to sexual and reproductive health and rights to commit themselves for the long haul, given the slow pace of change.

Financing, Organized↗

Women's status and child well-being: a state-level analysis.

We conducted an ecologic analysis of the relation between women's status and child well-being in the 50 United States. State-level women's status was assessed via four composite indices: women's political participation, economic autonomy, employment and earnings, and reproductive rights. Child well-being was measured via five outcomes: percentage of low birthweight babies, infant mortality, teen mortality, high school dropout rate, and teen birth rate. Higher state-level women's status on all indicators was associated with significantly better state-level child well-being in unadjusted analyses. Several associations remained significant after adjusting for income inequality and state racial composition. Women's political participation was associated with a significantly lower percentage of low birthweight babies (p<.001) and lower teen birth rates (p<.05). Women's employment and earnings was associated with lower infant mortality (p<.05) and teen birth rates (p<.05). More economic and social autonomy for women was associated with better child outcomes on all measures (p<.01 all). Greater reproductive rights were associated with significantly lower infant mortality (p<.01). We conclude that child well-being is worse in states where women have lower political, economic, and social status. Women's status is an important aspect of children's social context which may impact their well-being. Multi-level analyses of the association between state-level women's status and child well-being are needed.

Child↗