Even where abortions are legal in some cases, medical training and resources to manage patients with abortion complications are often inadequate. A study at two Egyptian hospitals revealed serious shortcomings in the care of patients suffering from incomplete abortions. Study interventions included an intensive training program for physicians, who learned to perform manual vacuum aspiration, a safer method of uterine evacuation, combined with local anesthesia. Physicians also were instructed in infection prevention practices and learned how to provide patients with information about medical follow-up and family planning services. This effort promises to decrease the risk of death, disease, and disability resulting from abortion complications in Egypt, and could serve as a model for similar initiatives in other developing countries.
Critics accuse fundamentalists of invoking theological rhetoric to rationalize political repression.
Muslim law, however liberally interpreted, is not sufficient to ensure women's reproductive rights. Rather, these rights must be based on a bedrock of universal human rights standards as articulated in such documents as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Council scientists are developing a synthetic androgen known by its acronym, MENT, as a testosterone replacement. This article debates the virtues of having more user-controlled methods that may be less reliable, compared with using more reliable methods than can be provided in a coercive way. The goal must be to expand the contraceptive choices of women and men by making available a range of methods in a voluntary, ethically responsible manner.