Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Every year in America, nurses provide care to 1.5 million women before during and after abortions. While the procedure continues to be legal, the experience for women often remains secret, unshared and unexplored. A grounded theory approach was used to explore women's perceptions of the abortion experience and to investigate the processes women use to create meaning from the abortion experience over time. Parse's Man-Living-Health Model provided a theoretical orientation for this research. Subjects included six nulliparous women aged 25 to 37 who experienced a legal abortion between 1 and 12 years ago. Using grounded theory methodology, a phenomenon of Integrating Ambivalence was developed to describe the circular process by which women are reminded of the abortion experience, and re-evaluate their decision within the context of their lives. Using a variety of strategies, the women moved toward increasing integration of the experience while remaining, to varying degrees, ambivalent about the abortion decision and its consequences.

This thesis seeks to understand the various forces that have shaped the form, content, utilization and emergence of abortion narratives--both within a historical context and for political value. By comparing the themes that emerge within and across three sets of narratives--anti-abortion narratives, pre-Roe narratives that support abortion rights, and post-Roe abortion-rights narratives--and by identifying both gaps and influxes in the use of narratives, this thesis argues that the content and utilization of abortion narratives is directly connected to broader discursive strategies and political ideologies of reproductive rights organizations.

This thesis takes an innovative approach to examining health care policy by applying the concept of policy drift to the issue of access to abortion across Canada through analyzing three explanations: the structure of Canadian federalism, women’s organizations, and rights litigation. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that section 251 of the Criminal Code of Canada was unconstitutional in R v. Morgentaler (1988). Section 251 forced women to secure the approval of a panel of medical experts in order to gain legal consent to seek an abortion. As a result of this decision, women are now able to undergo a therapeutic abortion procedure without facing criminal sanctions. However, the issue of equitable access to abortion services across Canada is still unresolved. For example, women living in Prince Edward Island have to travel out of province at their own expense to undergo an abortion procedure. Meanwhile, women in Ontario are able to undergo an abortion procedure at a number of hospitals and private clinics with provincial insurance subsidizing the financial burdens. Abortion is a time-sensitive procedure and different from other health care procedures because it is also gender-sensitive. Findings within this thesis suggest that the model of Canadian federalism contributes to the inability of women’s organizations to gain audience from the federal government and inhibits the courts from assisting in expanding provincial access, which further facilitates policy drift. Recognizing policy drift concerning access to abortion is significant because it is an issue that involves gender equity at its core as well as discussions over what society deems is a right and what society deems is fair.

This paper proposes a judicial advocacy strategy aimed to challenge the constitutionality of the law that imposes an absolute prohibition of abortion in Chile. Examines the origin of the criminalization provisions in light to the constitutional mandate to protect the life of the unborn, presents an overview of the arguments used in the legislative to request the partial decriminalization of abortion, the tendency of the executive in the past years in this matter, and the criminal strategy that has been used in cases where women have been prosecuted by abortion, based on what has been intended so far the paper conclude a solicitude to declare unconstitutional the criminal abortion provisions because they do not protect the life of the unborn.

Abortion remains one of the most controversial sexual health topics and yet is a common experience for women around the world. Making sure that women are practicing safe abortions is integral to women’s sexual and reproductive health as well as their sexual rights. South Africa has one of the most progressive and liberal abortion laws in the world, yet women still face major barriers in accessing these services. Introducing medical abortion as another termination of pregnancy option could potentially save women’s lives, while reducing the number of unsafe abortions in South Africa. Medical abortion also contributes to fulfilling women’s sexual and reproductive rights, providing more choices to best suit their needs. In 2001, the South African Medicines Control Council (MCC) approved the use of mifepristone in conjunction with misoprostol for termination of pregnancy. Currently there is no formal national policy that allows for the provision of medical abortion in public health facilities, and the Department of Health is considering introducing it into the public sector. In order for any public health intervention to be successful it must be acceptable to potential clients and the context in which it is being implemented must be assessed. This study first looks at women’s attitudes toward abortion; following Eaton’s model of sexual behavior it examines the personal, proximal, and distal environments that influence reproductive decision-making, specifically regarding abortion. With this background information, the study then aims to assess women’s knowledge of medical abortion and whether or not they find it to be an acceptable method for the South African public health system and South African women. The findings suggest that there is a demand for medical abortion among this sample of women. The majority of women find medical abortion to be an acceptable method, and would choose it if they were ever faced with having to terminate a pregnancy. The overwhelming majority of women felt that medical abortion should be introduced into the public sector and efforts should be made to ensure that this method is affordable, accessible, and available for women in South Africa in order to expand their sexual and reproductive health rights. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

This paper proposes a judicial advocacy strategy aimed to challenge the constitutionality of the law that imposes an absolute prohibition of abortion in Chile. Examines the origin of the criminalization provisions in light to the constitutional mandate to protect the life of the unborn, presents an overview of the arguments used in the legislative to request the partial decriminalization of abortion, the tendency of the executive in the past years in this matter, and the criminal strategy that has been used in cases where women have been prosecuted by abortion, based on what has been intended so far the paper conclude a solicitude to declare unconstitutional the criminal abortion provisions because they do not protect the life of the unborn.

This thesis examines the theology of pregnancy within the Eastern Orthodox Church. In particular, it explores the understanding of the pregnant body as an image of the church, as well as the Orthodox view of biological pregnancy. Drawing upon some patristic sources, as well as the writings of contemporary Orthodox theologians including John Zizioulas, John Breck and Vigen Guroian, it reveals that, though the Orthodox Church opposes abortion, this opposition cannot be grounded in an appeal to the idea of the "rights of the foetus." This is because an emphasis upon the individual's "rights" undermines much of the Eastern Church's understanding of personhood. Rather, the Orthodox Church's opposition to abortion is grounded in a eucharistic approach to justice, and in its positive theology of pregnancy, wherein particular pregnancies within the church are contextualized by the pregnancy of Mary the mother of Christ, and therefore stand as an icon of the larger church body.

Bakgrund: Det ställs höga krav på sjuksköterskan som förväntas ge en god objektiv omvårdnad där förförståelse, egna värderingar och känslor inte ska påverka bemötandet i omvårdnaden. Allmänsjuksköterskans medverkan inom abortvården har utökats i takt med det ökade antalet medicinska aborter vilket medför ett betydligt större ansvar. Sjuksköterskans dilemma består i att ge god omvårdnad till kvinnan och även ansvara för omhändertagandet av fostret efter aborten. Etiska, moraliska och religiösa aspekter på abortvården har alltid funnits och det är ofta krävande för sjuksköterskan att navigera mellan att utöva sin profession, arbeta i enlighet med gällande abortlag och hantera sina etiska och moraliska ståndpunkter. Syfte: Att beskriva de etiska problem som sjuksköterskor ställs inför vid omvårdnaden av kvinnor som genomgår abort samt hur de hanterar och reflekterar kring sitt omvårdnadsansvar. Metod: Litteraturstudie bestående av tio artiklar med kvalitativ design samt kvalitetsgranskade enligt Friberg (2012). Resultat: I litteraturstudiens resultatdel behandlas frågor som vilka moraliska/etiska problem sjuksköterskan upplever inom abortvården samt sjuksköterskans erfarenheter av att hantera dessa och vilket stöd och vilka strategier som behövs i bearbetandet av svåra situationer inom abortvården. Studien resulterade i fyra huvudteman; Etiska aspekter vid avbrytande av graviditet, Faktorer som påverkar hur sjuksköterskan hanterar sitt omvårdnadsansvar, Strategier för att hantera omvårdnadsansvaret och Sjuksköterskans behov av stöd. Det framkom att sjuksköterskorna var i stort behov av att reflektera kring det många gånger krävande arbetet inom abortvården för att bevara sin egen hälsa samt i strävan efter att upprätthålla en god personcentrerad omvårdnad. Diskussion: Diskussionen utifrån de teman som framkom i resultatet fördes utifrån omvårdnadsteoretikern Peplaus (1991) teori om den interpersonliga processen mellan sjuksköterska och patient med stöd från Sherwins (1998) feministiska etik. Diskussionen fördes med fokus på hur ett feministiskt förhållningssätt och en interpersonlig relation mellan sjuksköterska och patient kan komma att förbättra vårdrelationen samt behandlar vikten av reflektion i samband med sjuksköterskors hantering av svåra upplevelser inom abortvården. / Background: Nurses are expected to provide care while neither preconceptions, own values, nor emotions effects caring relation. The general nurse´s role in abortion care has been increasing with the increased number of medical abortions, which puts a greater responsibility on nurses. The nurse´s dilemma is to provide high quality care to the women being at the same time responsible to take care of the fetus after the abortion. Ethical, moral and religious aspects of abortion care has always existed being a challenge to navigate between the exert of profession, current abortion law and ethical and moral positions.  Aim: To describe the ethical problems that nurses encounter in the care of women undergoing abortion, and how they deal with and reflect on their responsibility in nursing.  Method: Literature review of ten qualitative articles according to Friberg (2012) was performed.  Results: The literature study results in issues; what moral/ethical problems nurse experiences in abortion care, the nurses´ experiences in dealing with this problems and what support and what strategies are needed in order to process difficult situations within the abortion care. The study resulted in four main themes; Ethical aspects regarding termination of pregnancy, Factors that influence how the nurses deal with their responsibilities in nursing, Strategies for dealing with the responsibilities in nursing and The nurse's need for support.The nurses were in great need to reflect on their demanding work in abortion care in order to preserve their own health and to pursuit a good person-centered care.   Discussions: The discussion based on the themes that emerged from the results was performed using Peplaus (1991) theory of the interpersonal process between nurse and patient and Sherwins (1998) feminist ethics. The discussion focuses on how the interpersonal relationship, the opportunity for reflection and the importance of a feminist approach may improve the care relationship and nurses´ management of difficult experiences in abortion care.