Women's Health

Family Planning in India is Still Deeply Sexist

By Neeta Lal
The tragic death of 12 women after a state-run mass sterilisation campaign in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh went horribly wrong in 2014 made global headlines. The episode saw about 80 women "herded like cattle" into makeshift camps without being properly examined before the laparoscopic tubectomies that snuffed out their lives. In another incident in 2013, police in the eastern Indian state of Bihar arrested three men after they performed a botched sterilisation surgery without anaesthesia on 53 women over two hours in a field.

Microcephaly Revives Battle for Legal Abortion in Brazil

By Mario Osava
The Zika virus epidemic and a rise in the number of cases of microcephaly in newborns have revived the debate on legalising abortion in Brazil. However, the timing is difficult as conservative and religious groups are growing in strength, especially in parliament.

Combating HIV among Teens

By Miriam Gathigah and Jeffrey Moyo
Keziah Juma is coming to terms with her shattered life at the shanty she shares with her family in Kenya’s sprawling Kibera slum where friends and relatives are gathered for her son’s funeral arrangements. While attending an antenatal clinic, Juma who is only 16 years discovered that she had been infected with HIV. “I went into shock and stopped going to the clinic, that is why they could not save my baby and I have been bed-ridden since giving birth two months ago,” she told IPS.

The State We’re In: Ending Sexism in Nationality Laws

By Antonia Kirkland
Everyone has the right to be born with a nationality – safe, fearless and free – and secure in their human right to equally transfer, acquire, change or retain it. There is no reason why over 50 countries should still have sexist nationality and citizenship laws, which largely discriminate against women, potentially putting them and their families in danger and denying them the rights, benefits and services that everyone should enjoy.

Mother-to-Child AIDS Transmission Dealt a Blow in Zimbabwe

By Jeffrey Moyo
With the battle to combat HIV/AIDS intensifying in Zimbabwe, the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission initiative (PMTCT) has increasingly become a success weapon in the war on transmission of the once dreaded disease to the country’s unborn babies, despite some mothers testing positive for the disease.

Opinion: Ending Child Marriage – What Difference Can a Summit Make?

By Samuel Musyoki
The long-awaited African Girls’ Summit on Ending Child Marriage is here.

Open Defecation to End by 2025, Vows UN Chief, Marking World Toilet Day

By Thalif Deen
The state of the world’s toilets reveals the good, the bad and the ugly – but not necessarily in that order.

Opinion: From Despair to Hope – Fulfilling a Promise to Mothers and Children in Mandera County

By Ruth Kagia and Siddharth Chatterjee
Mandera in northeastern Kenya, has often been described as “the worst place on earth to give birth.” Mandera’s maternal mortality ratio stands at 3,795 deaths per 100,000 live births, almost double that of wartime Sierra Leone at 2,000 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Opinion: Integrating Water, Sanitation and Health are Key to the Promise of the UN Global Goals

By H.R.H. Princess Sarah Zeid
The 193 member states of the United Nations have adopted an ambitious 15-year sustainable development agenda, the 2030 Global Goals.

Kenya: Transforming Mandera County’s Deadly Reputation for Maternal Health

By Siddharth Chatterjee
For many women in Mandera County – a hard to reach, insecure and arid part of North Eastern Kenya – the story of life from childhood to adulthood is one about sheer pain and struggle for survival.

Youngster Uses Technology to Fight Teen Pregnancy in Honduran Village

By Thelma Mejía
Four years ago, Cinthia Padilla, who is now 16, learned how to use a computer in order to teach children, adolescents and adults in this isolated fishing village in northern Honduras how to use technology to better their lives.

Opinion: International Day of the Girl Must Start with Good Laws

By Shelby Quast
Everyday should be about girls, but yesterday, October 11, was dedicated especially to them. International Day of the Girl is yet another opportunity to put girls at center stage.

Pakistan Initiative Seeks to Improve Maternal-Child Care in Rural Areas

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
“We are extremely happy over the government’s initiative to give money to the pregnant women and enable them to seek proper treatment,” said Sharif Ahmed at a basic health unit (BHU), near Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

Latin America to Adopt SDGs, Still Lagging on Some MDGs

By Marianela Jarroud
In the last 15 years, Latin America and the Caribbean have met several key targets included in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as reducing extreme poverty, hunger and child mortality, incorporating more girls in the educational system, and expanding access to clean water.

Costa Rica Finally Allows In Vitro Fertilisation after 15-Year Ban

By Diego Arguedas Ortiz
After banning in vitro fertilisation for 15 years and failing to comply with an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling for nearly three years, Costa Rica will finally once again allow the procedure for couples and women on their own.

Mental Health Another Casualty of Changing Climate

By Jed Alegado and Angeli Guadalupe
Jun* is in chains, tied to a post in the small house that resembles a fragile nipa hut. His brother did this to prevent him from hurting their neighbours or other strangers he meets when he’s in a ballistic mood. Jun has been like this for three years now, but since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines two years ago, his symptoms have worsened.

Opinion: Women’s Major Role in Culture of Peace – Part Two

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
Another reality that emerges very distinctly in culture of peace is that we should never forget when women – half of world’s seven billion plus people - are marginalised and their equality is not established in all spheres of human activity, there is no chance for our world to get sustainable peace in the real sense.

Winning Women a Greater Say in Somaliland’s Policy-Making

By Katie Riordan
Bar Seed is the only female member in Somaliland’s 82-person Parliament, but activists hope upcoming national elections may end her isolation.

The U.N. at 70: Leading the Global Agenda on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality – Part Two

By Lakshmi Puri
The efforts of the United Nations and the global women’s movement to promote the women’s rights agenda and make it a top international priority saw its culmination in the creation of U.N. Women, by the General Assembly in 2010.

The U.N. at 70: Leading the Global Agenda on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality – Part One

By Lakshmi Puri
If there is any idea and cause for which the United Nations has been an indispensable engine of progress globally it is the cause of ending all forms of “discrimination and violence against women and girls, ensuring the realization of their equal rights and advancing their political, economic and social empowerment.

Half a Million U.S. Women and Girls at Risk of Genital Cutting

By Kitty Stapp
Jaha Dukureh knows firsthand the barbaric effects of undergoing female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Now a resident of the United States, she was mutilated as a baby in the Gambia in West Africa. Her sister bled to death after enduring the same procedure.
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