Experience obtaining legal abortion in Uruguay: knowledge, attitudes, and stigma among abortion clients.

BACKGROUND: The abortion law in Uruguay changed in 2012 to allow first trimester abortion on request. Implementation of the law in Uruguay has been lauded, but barriers to care, including abortion stigma, remain. This study aimed to assess women's experiences seeking abortion services and related attitudes and knowledge following implementation of the law in Uruguay. METHODS: We interviewed 207 eligible women seeking abortion services at a high-volume public hospital in Montevideo in 2014. We generated univariate frequencies to describe women's experiences in care. We conducted regression analysis to examine variations in experiences of stigma by women's age and number of abortions. RESULTS: Most of the women felt that abortion was a right, were satisfied with the services they received, and agreed with the abortion law. However, 70% found the five-day waiting period unnecessary. Women experienced greater self-judgement than worries about being judged by others. Younger women in the sample (ages 18-21) reported being more worried about judgment than women 22 years or older (1.02 vs. 0.71 on the ILAS sub-scale). One quarter of participants reported feeling judged while obtaining services. Women with more than one abortion had nearly three times the odds of reporting feeling judged. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the need to address abortion stigma even after the law is changed. Some considerations from Uruguay that may be relevant to other jurisdictions reforming abortion laws include: the need for strategies to reduce judgmental behavior from staff and clinicians towards women seeking abortions, including training in counseling skills and empathic communication; addressing stigmatizing attitudes about abortion through community outreach or communications campaigns; mitigating the potential stigma that may be perpetuated through policies to prevent "repeat" abortions; ensuring that younger women and those with more than one abortion feel welcome and are not mistreated during care; and assessing the necessity of a waiting period. The rapid implementation of legal, voluntary abortion services in Uruguay can serve in many ways as an exemplar, and these findings may inform the process of abortion law reform in other countries.

¿De qué está hecha la objeción? Relatos de objetores de conciencia a servicios de aborto legal en Argentina, Uruguay y Colombia / Do que é feita a objeção? Narrativas de objetores de consciência em serviços de aborto legal na Argentina, Uruguai e Colômbia / What is objection made of? Accounts of conscientious objectors to legal abortion services in Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia

Resumen Este artículo examina el fenómeno de la objeción de conciencia (OC) a los servicios de aborto legal en Argentina, Uruguay y Colombia. Basado en relatos obtenidos a través de entrevistas, el análisis toma distancia de aquellos enfocados en diferenciar entre OC y barreras al servicio, o en identificar si las razones de objeción son verdaderas o válidas. Partiendo del hecho de que en muy pocos casos las/los objetoras/es están al tanto de las definiciones legales de la OC, se busca entender los significados que las/los entrevistadas/os le atribuyeron, y desde los cuales organizan su práctica médica, y justifican su negación a prestar servicios de aborto. En los tres países las/los entrevistadas/os se oponían principalmente a que fueran las mujeres quienes tomaran la decisión de qué embarazos interrumpir, y cómo y cuándo hacerlo. Los discursos contingentes a través de los cuales las/os médicas/os construyen las racionalidades de su OC están hechos, sobre todo, de un incuestionado apego al control de los cuerpos con capacidad de gestar; y de entendidos médico-sociales de las mujeres como inexorablemente madres, máquinas de reproducción o soportes vitales de fetos.

Resumo Este artigo examina o fenômeno da objeção de consciência (OC) nos serviços de aborto legal na Argentina, Uruguai e Colômbia. Com base nas narrativas obtidas por meio de entrevistas, a análise se distancia daquelas focadas na diferenciação entre OC e barreiras ao serviço, ou na interrogação sobre a verdade ou validade das razões para a objeção. Partindo do fato de que, em poucos casos, os objetores conhecem as definições legais da OC, procura-se compreender os significados que as/os entrevistadas/os lhe atribuíram e a partir dos quais organizam a sua prática médica e justificam a sua recusa em prestar serviços de aborto. Em todos os três países, os/as entrevistados/as se opuseram principalmente a que as mulheres decidissem por si mesmas quais gravidezes interromper, como e quando o fazem. Os discursos contingentes através dos quais os/as médicos/as constroem as racionalidades da sua OC são feitos, sobretudo, através de um apego inquestionável ao controle dos corpos capazes de gestação; e de compreensões médico-sociais das mulheres como inexoravelmente mães, máquinas de reprodução ou suportes vitais dos fetos.

Abstract This article examines conscientious objection (CO) to legal abortion services in Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia. Based on interviews, the analysis offers an alternative from studies focusing on differentiating between CO and access barriers, or in identifying if the reasons for the objections are true or valid. Considering the fact that it is only in very few cases that the objectors knew the legal definition of CO, the article seeks to understand the meanings that the interviewees attribute to their objection, how they organize their medical practices and how they justify their denial to provide abortion services. In all three countries, the interviewees' main opposition was to women themselves making the decision to interrupt a pregnancy, and how and when to do it. The contingent and variable discourses through which the doctors construct the logic of their CO are made of an unquestioning attachment to controlling gestating bodies; and a default socio-medical understanding of women as mothers, reproductive machines or as fetal life support systems.

"It's something that marks you": Abortion stigma after decriminalization in Uruguay.

BACKGROUND: Abortion stigma is experienced by women seeking abortion services and by abortion providers in a range of legal contexts, including Uruguay, where abortion was decriminalized up to 12 weeks gestation in 2012. This paper analyzes opinions and attitudes of both abortion clients and health professionals approximately two years following decriminalization and assesses how abortion stigma manifests among these individuals and in institutions that provide care. METHODS: In 2014, we conducted twenty in-depth, semi-structured interviews with abortion clients (n = 10) and health care professionals (n = 10) in public and private facilities across Uruguay's health system. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then coded for thematic analysis. RESULTS: We find that both clients and health professionals express widespread satisfaction with the implementation of the new law. However, there exist critical points in the service where stigmatizing ideas and attitudes continue to be reproduced, such as the required five-day waiting period and in interactions with hospital staff who do not support access to the service. We also document the prevalence of stigmatizing ideas around abortion that continue to circulate outside the clinical setting. CONCLUSION: Despite the benefits of decriminalization, abortion clients and health professionals still experience abortion stigma.

Colombian forensic genetics as a form of public science: The role of race, nation and common sense in the stabilization of DNA populations.

Abstract This article examines the role that vernacular notions of racialized-regional difference play in the constitution and stabilization of DNA populations in Colombian forensic science, in what we frame as a process of public science. In public science, the imaginations of the scientific world and common-sense public knowledge are integral to the production and circulation of science itself. We explore the origins and circulation of a scientific object--'La Tabla', published in Paredes et al. and used in genetic forensic identification procedures--among genetic research institutes, forensic genetics laboratories and courtrooms in Bogotá. We unveil the double life of this central object of forensic genetics. On the one hand, La Tabla enjoys an indisputable public place in the processing of forensic genetic evidence in Colombia (paternity cases, identification of bodies, etc.). On the other hand, the relations it establishes between 'race', geography and genetics are questioned among population geneticists in Colombia. Although forensic technicians are aware of the disputes among population geneticists, they use and endorse the relations established between genetics, 'race' and geography because these fit with common-sense notions of visible bodily difference and the regionalization of race in the Colombian nation.