[Aspects of reproduction related to human rights. III. Artificial termination of pregnancy]. / Aspectos de la reproducción relacionados con los derechos humanos. III. Terminación artificial del embarazo.

PIP: Induced abortion is no doubt a public health problem. In Mexico 34.9% of women aged 15-49 return at least once to hospital services for complications of induced abortion. Complications of include infection, hemorrhage, shock, and traumatic lesions; risk of complications in termination of 2nd trimester pregnancy is 3-4 times higher than for 1st trimester termination. Longterm complications include prematurity, spontaneous abortion, placental anomalies, fetal death, and psychological sequelae. The majority of women returning for induced abortions are between 30-40, with high parity, an unstable union, low education, and low income. For many of these women the idea of contraception is much more alien than the idea of abortion. Many people believe that legalization of abortion in Mexico would decrease the number of illegally induced abortions. If this postulation has not been proven right in rich countries such as the U.S. and many European countries, there is no reason it would prove right in Mexico, where the number of woman illegally practicing abortion is large among the lower classes. Moreover, the majority of the population still lack basic medical services, not to mention abortion services, and most medical institutions in rural areas do not have the equipment and personnel to cover the eventual request for abortion. Most importantly, legalization of abortion would decrease the number of contraception users, instead of increasing it. Another important fact to be taken into consideration is the high percentage of complications after legally induced abortion, as demonstrated by U.S. and European statistics.^ieng

[Perinatal medicine. Medico-social implications. I. Technics used in the identification of high risk pregnancy]. / Medicina perinatal. Implicaciones médico-sociales i. técnicas utilizadas en la identificación del embarazo de riesgo elevado.

PIP: The most important advancement in perinatology during the past few years has been the possibility to selectively establish a criterion to judge high risk pregnancies, which still represent the great majority of cases of materno-infant morbimortality. Social, economic, and cultural factors, age, biological antecedents of the mother, previous pregnancies, and medical history, have all a great influence in the evaluation of gestation. Through the years several models have been constructed to evaluate high perinatal risks; excluding complications due to danger of congenital abnormalities only 19% of women are exposed to high risk pregnancy. Among prenatal risk factors the most common are toxemia, chronic hypertension, severe cardiopathy, and diabetes; risk factors that may become more evident during delivery or shortly before it are toxemia again, premature rupture of membranes, meconial amniotic fluid, and abnormal presentation.^ieng