Abortion as a human right: The struggle to implement the abortion law in Colombia.

In 2006, a Colombian Constitutional Court decision legalized abortion in cases of risk to a woman's physical or mental health, fetal malformation incompatible with life, or rape or incest. This decision resulted from legal action brought by feminist groups, and frames abortion as a human right. Advocates played a key role in implementing the new law by educating providers and the public about its broad interpretations. Healthcare providers and facilities did not have an organized response to the new law. Nonprofit organizations filled this gap, and provide a majority of legal abortions throughout the country. Civil society facilitated implementation of the new law by providing legal accompaniment to women facing barriers to accessing abortions. Despite these efforts, few legal abortions are performed each year, and clandestine, often unsafe abortions continue to prevail. Lack of information about the new law, stigma, and fluctuating political will remain key barriers.

Development of a Conceptual Model and Survey Instrument to Measure Conscientious Objection to Abortion Provision.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Conscientious objection to abortion, clinicians' refusal to perform legal abortions because of their religious or moral beliefs, has been the subject of increasing debate among bioethicists, policymakers, and public health advocates in recent years. Conscientious objection policies are intended to balance reproductive rights and clinicians' beliefs. However, in practice, clinician objection can act as a barrier to abortion access-impinging on reproductive rights, and increasing unsafe abortion and related morbidity and mortality. There is little information about conscientious objection from a medical or public health perspective. A quantitative instrument is needed to assess prevalence of conscientious objection and to provide insight on its practice. This paper describes the development of a survey instrument to measure conscientious objection to abortion provision. METHODS: A literature review, and in-depth formative interviews with stakeholders in Colombia were used to develop a conceptual model of conscientious objection. This model led to the development of a survey, which was piloted, and then administered, in Ghana. RESULTS: The model posits three domains of conscientious objection that form the basis for the survey instrument: 1) beliefs about abortion and conscientious objection; 2) actions related to conscientious objection and abortion; and 3) self-identification as a conscientious objector. CONCLUSIONS: The instrument is intended to be used to assess prevalence among clinicians trained to provide abortions, and to gain insight on how conscientious objection is practiced in a variety of settings. Its results can inform more effective and appropriate strategies to regulate conscientious objection.

Bases genéticas y moleculares de la preeclampsia / Genetic and molecular bases of preeclampsia

La preeclampsia es una enfermedad compleja, exclusiva de la gestación humana y responsable de una alta morbimortalidad perinatal. Ha sido denominada la enfermedad de las múltiples teorías, en la cual tanto factores medioambientales como genéticos se han asociado al desarrollo de la misma. Para la identificación de los genes candidatos asociados con la PE, se han empleado dos tipos de metodología, los estudios de asociación y los estudios de ligamiento. En el presente artículo se explica el fundamento de ambos estudios y se revisan los principales genes candidatos dentro de la fisiopatología de la enfermedad, entre los que se encuentran los que codifican para las enzimas metileneterahidrofolato reductasa, la lipoprotein lipasa y la óxido nítrico sintasa endotelial; el factor V de Leiden, el angiotensinógeno, el HLA-G y el factor de necrosis tumoral alfa