Each year, the International Women's Health Coalition issues the "Top Ten Wins for Women's Health and Rights." 

Summary: By Gillian Kane, former Assistant Program Officer, Latin America, IWHC.  Published in Gender and Development, July 2008. Uses the recent experiences of Colombia, Mexico City, and Nicaragua to highlight shared challenges, establish linkages with other countries in the region, and demonstrate that the many different strategies which have been adopted present an opportunity to expand access to safe, legal abortion throughout Latin America. 16 pages.

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Summary: By Beth Fredrick (The Lancet, Vol. 370, No. 9595, October 13, 2007, 1295-1297). Discusses the actions that governments, donors, health practitioners, and civil society must take to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity related to unsafe abortion. 

By Juan Forero

The New York Times, December 3, 2005

PAMPLONA, Colombia – In this tradition-bound Roman Catholic town one day in April, two young women did what many here consider unthinkable: pregnant and scared, they took a cheap ulcer medication known to induce abortions. When the drug left them bleeding, they were treated at a local emergency room—then promptly arrested.

The New York Times, March 5, 2005

Editorial

At a moment when the United States should be leading the world on advancing women's equality, the Bush administration chose instead to alienate government ministers and 6,000 other delegates at an important United Nations conference on that issue with a burst of anti-abortion zealotry this week.

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Summary: By Cynthia Steele, Vice President, Programs, IWHC; and Susana Chiarotti, Director, Instituto de Genero, Derecho y Desarollo, Rosario, Argentina (Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 12 No. 24 Supplement, November 2004, pp. 39-46). 

Science, Vol 305, Issue 5680, 17, 2 July 2004

By Adrienne Germain

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision in May 2004 not to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, Plan B, is but one troubling example of the increasing impact of politics and ideology on science and health policy. The agency's ruling, contrary to recommendations from an external advisory panel and its own scientific staff, is indicative of the growing gap between common sense and U.S. policies affecting the well-being of women and girls worldwide.

Newsweek, May 10, 2004

By Kati Marton

Women suffer countless disadvantages compared with men. Even after decades of progress, we make up two thirds of the world's 880 million illiterate adults, and up to 70 percent of its poorest citizens. But health remains the cruelest of all inequalities. Click here to read the full text of the article.

The New York Times, October 15, 2003

Editorial Desk

In August, the United States Agency for International Development abruptly canceled bids for a program to market condoms to gay men and others in Brazil. When the decision was criticized publicly, the agency reinstated most of the program. This was the right choice. Preventing the spread of AIDS means working with the groups most at risk.