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Summary: Prepared by the InternationalWomen's Health Coalition (September 2000). Compiles citations andabstracts of articles and resources related to gender, sexuality, andhealth in the Middle East and the Mediterranean (214 pages).

Summary: By Adrienne Germain(Critical Issues in Global Health, edited by C. Everett Koop, M.D.,Sc.D., Clarence E. Pearson, MPH, and M. Roy Schwarz, M.D. SanFrancisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000). Invited chapter lays out policy priorities for the 21st Century that address the continuing human threats to women's reproductive and sexual health (8 pages)

>>Available in PDF / Available in French and Spanish

Summary: By Adrienne Germain and Theresa Kim (New York: IWHC, 1999). Demonstrates how to use international conference agreements and human rights instruments to argue for access to safe abortion services, and describes strategies that are being used across a wide range of countries to implement such services (44 pages).

Of the estimated 45 million pregnancies worldwide that are terminated by abortion every year, perhaps 19 million involve unsafe procedures performed by women themselves, by unskilled providers, or in settings lacking the minimal medical standards. An estimated 68,000 women die unnecessarily from complications resulting from unsafe abortion and countless others suffer from infections, infertility, and other damage to the reproductive tract. These deaths account for 13 percent of all pregnancy-related deaths globally and over one-quarter in some countries. Yet, evidence from countries where women have full access to safe services shows that abortion-related deaths and disability can be virtually eliminated with appropriate policies and programs.