Laura Rahm

ObjectivesThis is the first study contrasting the experience of women residing in France and travelling for abortion services inside and outside their country of residence. We compare travel reasons and costs as well as our study participants’ opinions of abortion legislation. The article documents legal and procedural barriers related to accessing local and timely abortions and provides policy recommendations to broaden care options.MethodsThe study is based on a mixed-methods research design. Quantitative data were descriptively analysed using Stata and drawn from 100 surveys with in-country abortion seekers collected from 3 Parisian hospitals, and 57 surveys with French residents seeking abortion care in the Netherlands (42), Spain (10) and the UK (5). Qualitative data were thematically analysed using ATLAS.ti and drawn from 36 interviews with French residents (23 in-country abortion seekers and 13 cross-border abortion travellers).FindingsGestational age (GA) limits were the key...

In Europe, there is a dearth of studies on abortion-related mobilities within countries where abortion is legal. In France, 18% of women seek abortion care outside their department of residence care. Most of these flows take place within Île-de-France region. This paper aims at providing novel insights into the motives and experiences of women traveling within France and particularly within the Île-de-France region for abortion care. It draws upon official abortion statistics as well as quantitative and qualitative data collected in three Parisian hospitals during a five-year European research project on barriers to legal abortion and abortion travel. Despite governmental efforts to facilitate access to abortions over the past decades, our findings show that various barriers exist for why women do not find services in their department of residence (lack of services or access to preferred methods, quality of care, long waiting times). However, most of our study participants report co...

Plus de 130 millions de femmes sont portees disparues dans le monde pour cause de selection en fonction du genre. La plupart d'entre elles ont ete avortees de maniere selective, ont ete l'objet de negligence fatale durant l'enfance ou ont ete tuees apres la naissance parce qu'elles etaient des femmes. La selection sexuelle - pratiquee avant tout en Asie, dans le Caucase et en Europe de l'Est - a suscite de vives inquietudes globalement en raison de ses implications en matiere de droits humains, de sante et de consequences demographiques. Depuis les annees 1980, plusieurs pays asiatiques ont adopte des politiques pour contrer cette forme de discrimination. Bien que les politiques publiques soient souvent promues comme une solution, on sait peu de choses sur ces politiques et leur influence sur les desequilibres de sexe a la naissance. De plus, seules quelques etudes relient ces politiques aux tendances des rapports de masculinite. Compte tenu de l'heterogeneit...

Over the course of the past thirty years, several Asian countries, from Armenia to Vietnam, have witnessed the advent of a sexual imbalance at birth in favor of boys. Despite the social, economic and political diversity of these countries, the governments in question have implemented similar policies against this masculinization of their populations, including legal prohibitions, awareness-raising campaigns and equal rights for girls. The present study explores the role played in the convergence of public policy in South Korea, India and Vietnam by transnational communication and the international harmonization promoted by international organizations and epistemic communities. Under the direction of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), international organizations have played a key role in collecting data and supporting interventions, thereby supplying a more factual basis for policy. There nevertheless exists a tendency to promote and transfer policies without ...

This chapter sets the scene by exploring the motives, methods and magnitudes of gender-biased sex selection (GBSS) drawing from socio-demographic and anthropological research. It starts out by discussing the motives (or reasons) behind GBSS, reviewing gender preferences, family structures, as well as fertility, economic, and political pressures to sex select. These factors are intricately connected. Son preference is ultimately rooted in patrilineal and patrilocal kinship systems, where assets are passed through the male line and sons reside with their parents in old age. Additional economic and political factors (such as major shifts in population policies, economic shocks and political instability) can also contribute to the existence of GBSS. The focus then turns to the different methods used by parents to influence the sex composition of their families and the evolution of these methods (or practices) over time. Special attention is given to female infanticide and neglect, conti...

Plus de 130 millions de femmes sont portees disparues dans le monde pour cause de selection en fonction du genre. La plupart d'entre elles ont ete avortees de maniere selective, ont ete l'objet de negligence fatale durant l'enfance ou ont ete tuees apres la naissance parce qu'elles etaient des femmes. La selection sexuelle - pratiquee avant tout en Asie, dans le Caucase et en Europe de l'Est - a suscite de vives inquietudes globalement en raison de ses implications en matiere de droits humains, de sante et de consequences demographiques. Depuis les annees 1980, plusieurs pays asiatiques ont adopte des politiques pour contrer cette forme de discrimination. Bien que les politiques publiques soient souvent promues comme une solution, on sait peu de choses sur ces politiques et leur influence sur les desequilibres de sexe a la naissance. De plus, seules quelques etudes relient ces politiques aux tendances des rapports de masculinite. Compte tenu de l'heterogeneit...

Depuis les années 1980, la combinaison de la préférence traditionnelle pour les fils, de la baisse de la fécondité et de l'accès à des technologies de reproduction abordables a fait pencher les rapports de masculinité à la naissance en faveur des hommes. Ceci résulte de l'avortement sélectif des fœtus féminins. L’efficacité des politiques de l’Arménie et du Vietnam est ensuite discutée.

This chapter offers general conclusions. Public policies had limited efficacy in reducing SRB in the three countries of investigation. In the only case, where we could detect positive policy impact on SRB, the intervention was largely non-replicable due to irreproducible conditions and negative side effects (e.g. India). We also show that the same policy instruments are transferred transnationally with the help of international organizations and a research community that has been reproducing the same policy prescriptions for over two decades. The South Korean case stands out because it has been frequently promoted and used to inform diverse transnational policy agendas, while neglecting the limited efficacy and anti-abortion agenda of the Korean model. These findings have important implications for international organizations in terms of recognizing the different stages, policy intentions and constraints of the target countries, and learning from policy failure. For the research community, close monitoring of SRB trends, medical markets and policy changes seem necessary given the fact that sex selection is likely to continue. Future impact assessments should explore the impact of female education, education policies, social welfare and inheritance policies on sex imbalances and son preference. Lastly, we revisit 3-M-Model as a valuable contribution to better understand and address global public health issues in the twenty-first century.

This chapter provides a cross-country comparison of the policy response to sex selection. The comparison reveals that each country follows diverse policy intentions ranging from protecting fetal rights in Korea, to women’s rights in India, to a balanced population structure in Vietnam. The three countries all responded with similar policy instruments including legal bans, awareness-raising, gender equity laws, and incentives. These instruments are typically implemented in concert over extended periods. Nevertheless, these policies fell short on impact. They did not deliver what they were designed to do: to improve sex selection. Although SRB normalized in South Korea, this was not due to policy changes. Neither India nor Vietnam has been able to reverse their sex selection trends to date. Despite policy inefficacy, international organizations frequently promote the same policy ‘toolbox’ to internationally harmonize policy interventions across vastly different terrains. This policy t...

One of the side effects of India’s rapid socioeconomic transition has been a growing demographic masculinization with millions of “missing” women. Modern technologies have enabled couples to determine and select the fetal sex. Since the 1990s, political efforts to control sex selection have met with little success. This article assesses policy effectiveness and the role of political masculinities in India’s fight against sex selection. This qualitative analysis draws from policy files and forty-seven in-depth semistructured expert interviews conducted in Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana in 2014–2015. Interview participants included national policy makers, state and district implementers, and representatives from nongovernmental and international organizations. This article finds that state action against sex selection frequently follows the logic of “protecting,” “tracking,” and “emancipating” females—analogue to roles of a family patriarch toward his kin and thus reproducing gender biase...