Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, University of Montreal, Park av., Montreal, QC, H3N 1X9, Canada.
Centre de Recherche en Santé Publique, Park av., Montreal, QC, H3N 1X9, Canada.
Reprod Health. 2024 Nov 28;21(1):175. doi: 10.1186/s12978-024-01914-x.
Abortion is partially legal in 48 of 54 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA); however, abortion laws are generally weakly implemented, and evidence suggests that extending abortion rights does not necessarily improve abortion access.
Reflecting on the implementation challenges faced by the laws extending rights to abortion in SSA, and enriching this approach by considering complementary avenues to overcome barriers in access to abortion.
Reproductive justice is a theory that emphasizes the importance of contexts and different levels of societal forces in shaping reproductive freedom. From a reproductive justice perspective, we suggest that the successful implementation of abortion laws is hampered by discrepancies between legal frameworks and socio-cultural contexts in many SSA countries. In many SSA contexts, the legalization of abortion has not been accompanied by a modification of socio-cultural contexts regarding abortion. Until these contexts are more receptive to abortion, implementation issues may persist and access to abortion may remain hindered. Since increasing social acceptability of abortion can be a lengthy process, exploring complementary strategies to improve abortion access can be beneficial. Nego-feminism, an African feminist theory rooted in African values of negotiation and relationships, may be an effective strategy to navigate societal forces to improve abortion access, in the meantime, until greater acceptability and enforcement of abortion laws. An illustration of this promising strategy can be found in abortion accompaniment models such as MAMA network which provide safe access to medication abortion in the informal sector.
Nego-feminism could potentially improve access to abortion in legally and socially restricted settings. However, the continued fight for the legalization of abortion is essential, while using nego-feminism as a complement.
在撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）的 54 个国家中，有 48 个国家的堕胎在一定程度上是合法的；然而，堕胎法的执行通常很薄弱，有证据表明，扩大堕胎权并不一定能改善堕胎的可及性。
反思在撒哈拉以南非洲扩大堕胎权的法律所面临的执行挑战，并通过考虑克服堕胎获取障碍的补充途径来丰富这一方法。
生殖正义是一种理论，强调背景和不同层次的社会力量在塑造生殖自由方面的重要性。从生殖正义的角度来看，我们认为，在许多 SSA 国家，法律框架与社会文化背景之间存在差异，这阻碍了堕胎法的有效执行。在许多 SSA 背景下，堕胎的合法化并没有伴随着堕胎方面的社会文化背景的改变。在这些背景更加接受堕胎之前，执行问题可能会持续存在，堕胎的可及性仍然会受到阻碍。由于提高堕胎的社会可接受性可能是一个漫长的过程，因此探索改善堕胎可及性的补充策略可能是有益的。谈判和关系的非洲价值观为基础的非洲女权主义理论—— nego-feminism，可能是一种有效的策略，可以利用社会力量来改善堕胎的可及性，同时，直到堕胎法的接受程度和执行程度更高。这种有前途的策略的一个例证可以在堕胎陪伴模式中找到，如 MAMA 网络，它在非正规部门提供安全的药物流产服务。
Nego-feminism 可能会改善在法律和社会限制的环境中堕胎的可及性。然而，继续争取堕胎的合法化是必要的，同时将 nego-feminism 作为一种补充。
