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Medical society engagement in contentious policy reform: the Ethiopian Society for Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ESOG) and Ethiopia’s 2005 reform of its Penal Code on Abortion

March 22, 2018 / Karen Weidert

Sarah Jane Holcombe

Health Policy and Planning, 2018

Globally, but particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, health professionals have significant influence in shaping national health policy, including in the often sensitive field of reproductive health. Obstetrician-gynecologists have perhaps the most clout related to reproductive health policy, given their high levels of training, social standing and male gender. However, their ob-gyn professional societies have rarely supported abortion law reform, despite its promise for reducing women’s mortality and morbidity. This study of the contributions of Ethiopia’s ob-gyn society yields several lessons for leveraging the involvement of ob-gyn involvement in reform elsewhere:

  • Ob-gyn societies can be central to building a research base for reform, conducting evidence-based advocacy and framing the rationale for reform as grounded in public health and maternal mortality prevention;
  • Ob-gyn and ob-gyn society engagement can be grounded in personal and organizational commitments to reducing maternal mortality, including that due to unsafe abortion, and experience with post-abortion care (PAC); and
  • Ob-gyn society policy contributions can capitalize on political openings and can be facilitated by civil society allies.

Complete journal  https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/33/4/583/4930748?guestAccessKey=efe5b43a-ae3f-4209-95f9-c8d200619f06

Dr. Holcombe’s earlier related work, also based on her dissertation research, focused on Ethiopian midwives’ attitudes toward providing abortion services in the wake of the country’s legal reform.

 

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