Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Feb-Mar;38(2):152-166.
doi: 10.1080/01459740.2018.1496333. Epub 2018 Aug 13.

Metrics of Survival: Post-Abortion Care and Reproductive Rights in Senegal

Siri Suh  1
Affiliations

Metrics of Survival: Post-Abortion Care and Reproductive Rights in Senegal

Siri Suh. Med Anthropol. 2019 Feb-Mar.

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Senegal between 2010 and 2011, I demonstrate how health professionals have deployed indicators such as number of women and abortion type treated in government hospitals to demonstrate commitment to global mandates on reproductive rights. These indicators obscure discrimination against women suspected of illegal abortion as health workers negotiate obstetric treatment with the abortion law. By measuring hospitals' capacity to keep women with abortion complications alive, post-abortion care (PAC) indicators have normalized survival as a state of reproductive well-being.

Keywords: Senegal; abortion; ethnography; hospital metrics; reproductive governance; reproductive rights.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Adams V 2005. Saving Tibet? An inquiry into modernity, lies, truths and beliefs. Medical Anthropology 24 (1):71–110. - PubMed
    1. Adams V 2013. Evidence-based global public health: Subjects, profits, erasures In When People Come First: Critical Studies in Global Health. Biehl J and Petryna A. eds. Pp. 54–90. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    1. Andaya E 2014. Conceiving Cuba: Reproduction, Women, and the State in the Post-Soviet Era. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
    1. ANSD.2012. Enquête Démographique de la Santé à Indicateurs Multiples au Sénégal (EDS-MICS) 2010-2011. Calverton, MD: Agence National de la Statistique et de la Démographie and ICF International.
    1. Barot S 2017. When anti-abortion ideology turns into foreign policy: How the Global Gag Rule erodes health, ethics and democracy. Guttmacher Policy Review 20:73–77.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources