Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

09/09/2025

📢 Happening Today!
Join us at 09:30 EDT | 14:30 UK | 15:30 CET| 16:30 EAT for:
“Female ge***al mutilation in Africa: Politics of criminalisation”

A conversation with Satang Nabaneh, Angela J Dawson, Samuel Kimani, and Laura Nyirinkindi on bridging the gap between law and lived realities.

📌 Check your inbox for your Zoom link!

https://events.humanitix.com/fgm-in-africa

07/09/2025

👉Only 2 days to go! Don’t miss this important SRHM webinar:
“Female ge***al mutilation in Africa: Politics of criminalisation”
📅 Tuesday 9 September 2025
09:30 EDT | 14:30 UK | 15:30 CET| 16:30 EAT

Join leading experts to explore how criminalisation policies impact FGM prevention efforts across Africa.

Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/fgm-in-africa

04/09/2025

Sexual Justice means building a world where everyone can experience sexual health, rights, and pleasure, free from discrimination, violence, or barriers.

🌍

Read more here: https://worldsexualhealthday.org/

03/09/2025

On 5 September 2025, global leaders from 80+ organizations will come together in Porto, Portugal, for the inaugural meeting of the World Sexual Health Assembly (WSHA), convened by the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS).

This unprecedented, high-level alliance unites UN agencies (as observers), international NGOs, professional societies, academic institutions, and regional federations - to protect and advance sexual health, rights, justice, and pleasure worldwide.

Sexual health is non-negotiable. Sexual rights are human rights. Sexual justice is a global imperative.

🔗 Learn more: www.worldsexualhealth.net

02/09/2025

📣1 Week to Go!

Join us on Tuesday, 9 September for the SRHM webinar:
“Female ge***al mutilation in Africa: Politics of criminalisation”
🕗 09:30 EDT | 14:30 UK | 15:30 CET| 16:30 EAT

Hear from legal and public health experts including Satang Nabaneh, Angela J Dawson, Samuel Kimani, and Laura Nyirinkindi as they unpack why criminalisation alone cannot end FGM, and explore community-driven solutions.

Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/fgm-in-africa

29/08/2025

🌍Join us to explore the politics of criminalisation and FGM in Africa
Tuesday 9 September | 09:30 EDT | 14:30 UK | 15:30 CET | 16:30 EAT
Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/fgm-in-africa

SPEAKERS
We’re proud to welcome:

👉Satang Nabaneh: Director of Programs and Assistant Professor of Practice at the Human Rights Center and Research Professor of Law at the University of Dayton School of Law.

👉 Angela J Dawson: Public health social scientist at the University of Technology Sydney’s Australian Centre for Public and Population Health Research

👉 Samuel Kimani: Associate Professor in the department of Nursing at the University of Nairobi

👉 Laura Nyirinkindi: Senior Managing Consultant of Pro Initiatives Agency, a human rights firm based in Uganda.

Together, they’ll unpack the politics of criminalisation and explore strategies for lasting change in FGM prevention.

If you have any questions that you would you like us to explore during the session, please let us know below.

26/08/2025

📣 Upcoming Webinar:
Join us on Tuesday, 9 September for:
“Female ge***al mutilation in Africa: Politics of criminalisation”
🕗 8:30–9:30 AM CDT | 3:30–4:30 PM SAST

🌍Despite increasing legal prohibitions, female ge***al mutilation (FGM) continues to affect an estimated 92 million women and girls aged 10 and above across Africa.

This SRHM webinar explores 'Female Ge***al Mutilation in Africa: Politics of Criminalisation', a new book edited by Satang Nabaneh and published in February 2025, that confronts the persistent gap between legal reform and lived realities.

🔗 Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/fgm-in-africa

25/08/2025

🌍 When global crises collide with women’s and newborn health, how do we respond - and learn?

👉This timely commentary summarizes key insights from the GLOW conference (Jun 30, 2025) on health systems under pressure during crises. It underscores the urgent need for robust, adaptable data systems to accurately track impacts and guide effective responses.

The authors spotlight how innovative collaborations, resilient infrastructures, and real-time evidence are critical to safeguarding maternal and newborn outcomes in an ever-changing world.

🌏For researchers, policymakers, and advocates committed to advancing health equity—this piece is a call to action. By strengthening surveillance tools, fostering cross-sector partnerships, and centring vulnerable populations, we can build systems that withstand shocks and protect the most at-risk mothers and infants.

Read the full commentary: Rising to the challenge: lessons learnt from the Global Women’s Research Society (GLOW) conference for women’s and newborn health in the context of global crises by Clara Calvert, Sagarika Kaushal, Aduragbemi Banke-Thomas, Zeina Jamaluddine, Brian Matovu, Jennifer Riches, Robert Ssekitoleko, Wendy Graham & Rosemary Townsend

🔗 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26410397.2025.2525656

Published in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (Just accepted, 2025)

24/08/2025

🔔 1 Week to Go
Final week to submit! Don't miss the 31 August deadline for SRHM’s special collection:
“Ensuring Access to Abortion as a Matter of Rights, Equity and Justice.”

We welcome interdisciplinary research that addresses urgent gaps in evidence and action for abortion rights globally.

📅 Submit by 31 August 2025
🔗 www.srhm.org/call-for-papers-abortion

22/08/2025

🎙️ New episode on the SRHM Podcast!

SRHM Chief Executive Eszter Kismödi speaks with Katie Mayall (former Director of Strategic Initiatives, Center for Reproductive Rights), Lauren Ajayi (previously Legal Fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights, now a doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex), and Caitlin Guthrie (Manager at the Center for Reproductive Rights). They are the authors of Global progress in abortion law reform: a comparative legal analysis since ICPD.

Together they reflect on 30 years of legal change worldwide:

✅ Over 60 countries have liberalised abortion laws
✅ More countries adopted abortion on request in the past 5 years than in the previous 25 combined
✅ More than 825 million women of reproductive age now live in countries with more
⚠️ Yet 1 in 4 women of reproductive age still live in countries where abortion is highly restricted or banned progressive laws

The discussion also examines regional trends—from Latin America’s “green wave” to significant reforms across Africa—while also acknowledging backlash and restrictions in places such as the US, Poland and Nicaragua.

The key message: progress is real and inspiring, but legal change alone is not enough. Implementation, access, and coalition-building remain crucial to advancing true reproductive autonomy.

🔗 Listen to the podcast here, or wherever you find your podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3AnD7GHMuWl5Q89A2Rs1Kj
📄 Read the article here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26410397.2025.2529475

21/08/2025

Abortion experiences are often silenced in Poland, where stigma shapes how they are represented.

👉This study by Alina Paczesna analyses 73 first-person stories shared through the Abortion Dream Team’s storytelling initiative. Findings show that abortion is represented as a valid decision, a lived and embodied process that can be both positive and challenging. By embracing this complexity, storytelling disrupts stigma and challenges dominant, hierarchical narratives around abortion.

Abortion storytelling emerges as a powerful tool to destigmatise abortion and advance reproductive rights — in Poland and beyond.

🔗 Read online and open-access:
Embracing complexity to challenge stigma: a qualitative analysis of representations of abortion in a Polish storytelling initiative: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26410397.2025.2535835

20/08/2025

Midwives in Canada have the skills and competencies to provide abortion care, but their role is often constrained by health system barriers.

This qualitative study by Cristina Mattison ,V Perrault, A Hibbert, F Pittson & J Robinson explores midwives’ experiences with abortion care, highlighting regulatory restrictions, funding gaps, and systemic inequities — as well as the ways midwives are advancing reproductive justice by offering culturally safe, client-centred care, particularly for underserved populations.

Optimising midwives’ roles could strengthen access to abortion care and advance reproductive rights globally.

🔗 Read the full article: Midwives as agents of change: a qualitative analysis of midwives’ experiences with abortion care provision in Canada:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26410397.2025.2548657