The recent news that Ethiopian Jewish women had been given the injectable contraceptive Depo Provera without their knowledge or consent awakened a strong feeling of déjà vu for me. When I came into the field of reproductive health, 35 years ago, Depo Provera had just come onto the market. There were far fewer contraceptive methods available […]
Category: Marge Berer
Marge Berer and Lisa Hallgarten: Sacrificing the good for the perfect
Post partum haemorrhage (PPH) is one of the leading causes of maternal deaths. According to WHO estimates, in 2010 there were 287,000 maternal deaths, 25% of which were associated with PPH. The risk of PPH is greatest in anaemic women and the risk of PPH resulting in death is greatest in settings where there is […]
Marge Berer: Jeremy Hunt supports 12 week limit for abortion
At the Labour conference last week, Andy Burnham accused Jeremy Hunt of failing to make any statements about important current health service issues in parliament since he became health secretary. What a pity he decided to speak up last week, because now we know just how uninformed he is. Hunt said he favoured reducing the […]
Marge Berer: All I had to do was take a pill every day, I was told, and hey presto, I didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant
I was among the first generation of women in the 1960s to experience the miracle of the pill just at the age when I was wanting to start having sex. All I had to do was take a pill every day, I was told, and hey presto, I didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant […]
Marge Berer: Another anti-abortion missionary
Punch-drunk on power after his success at sticking up two fingers to the entire health profession at the passage of the Health & Social Care bill in Parliament last week, Andrew Lansley has apparently found a new mission—to harass doctors and clinics who provide abortions, both in the private sector which he otherwise seems to […]
Marge Berer: In defence of abortion on a woman’s request, including on grounds of fetal sex
Ach, what a furore. The Daily Telegraph is in its element and having a ball printing nasty allegations about doctors doing abortions illegally on grounds of sex selection. Let’s look at the issues a bit more dispassionately. First, is it actually illegal? Yes and no. The 1967 Abortion Act does not permit abortion on grounds […]
Marge Berer: The breast implant fiasco: a scandal of private medicine
So, the silicone’s hit the fan. The use of industrial-grade silicone intended for mattresses, the possible fraud in hiding information from inspectors at production stage, and the failure in quality control in the regulatory phase, are particularly outrageous. However, the rapidly expanding private sector provision of breast implants for cosmetic reasons, by an “industry” that has been […]
Marge Berer: Jingle pills indeed
Many years ago now, when news of female sterilisation first came out, Catholic priests in Puerto Rico and other Catholic countries preached from their pulpits against women being sterilised. As a result many more women learned that sterilisation existed, and many went out from church asking where to get it. In effect, the church gave […]
Marge Berer: Independent abortion counselling? Whose problem?
Nadine Dorries MP is a very skilful politician. She decides there is a problem, for which she has absolutely no evidence. She not only manages to get her problem on to the front pages of the newspapers but also on to the agenda of the House of Commons. Having spoken to her about it, the […]