Perils and possibilities of health exception laws: A narrative review.

Forty-seven of the 203 countries with abortion laws detailed by the Center for Reproductive Rights have a health exception (HE) clause, inconsistent in both wording and implementation, even within countries. This narrative review sought to determine the understanding and implementation of the legally permissible HE in different countries, or states, to provide clarification and guidance for strategies that will maximize permitted access to safe abortion within the law and avoid undue delays that harm the lives and health of women and their families. A multimethod approach was used.

Community engagement in global health education supports equity and advances local priorities: an eight year Ecuador-Canada partnership.

Background: Global health education initiatives inconsistently balance trainee growth and benefits to host communities. This report describes a global health elective for medical trainees that focuses on community engagement and participatory research to provide mutually beneficial outcomes for the communities and trainees.

Methods: An eight-year university-community partnership, the Chilcapamba to Montreal Global Health Elective is a two-month shared decision-making research and clinical observership experience in rural Ecuador for medical trainees at McGill University, Canada.

Community factors associated with stunting, overweight and food insecurity: a community-based mixed-method study in four Andean indigenous communities in Ecuador.

Objectives: We aimed to implement participatory research to answer a question posed by four Kichwa indigenous communities in Andean Ecuador about what actionable factors are associated with childhood stunting, overweight and food insecurity among their people.

Design: We used mixed methods including household questionnaires, discussion groups with respondents of the questionnaires and anthropometric measurement of children (6 months to 12 years) from surveyed households.

Setting: The study involved four Andean indigenous communities transitioning from traditional to Western lifestyles.

Localizing Global Medicine: Challenges and Opportunities in Cervical Screening in an Indigenous Community in Ecuador.

This participatory research study examines the tensions and opportunities in accessing allopathic medicine, or biomedicine, in the context of a cervical cancer screening program in a rural indigenous community of Northern Ecuador. Focusing on the influence of social networks, the article extends research on "re-appropriation" of biomedicine. It does so by recognizing two competing tensions expressed through social interactions: suspicion of allopathic medicine and the desire to maximize one's health.

The Chilcapamba-McGill Partnership: Exploring Access to Maternal and Newborn Care in Indigenous Communities of Ecuador.

Background: Based on a participatory research (PR) partnership between Family Medicine at McGill University, Canada and the Andean community of Chilcapamba, Ecuador, a medical student study focused on maternal and newborn health.

Objectives: To evaluate the access to maternal and newborn care and the occurrence of intrafamilial violence in women with children 5 years of age or less in three indigenous communities of Ecuador.

Methods: A semistructured survey explored the perinatal and intrapartum care as well as intrafamilial violence.