Voluntary family planning is a key mainstay of demographic work and population policies. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) signalled a decisive shift away from fertility reduction and target-setting to an emphasis on voluntary family planning as intrinsic to reproductive health and women's empowerment. Yet, criticisms of voluntary family planning programmes persist, interrogating how 'voluntariness' is understood and wielded or questioning the instrumentalization of women's fertilities in the service of economic and developmental goals. In this paper, I reflect on these debates with the aim of troubling the notion of voluntary family planning as an unambiguous good that enables equitable empowerment and development for all. Drawing on literature from cognate disciplines, I highlight how voluntariness is linked to social and structural conditions, and I challenge the instrumentalization of voluntary family planning as a 'common agenda' to solve 'development' problems. Engaging with this work can contribute to key concepts (e.g. 'voluntary') and measurements (e.g. autonomy), strengthening the collective commitment to achieving the ICPD and contributing to reproductive empowerment and autonomy. Through this intervention, I aim to help demographers see why some critics call for a reconsideration of voluntary family planning and encourage a decoupling of interventions from fertility reduction aims, instead centring human rights, autonomy, and reproductive empowerment.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2021.1996623 | DOI Listing |
Sleep Breath
January 2025
Clinical Internal Medicine Department, Shanghai Health and Medical Center, Wuxi, 214065, People's Republic of China.
Background: Obstructive sleep apnea has been associated with various urinary system diseases, including prostatic hyperplasia and nocturia. Recently, it has been linked to prostate cancer. This study investigated the relationship between the apnea hypopnea index, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, and changes in PSA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Immunol Immunother
January 2025
Public Center of Experimental Technology, The School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, 646000, Sichuan Province, China.
Although immune checkpoint inhibitors have changed the treatment paradigm for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), not all patients benefit from them. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore novel immune checkpoint inhibitors. Neuropilin-1 (Nrp-1) is a unique immune checkpoint capable of exerting antitumor effects through CD8 T cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisaster Med Public Health Prep
January 2025
Kentucky Department for Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Health Planning, Frankfort, KY.
Objectives: On July 28, 2022, eastern Kentucky experienced the state's deadliest flood in recorded history. In response to ongoing mental health concerns from community members who survived the flood, local health department directors in affected communities requested technical assistance from the Kentucky Department for Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Methods: Two simultaneous Community Assessments for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPERs) were conducted 6 weeks after the flood.
Mult Scler
January 2025
Department of Internal Medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Background: Many common symptoms in post-acute sequelae following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (PASC) overlap with those of multiple sclerosis (MS). We examined symptoms and performance of the PASC score, developed in the general population, in MS based on infection history.
Methods: We surveyed North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS) registry participants regarding infections and categorized participants based on infection history.
Front Immunol
January 2025
Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
Background: An increasing body of evidence indicates that dysregulation of liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) in cellular processes is implicated in the development of diverse tumors. Nevertheless, the association between LLPS and the prognosis, as well as the tumor immune microenvironment, in individuals with colon cancer remains poorly understood.
Methods: We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the LLPS cluster in 1010 colon cancer samples from the TCGA and GEO databases, utilizing the expression profiles of LLPS-related prognostic differentially expressed genes (DEGs).
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