Is three a crowd in a general practice setting? A medical student's view

Abstract

Editor -We read with great interest the study by Partanen et al., 1 which found the presence of medical students during general practice consultations to be satisfactory for all participants, and that three really does not constitute a crowd.

MTP Amendment Bill, 2014: towards re-imagining abortion care

“…Thus, a woman's right to self-determination was recognised at the very outset. In India, the lack of such feminist advocacy for abortion in the 1960s and early 1970s, either because of the lack of such an inclination within the women's movement or the lack of an outright anti-woman opposition to abortion, as seen in the West (9), has led to a situation in which, as Nivedita Menon notes, access to abortion is upheld "through a sanctifying of social norms which are, in fact, antithetical to feminism" (10). So, while the 1971 MTP Act seems liberal from a public health perspective, it can be interpreted as a conservative law from a feminist perspective: the woman's agency is transferred to her healthcare provider and she is made a dependant within the clinic where the abortion is performed.…”

“…The medical community's opposition to the inclusion of these groups is not entirely surprising, considering that it has enjoyed a monopoly over the field of abortion since liberalisation. Jesani and Iyer draw attention to the power vested in allopathic healthcare providers by the 1971 MTP Act (9), which, along with the non-regulation of the private sector, created a space for the financial exploitation of women seeking abortion. Studies have found that while the overall care provided to patients in the private sector is good, it means an increase in the patient's out-of-pocket expenditure (16).…”

“…The current law, in choosing to protect doctors acting in good faith, forces women to justify their abortions (17). It also makes them dependent on the doctor's interpretation of the law (9). This is particularly true of women who are not explicitly covered by the 1971 MTP Act, for example, unmarried women or sex workers.…”