Latest update: 26/10/2012 

- abortion - France - French politics - health - Pakistan - USA - Vaccine


Health and politics: where to draw the line?

How does politics interfere with health outcomes? This week the Health team uses three examples of political decisions impacting medical care at the patient level.

By Juliette LACHARNAY / Lara MELLOUL / Mairead DUNDAS / Marina BERTSCH

We start in France at a Roma camp in the city of Nantes. This marginalised community has the right to healthcare but forced expulsions and evictions make access to doctors an obstacle course that few can manage to navigate.

Next we head to the tribal belt of Pakistan. The Taliban has banned anti-polio vaccinations out of fear they may be used by the United States for undercover operations. The Central Intelligence Agency has already infiltrated vaccination campaigns in the past.

And finally we head to Texas in the United States, home to some of the toughest abortion policies in the world. A recent law forces all medical practitioners to show or describe an ultrasound to pregnant mothers in a bid to change their mind. Certain doctors say they're being used as a mouthpiece for the state's ideological message.
 


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