Power, policy and abortion care in Uganda
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Authors
Kagaha, Alexander
Manderson, Lenore
Issue Date
2020-12-21
Type
Article
Language
en_US
Keywords
Uganda , Abortion Care , Communicative Material , Discursive Practice , Prioritization , Epistemic Governance , Governmentality
Alternative Title
Abstract
Unsafe abortion practices remain the major contributor to maternal death in Uganda, impeding the achievement of universal health coverage and quality of maternal health care. Using an ethnographic design and critical discourse analysis, we explored the operations of power in setting maternal healthcare priorities, as evident at the 2018 Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescents Health Conference. Observational data were collected of the policy-making activities, processes and events and key informant interviews were conducted with 27 participants. We describe how neoliberal and state governance through the structure and organization of policy-making, epistemic governance and universal concepts of ‘high-impact’ interventions, results-based financing, cost-effectiveness and accountability converge to suppress the articulation of local conditions associated with unsafe and risky abortion. By defining maternity along the continuum of birth and emphasizing birthing women, priority-setting was directed towards interventions promoting women’s normative role as mothers while suppressing unmet abortion care needs. Finally, discursive and communicative materials controlled how women of reproductive age in Uganda managed reproduction.
Description
Citation
Kagaha, A., & Manderson, L. (2021). Power, policy and abortion care in Uganda. Health policy and planning, 36(2), 187–195. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czaa136
Publisher
Health Policy and Planning