Eniko Magyari-Vincze

2005-06 International Policy Fellow
Public Health and the Roma working group

Abstract:

This paper approaches the access of Roma women to reproductive health as a socially, economically and culturally, but also politically determined phenomenon. It investigates it as a problem that illustrates broader issues of post-socialist social exclusion.

The study consists of a critical investigation of the current policies for Roma and reproductive health policies in Romania. It describes the socio-economic conditions, institutional arrangements, policies and cultural conceptions that shape Romani women's access to reproductive health, and also their personal ways of dealing with the related problems. It concludes by offering recommendations referring to the need for mainstreaming both ethnicity and gender into public health policy in order to overcome the effects of discrimination in relation to reproductive rights and access to healthcare..

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