Examining Catalan Health Policy, New Book by Bayla Ostrach

COM book coverScholars and students in the field of public health, gender studies, and anthropology, or the general reader interested in the politics of abortion and public health, may be interested in Health Policy in a Time of Crisis: Abortion, Austerity, and Access. This ethnographic account, forthcoming from Routledge Press in January, captures women and providers’ experiences as they navigated the Catalan health care system to access and provide publicly funded abortion care in the context of the recent global economic crisis.

The book is authored by Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Medical Anthropology faculty member Bayla Ostrach, PhD, who is also a Fellow of the Society of Family Planning, and  an applied medical anthropologist by training. Her interest in women’s health and public health brought her to Barcelona, where she pursued international field work revolving around access to safe abortion. During her time abroad, she collected quantitative surveys and conducted qualitative interviews and intensive participant-observation to explore women’s, providers’, and advocates’ perceptions of women’s experiences with the process of navigating the public health system to obtain legal, publicly funded abortion in Catalunya, in the wake of policy changes enacted between 2010 and the first  half of 2013.

Ostrach examines the myriad of logistical, social, and economic obstacles  women in Catalunya had to overcome to receive care. A closer analysis reveals that inequalities affect poor and marginalized immigrant women disproportionately. However, the women adopted diverse approaches and mobilized social support to overcome obstacles to abortion care.

“Words cannot adequately express my appreciation, empathy, and admiration for the women of Catalunya who did whatever they had to do in order to obtain publicly funded abortion care in the context of economic crisis and policy changes,” Ostrach writes. She stresses that the accounts of the women and “how they overcame obstacles are a constant reminder of why research is not enough – the findings must be used to improve access, too.”

Submitted by Sherry Yan, MD