When technology guarantees rights | An app p …

Page12 in Canada

From Vancouver

A mobile phone application that provides reliable information on how to practice a safe abortion with drugs: Once downloaded, it has the advantage of being able to be used without a connection, without a data plan or access to the Internet. A bot that lives on Facebook Messenger was developed by a young man from Kenya and offers information and advice on badual and reproductive health to adolescents and youth who would not otherwise seek it because of the shame or stigma that still weighs on rural communities in this region. country, where polygamy and girl marriages are well established. The Aborto Seguro and LucyBot apps are two examples of how technology can guarantee badual and reproductive rights in contexts that may not be user-friendly or restrictive. Both innovations were presented at Women Deliver 2019, the global conference on gender equity and rights that has been held in this city until tomorrow, with the participation of more than 8 000 women from 160 countries, including about 1,400 young and adolescent girls By Mariana Carbajal

"The technologies make it possible to expand access to information on safe abortion, via WhatsApp, a call center platform or an application." The most important thing is that 39. They provide accurate and timely information.The health technology sector is one of the most advanced, "said Alejandra Meglioli, Program Director of the Federation for the Western Hemisphere Regional of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. (IPPF), as part of a dialogue with PáginaI12. an organization dedicated to the promotion of badual and reproductive health, through NGO partners from different countries. Meglioli coordinated a panel at which the Safe Abortion app was presented, as well as other strategies to encourage women to manage their own voluntary termination of pregnancy, with drugs, in countries where laws prohibit or limit access to abortion.

The application is available for Android and Apple in three languages: English, French and Spanish. It was developed by Hesperian, a foundation based in the United States, dedicated for decades to producing badual and reproductive health guides.

The Aborto Seguro app provides:

• A pregnancy calculator: The woman or person in charge can enter the date of the last menstrual period to determine the number of weeks of pregnancy that she has.
• They describe the most recommended medical abortion method, specifying which ones can work and which ones do not.
• A comparison of methods, with the advantages and disadvantages of each.
• What to expect, how to prepare and what happens during and after the abortion.
• Explicit instructions: how to use misoprostol (with or without mifepristone) and the correct doses during the different weeks of pregnancy.
• Information on how to use emergency hormonal contraception for women who have had unprotected bad less than 5 days before and wish to avoid a possible pregnancy.
• Signs of danger: what to do in case of fever, excessive pain, bleeding or other worrying signs, which clearly indicate when clinical or emergency badistance is needed?

In addition, it contains an extensive section of frequently asked questions: answers to more than 30 questions about abortion-related procedures and problems, which provide clear, medically correct and non-judgmental answers to help women to make their own decisions and to control their own bodies. and future.