Final Report Summary - CONOB (Conscientious objection in the UK and Italy: a qualitative study of health providers’ perspectives on abortion)
During the second year of her Fellowship, Dr. De Zordo completed her research and attained the main objectives of her project, in particular: 1- she carried out her fieldwork in the UK, the second European country after Italy, where she had planned to undertake her research on physicians’ and health professionals’ experiences and attitudes to abortion and conscientious objection. She undertook her research in the UK in London and in the Birmingham area, in a number of independent clinics and in a NHS maternity hospital providing abortion care; 2- she participated in a number of national and international Conferences and seminars on reproduction and abortion-related issues, where she presented the results of her study and discussed its main topic (conscientious objection to reproductive health care) with health professionals, representatives of the most important international medical Associations, and social scientists (see section 3.2.2 for details); 3- she organized an international workshop on conscientious objection to reproductive health care addressed to experts in reproductive health from different international organizations (WHO, IPPF, CRR) as well as academic researchers, in collaboration with the US organization “Global Doctors for Choice” and the Italian Association “Laiga” (Free Association of Italian gynaecologists for the application of the 194 Abortion Law); 4- she published a number of articles drawing on different elements of her past research on family planning and abortion in Brazil and on her current research on abortion/stigma towards abortion (see section 3.2.2 for details) and she started to work on two articles based on the study carried out during her Marie Curie Fellowship, in particular on: one article that will be submitted to an important Medical Anthropology Journal (Medical Anthropology Quarterly), and one chapter for a book on abortion in Europe that will be published by Berghahn and will be edited by Dr. Silvia De Zordo, Dr. Lorena Anton (Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Bordeaux, France) and Dr. Joanna Mishtal (Assistant Professor at University of Central Florida, USA). Dr. Anton and Dr. Mishtal are both anthropologists and experienced international researchers that have been working for almost a decade on abortion in Roumania and France, and abortion in Poland and Ireland respectively.
Finally, she was awarded a Fellowship in Spain that will allow her to continue her research on abortion and conscientious objection and expand it by including a new European country: Spain. This Fellowship, which can be considered as a successful outcome of her Marie Curie Fellowship, will start on March 1st, 2013, therefore Dr. De Zordo will terminate her Marie Curie project as of February 28th, 2013, before its due end (April 3rd, 2013).
Finally, she was awarded a Fellowship in Spain that will allow her to continue her research on abortion and conscientious objection and expand it by including a new European country: Spain. This Fellowship, which can be considered as a successful outcome of her Marie Curie Fellowship, will start on March 1st, 2013, therefore Dr. De Zordo will terminate her Marie Curie project as of February 28th, 2013, before its due end (April 3rd, 2013).