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women

Council of Europe raps Italy over difficulty in obtaining abortions

Women’s rights are being violated in Italy by the serious difficulties they face in trying to obtain safe abortions due to many doctors refusing to carry out the procedure, the Council of Europe said on Monday. Terminating pregnancies has been legal in Italy since 1978, but the council’s social rights committee found that the situation in Italy violated both the women’s right to protection of health and the doctors’ right to dignity at work. Women seeking an abortion are sometimes forced to go elsewhere in Italy or abroad, or bypass the authorities to get a termination.

Weight-loss surgery may help curb urinary incontinence

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Weight-loss surgery may help reduce urinary incontinence in extremely obese people, a study suggests. Researchers followed nearly 2,500 obese men and women who had so-called bariatric surgery, which alters the stomach or intestines to induce weight loss.  Before the surgery, nearly half the women and about a fifth of the men had experienced urinary incontinence. A year later, the rate of incontinence was down to about 18 percent in women and 10 percent in men.

The Year of the Woman

This year will be a very significant year for women across the globe. The world will mark the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing as well as the deadline for crafting the post-2015 agenda. Both events will involve conversations on women's rights including their right to live safely and freely of violence in…