Monday, September 25, 2017, 11:30 AM – 1 PM EDT

Dabney P. Evans, Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health

“Regardless, you are not the first woman”: An Illustrative Case Study of Missed Opportunities to Protect Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Dabney Evans is a mixed-methods researcher of issues affecting vulnerable populations at the intersection of public health and human rights. The expertise she has demonstrated in many publications and presentations as well as in the classroom has prompted Emory to name her Director of the Center for Humanitarian Emergencies and Director of the Institute of Human Rights and (in case she wasn’t busy enough) Interim Director of the Institute of Developing Nations. She will share some of the results of her current research into sexual and reproductive health and rights, focusing on the particularly sensitive topics of rape, unintended pregnancy, and abortion.

In presenting this case study, Dabney will share the story of Eve, a 19-year-old woman who was raped, became pregnant, and almost died from complications from an unsafe abortion. The case presents unique challenges related to the fulfillment of sexual and reproductive rights, due to legal restrictions on abortion and impunity for perpetrators of violence against women. This in-depth analysis of a real person’s history reveals missed opportunities for public health intervention, thus providing several important lessons for the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights in countries with restrictive legal policies and conservative cultural norms around sexuality. Her story demonstrates that an individual’s health decisions are not made in isolation, free from the influence of social norms and national laws. And Dabney’s research confirms that far too many other women similarly experience their sexuality in the context of individual and structural violence.