PARLAMERICAS’ YEAR IN HIGHLIGHTS 2014 45
EXPERT PANEL
The meeting opened with a presentation (in Spanish) on "Women's Healthcare: From Mother to Woman with Rights" by Dr. Paulina Troncoso Espinoza, head of the women’s program at the Chilean Ministry of Health. Dr. Troncoso, who is a surgeon specializing in gynaecology and obstetrics, first provided a historical overview of health interventions for women in the region. She explained that following the population explosion in the 1960s, countries began to put efforts towards controlling fertility. They also were confronted with the need to respond to very high rates of infant and mother mortality, including deaths due to complications from unsafe abortions.
Dr. Troncoso said that 1976 to 1986 became known as the "women’s decade" due to improvements in health indicators such as maternal mortality, with positive trends that have continued to this day. Yet these numbers do not tell the whole story, she pointed out. Fertility rates among adolescent populations in Latin America and the Caribbean still have not dropped. There also remain substantial inequalities in access to services depending on women’s socio-economic status.