Resumo em Inglês:

Engaging in sexuality and reproduction should always be something that is wanted and planned. Unfortunately, when that is not the case, one result can be unwanted pregnancy. Unwanted pregnancies have consequences for women, their families, and their countries. This document reviews the causes and results of unwanted pregnancy, emphasizing the impact that this problem has on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Four reasons why unwanted pregnancy is a continuing problem in LAC are: 1) people's growing desire to have smaller families, 2) the unmet need for family planning, 3) the fact that contraceptive methods are not 100% effective, and 4) unwanted sexual relations. Unwanted pregnancies especially affect adolescent women, single women, and women over 40 years of age. Given their desperate situation with an unwanted pregnancy, some women opt for an unsafe abortion, which can lead to their death. Other women can go so far as to commit suicide, or be murdered by a family member or other person who is unhappy that the pregnancy has occurred. It has been found that women who decide to continue with the pregnancy have higher risks of suffering an illness, and the same is true for the child. Reducing unwanted pregnancies and treating post-abortion complications are key to lowering maternal mortality and morbidity. This necessitates developing mass communication programs that address gender issues, education programs for girls, and sex education programs. It is also vital to make available to all persons reproductive health services that include family planning methods. In the countries of LAC with laws that specify grounds for legally ending a pregnancy, it is necessary that health care be organized to actually provide this service, and that health care programs obtain the safest, most effective technologies now available for ending a pregnancy.

Resumo em Inglês:

There are now some 36 million people in the world infected with HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that more than 23 million of them are economically active, including 642 000 persons in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the workplace, HIV/ AIDS reduces incomes, imposes added costs on companies, and undermines fundamental labor laws due to the discrimination and rejection that infected individuals suffer. In response, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has produced a document entitled An ILO code of practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work, which is summarized in this piece. The ILO document aims to help those in the workplace to cope with the HIV/AIDS epidemic through a set of guidelines related to: (a) preventing infection, (b) managing and reducing the impact that HIV/AIDS has on the workplace, (c) delivering care and support for infected workers and, in general, to all the people affected by this epidemic, and (d) eliminating discrimination against persons who are infected or are suspected of being infected. The ILO Code is intended to help in preparing and adopting specific measures in the workplace, thus promoting dialogue and other forms of cooperation among the government, employers, workers and their representatives, workplace health and safety officers, HIV/AIDS specialists, and other interested parties. The intention is also for the Code recommendations to be implemented and integrated with national laws, policies, and programs; company or business agreements; and workplace policies and action plans. This ILO Code is an important step in the struggle against HIV/AIDS. Aimed at governments, employers, and workers throughout the world, the Code recommendations constitute a useful tool in addressing the problem of HIV/AIDS in the workplace, in a just manner. As a "motor" of society, work cannot remain separated from issues of such great social impact.