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A termination of pregnancy is when a woman decides to end her pregnancy before its full term, by medical or surgical means. People often refer to a termination of pregnancy as an ‘abortion'.

The taking of a pap smear is a screening test provided to women to detect the early stages of what is called cervical cancer or in laymen's terms cancer of the "mouth of the womb". If early signs of cancer are detected, further investigations are done and treatment given where appropriate. The earlier cancer is treated, the more likely the chances are of recovery.

Induced abortion is a safe medical procedure when carried out by skilled practitioners in hygienic environments. In places with restrictive abortion laws, untrained providers, unsanitary conditions and limited access to high quality abortion services, women are much more likely to experience immediate complications, longterm disabilities or sometimes death.

According to a new study published this week in Breast Cancer Research, daily aspirin use appears to slightly reduce the risk of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer, the most common type of breast cancer. However, the current evidence isn't strong enough to suggest women take aspirin as a preventative measure, and experts caution against regular use of the painkiller for this purpose, warning it can cause serious gastrointestinal bleeding.

The court will set aside (not grant) a protection order if neither the complainant nor the respondent appears before court, or if one or both of the parties ask it to do so.

The complainant (the person who lodged the complaint) or the respondent (the person against whom the complaint was lodged) may apply for the variation (changing) or setting aside of a protection order by giving written notice to both the other party and the court.

If the court believes that the application was made freely and voluntarily, it can decide to vary or set aside the protection order.

This handbook focuses on efforts to bring women into governance, illustrating ways that organizations and activists around the world can foster greater gender equity in civic engagement, advocacy, voting and governance efforts to improve the quality of life for everyone. Six chapters highlight key approaches to supporting women's leadership to make governments worldwide more responsive to the needs of women.

In May of 2003, Rwandans ratified a new constitution that requires the participation of women in 30% of decision-making positions. In October of 2003, Rwanda's post-genocide transition officially came to a close with Parliamentary elections. In those elections, Rwandan women earned 49% of seats in Rwanda's new bicameral legislature, through election and appointment. This means that Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in its legislative branch, of any country, anywhere in the world.

Researchers at the Meraka Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have released an educational spelling game available free of charge in all 11 official South African languages.   

The game, called OpenSpell, was the inspiration of researcher and linguist, Dr Madelaine Plauché and open source software developer Richard Carlson.

On a daily basis in schools across the nation, South African girls of every race and economic class encounter sexual violence and harassment at school that impedes their realization of the right to education. This report examines the barrier to equal educational opportunity posed by the South African government's failure to adequately address the gender violence prevalent in the South African school system. South Africa was selected for this study not only because of the scope of the problem but also because of the opportunities for change there, where educators both in and outside of government have shown increasing interest in finding solutions.

This paper was delivered at the British Council/HSRC conference, GENDER EQUITY IN EDUCATION, held in Cape Town in May 2004.  The paper examines gender in South African education,  focusing on approaches and defninitions and  putting score cards forward  on South African's  perfomance.