Reproductive Rights Blog

Things you should know - science

Not like you haven't heard it before (especially if you were hanging out with me this weekend) but vasectomies are totally safe.  And because this is my blog, I'll tell you my opinion on vasectomies: I'm all for them.  No one really wants me to go into it, but here's a quick rundown, from my perspective.  Heterosexual women have menstrual cycles, and all that brings.  They also bear the brunt of contraception, from what I gather.  Further, they are the ones carrying and birthing children, often breastfeeding them.  I don't feel it's an outrageous request for men involved with these women to consider vasectomies as fairly painless and totally reversible procedure.  The article talks about how men are squeamish about their boy parts, a concern for which I have little sympathy.  Somehow testicles became sacred, while women's fallopian tubes, uterii & etc became medically available.  It's a procedure that Jamaican men, for example, do not use.  You've heard it before.

Speaking of uteri, you may know my obsession with this from my previous posts, but the Picture of the Day from DCist a few days ago was a woman carrying three fetuses in her two uterii.  Awesome!

Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, hasn't been cleared for use in women 27 to 45.

Generic Yasmin available; Planned Parenthood going upscale, and that little Romanian girl finally got her abortion.

New way to freeze unfertilized eggs is better than the old way, in that eggs are more usable with this new method.  And scientists are saying they will be able to create sperm and eggs from stem cells in the next two decades.

And the animal story: coating birds' eggs with vegetable oil to keep them from hatching is a new method of population control in New York.

News Round Up (Jan. 25) Roe v. Wade Day Edition

This week was not only MLK Day, but Roe v. Wade Day.  Additionally, I lost another family member to cancer.  In any case, there was a lot you should have read about:

Roe v. Wade Day/Abortion:
Frances Kissling (formerly of CFFC) and Kate Michelman (formerly of NARAL) wrote an op-ed in the LA Times about abortion, and, really, the shift in perception around abortion.  They say that one thing the pro-choice folks need to engage in is a discussion about the "challenges" of the movement, including the judgment of women for getting pregnant in the first place.

Saletan says that pro-choicers need to message abortion with the goal of zero, same as teen pregnancy.

We've already discussed that the abortion rate is dropping, there's a rise in the use of RU-486 for medical abortions.

A new movie, "Silent Choices" is about abortion and African Americans.  Good article, go read it.

Pictures from the "March for Life" in DC.

Reproducing:
Related to the LA Times op-ed, a study out about Indiana shows that about 80% of black babies are born to unwed mothers.  Single mothers have lower levels of education and higher rates of poverty than married mothers, although that doesn't necessarily include those older single moms.

Italy has ruled that it is now legal to do pre-implantation genetic diagnosis of embryos.  The ruling, applicable only to the Rome area, will be reviewed by a higher court.  Also, don't forget, that in Italy only 3 embryos can be implanted at a time. 

This type of diagnosis, however, is not foolproof.

Gender/Work:
We're learning that ancient Mayan sacrifices were of young boys, not girls.

Slate had a great series on economics and gender and all of that lovely Gary-Becker-type-stuff.  Included were articles on why Divorce is Good for Women and the Economics of Marriage.   The articles are actually excerpts from a new book that's now on my wishlist.  In Japan, the introduction of divorce means that men have to treat their wives with more respect.

So while feminism opened up options for a lot of women, there was an ensuing backlash against feminism, and now there's this embrace of everything under the sun as feminism.  Want to walk around with a dog collar being led by your boyfriend?  Who's to say that's not feminist?  Stripping?  Feminist.  Housewife?  Totally feminist (not by all).   I'm not about to make any statements about it right now, but it certainly seems to be a trend that the idea of "choice" whether related to feminism or abortion, is in the eye of the beholder.  I mean, is one's choice really off bounds for social comment?

Science:
The Pill has an extended effect on preventing ovarian cancer, the number one cause of gynecologic cancer deaths in the United States.  Apparently, this is leading folks in the U.K. to renew a call to make the Pill available over-the-counter.  Additionally, caffeine decreases the risk of ovarian cancer, while alcohol and tobacco use play no role in it.

As always, there's way more to blog about, but I have to get moving.  Have a great weekend!

And the animal story: Pigeons in Paris

New Round Up (Jan. 10)

The big news, I guess, is that Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primaries, and most of the women's groups are pretty happy about that.

International:
Did y'all see this new Always campaign about young women in Africa?  I saw the ad on TV, and the website is through the Canadian affiliate.  Anyway, it's been well-documented that the lack of access to toilets is a barrier for girls going to school in Africa.   This does, then, affect the ability to care for oneself during menstruation.  So while I'd like to be more skeptical, I'm totally eating this up.

Italy is considering restricting abortions, which is now only available until the 90th day of pregnancy (that's about 12 weeks). 

There is an effort to increase circumcision among boys in developing countries in order to reduce the spread of HIV.  Some compare female circumcision to male circumcision, which I think is crap.  They do so based on the thought that male circumcision, like female circumcision, takes away from sexual pleasure.  Read and weep, jerks.

Regardless, I don't think you should go around circumcising people by force, which is apparently going on in Kenya.  One group circumcises, the other doesn't, so to see who your enemies are in this chaotic region, the penis has been a target.

I think we've seen this before, but the Beeb is reporting that a British fertility clinic is offering reduced price fertility treatment to women who donate eggs for research.  These eggs will be fertilized and the embryos will be used for stem cell research.

Spanish abortion clinics are on strike.  This is in response to increasing anti-activity, including government inspectors.  While this will decrease access for many women, I really do admire this.  We would have women come into our clinic so ashamed, and disrespectful, and it's just baffling.  Not only because so many women have abortions, but because we lived in an anti-choice state, which continuously put forth anti-choice laws.  If the women, partners, and families actually voted, protested, whatever, things could be so different.

Oy.  Full-term, forced abortion alleged in China.

Science:
The mess in Texas over mandating the HPV vaccine has actually been a good thing, as it has piqued the interest of many parents and teens in the state, leading to an increase in vaccination.  In other news, the American Cancer Society has a press release on the vaccine (from May 2007) and screening guidelines (on the bottom).  The CDC also has guidelines on cervical cancer screenings, in light of the fact that there is an HPV test, which reduces the frequency of screenings for those who have both normal Pap results and a normal HPV test.

Speaking STIs, there's a mutated strain of chlamydia  that is causing some serious problems.  The article indicates that the problems are in men's rectums, which I guess means this might be somewhat isolated to the gay male population?  In any case, LGV seems to be different than the average garden-variety chlamydia which is easily treated with antibiotics.

Speaking of, did you know that the CDC tracks numbers of STI infections, but not genital herpes or HPV?

More news on what hurts you during pregnancy.  Not moderate coffee intake, a new study shows.  I feel so badly for pregnant women, what with all the physical changes, plus a list a mile long of restrictions on food, behavior, drinks.  And it turns out some of it is bunk.

There are a bunch of animal stories, but this one is just so odd: unemployed youths in India are going to be taught to sterilize monkeys.  It sounds like the makings of a horrible situation.

Next time we'll have a whole lot on population, teen pregnancy, and related issues.

News Round Up (Jan. 4)

I'm not going to blog too much right now - I'm really not feeling well.  Here are a few things to tide you over until Monday.

United States

• AGI released a report on family planning (.pdf) services in the United States.
• Missouri is really swinging anti on abortion: The governor has created a task force to study abortion, and a ballot proposal that would outlaw most abortions.
• A Montana pharmacist will stop dispensing birth control pills, meaning that women will have an 80 mile drive to the nearest pharmacy, or mail order their pills.
• North Carolina may be implementing comprehensive sex-ed.  The Boston Globe runs a strong op-ed against ab-only programs, calling them a waste of money.

Foreign

• The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has apparently come out against abortions, calling abortion a "grave sin."  According to the Torah, the fetus is not a full-fledged person. Interestingly, while the fetus isn't considered a person for the first 40 days, a boy is not a member of Jewish society until he's 8 days old, and a girl at 30 days.
• Malawi may be liberalizing abortion laws.

Gender Roles
The Beeb covers the whole Female Chauvinist Pigs thing, asking if flashing is really empowering?  The Economist talks about the value of beauty, saying the intelligence may be linked to beauty.  ScienceDaily is also running the same information, I think, but a few weeks later.

Science
Glaxo's cervical cancer vaccine, Cervarix, is on hold for the time being as the FDA has requested more information.  Speaking of cervical cancer, the NCI has said that not having a clean margin after cervical surgery raises the risk of recurrence.  Which I thought was old news.  I thought the point of cancer surgery was to remove as much cancer as possible...no?  How we screen for cervical cancer is changing, as we learn more about HPV.  Oh, by the way, the AP decided to run a story saying that the cervical cancer vaccine, a shot, hurts.  Ground breaking reporting: shots can hurt.

And your animal story: sterilizing dogs in Kathmandu

News Round Up (Nov. 25)

So I'm watching the post-Thanksgiving morning news shows, debating with myself whether or not it would be a good thing if Roe fell, as many Presidential candidates hope for. On one hand, Roe being overturned would certainly be bad for access to abortion. On the other hand, if voters continuously choose to elect anti-choice legislators, why should they be immune from the consequences of those bad choices. Were Roe to fall, voters as well as legislators would have to walk the walk. Right now, for example, there's a man in Ohio that continuously gets re-elected, and his only issue is abortion. The people of Ohio are insulated by his election in part by the other Ohio legislators, but also, to a large extent, by the federal judiciary, upon whom we too greatly rely on for the protection of our rights. It's probably a little Old Testament of me, but I'm wondering if actually giving these anti-choicers more leeway won't actually mean that people eventually vote against them, once they have to deal with the consequences of the vote...

Anyway, the news:

U.S.
Denver, due to its high teen pregnancy rate, is considering making birth control available in high schools.
The Guardian explores the seeming change in Hollywood's depiction of abortion. A sociologist who writes for the Huffington Post, Lisa Wade, said that "It is as if all decisions to have an abortion are fraught with internal conflict, and then follow all women around like a dark cloud until the day they die." This is something we've discussed on this blog repeatedly: abortion isn't always a hard decision, and it's not always the wrong decision, and we don't have a lot of room in our discussion to admit that abortion can be easy, happy and/or freeing.
No surprise to most of us, but a good article on the strategy of the anti-choice movement that involves expanding the definition of "personhood". A good example is the Texas feticide law, which was upheld in a recent court decision regarding the killing of a women and her 4 - 6 week old fetus. On a more insidious note, Colorado is considering adding a provision regarding life beginning at conception that would make abortion illegal.
There's been a lot more coverage of the Crowley/Obama solution to the line in the Deficit Reduction Act that has raised the cost of birth control on college campuses. Make sure your legislator supports these efforts through ChoiceUSA or Planned Parenthood.

Parental Rights
In Kansas, a gay man agreed to donate sperm to a friend for artificial insemination. She filed papers to terminate his parental rights, which is appears is the default for Kansas sperm donors. He is fighting, and wants to be involved with the children and pay child support.
In the UK, a woman has received court permission to keep her pregnancy a secret from the man who impregnated her, as it was a one-night stand. The court ruled that she alone has the decision-making power regarding the adoption she seeks.

Foreign:
Regardless of the fact that abortion is legal in the UK, there is nonetheless a black market for herbal abortifacients. Speaking of, a website is selling what I think is RU-486 to Irish women; the drug is, as are abortion procedures, illegal.
RHRealityCheck has a whole section on one of our topics of conversaion, sex selective abortions.
I wish I had a better news source, but it appears that Sweden will allow foreign women to get abortions, up to 18 weeks gestation.

Science:
I hope you all have heard, by now, that scientists have created embryonic stem cells through adult cells. I wonder what will happen to the legal status of those cells, especially if they are pluripotent and could become a fetus...or maybe I just need someone to explain this all to me. In any case, it looks like scientists will no longer need embryos to do research on embryonic stem cells!
Totally useless news: sleep helps new moms lose baby weight. New moms would love to get more sleep anyway, but thanks for the information.
Apparently Chinese doctors have come up with a new form of male birth control that blocks sperm from travelling to the penis. It is totally reversible, and only takes 10 minutes. On a similar note, it looks like there's a new FDA-approved device that is a permanent method of female birth control. The device is inserted into a woman's fallopian tubes, and within three months the tubes are completely blocked.

There's a whole lot more out there right now, so I'll post again shortly.

News Round Up (Oct. 31)

Happy Halloween!  As the end of the year approaches I'm filled with thoughts of what I need to do, want to do, and have to do before the calendar rolls over.  Such an arbitrary date, but it means something to me nonetheless.  And what about the feminist movement?  What have we actually accomplished this year?  What's my role in all of this?  What do we have left to do?  And what can we get done in the next 8 weeks?

In spite of all of this, here are some news stories:

United States:
In Kansas, the investigation of Dr. George Tiller was blocked. Dr. Tiller performs abortions, and has been the target of much anti-choice maneuvering.  A report by the Denver Public School system recommends that birth control be available at schools in order to reduce the teen pregnancy rate and STI rate.  AGI publication on the role of Medicaid in family planning (.pdf)  The LA Times debunks the idea that women will substitute adoption for abortion if given information and access to services.  Teen pregnancy rates in DC dropping.

George Will has a column about abortion in America, including the make-up of SCOTUS, the Presidential election, and the majority's support for abortion.   

Foreign:
Abortion illegal in Northern Ireland.  Cardinal Corman Murphy-O'Connor pens an article about abortion in England and Wales.  He writes that he supports decreasing the time limit after which abortion is banned (from 24 weeks to 22 weeks, is the current proposal.)  Access to abortion, even in Canada, is limited.  The Pope is calling on pharmacists to stop dispensing RU-486.  Latin American abortion bans don't stop women from having abortions. 

Science/Medical:
Cellcept, an immunosuppressant drug used for transplant patients, may cause miscarriage and birth defects, warns the FDA.  Skipping the stirrups?   A study was done in Georgia on about 200 women who had pap tests either using stirrups or not; the accuracy of the pap was not affected.  Pre-cancerous lesions indicate high risk for cervical cancer up to 25 years after the lesion is removed.  Twins separated at birth for experiment reunite.

Requisite animal story: birth control for pigeons on Staten Island.

News Round Up (Oct. 26)

It's Cleaning-Out-My-Inbox time, in anticipation of the weekend, and possible crab fest, and being a Cara & Karen Cloud on all things festive.  DC Feminist Happy Hour planning in the works for an end of the year bash.

In the news:

Schoolgirls in Britain will get the HPV Vaccine.  While the vaccine has great results in clinical trials, we still don't really know how long it works.

J&J settles lawsuit over Ortho-Evra (The Patch) death.  Massachusetts is looking at wider clinic buffer zones while Oakland is thinking about instituting them in the first place.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer runs an absolutely amazing column on abortion in the UK (originally in The Independent)   It covers the idea that women "deserve" going through an abortion for "irresponsible behavior", the fact that the delay in access to abortion by anti-choice, misogynistic lawmakers contributes to later-term abortions, and the need for better information and access to contraception.  Joan Smith is my crush of the week.  Month, maybe.

Some weird news out of Florida: a surrogate mother has been told by the courts that she can keep the baby.  This is unusual, because it's my understanding that the intentional parents are usually the legal parents (e.g. those who intended to be the parent, regardless of the biological materials used) although there's no national policy.  Anyway, very interesting, and each state handles the issue differently.

Condom testers wanted.  Sex lessons part of health lessons for miners in Australia.  The influence of the Catholic Church's ban on condoms is helping HIV spread in Latin America.  South Africa is recalling million s of condoms.

Take Action on Title X Family Planning and Ovarian Cancer research. 

HPV Test Payment

Earlier this month, the press covered the results of a study that showed the HPV test being a better diagnostic tool than the Pap test for cervical cancer.  The study, as mentioned in the press coverage, did not use the Thin Prep test commonly used in the United States, so the results may not be translatable to the US population.  Nonetheless, people immediately started asking about payment for the HPV test. 

First, most insurance companies cover the HPV test.  Second, most state Medicaid programs cover the HPV test (see p.14 of the report).  Next, the HPV test is only recommended once every three years and costs approximately $70.  Lastly, Congress is planning to introduce a bill including coverage of the HPV test for Medicare beneficiaries (over 65). [p.s. that is my exciting news]

So anyway, I just wanted to share that information.

News Round Up (Oct 18)

Cancer News:
The National Breast Cancer Coalition, which has worked hard to get federal funds for breast cancer research, has launched a site with video and text from Presidential candidates regarding their intended role in fighting breast cancer.  The group also recently released a survey on breast cancer awareness.  I'm shocked at how little people know about this common and detectable disease.  For something like ovarian cancer, I'm not surprised (although I'm not happy) at how little people know.  Illinois has expanded its breast an cervical cancer screening program, funded through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program.  People should really know about this, because what use is knowledge of the symptoms of breast or cervical cancer, without a way to actually treat it?

A subset of cancer news: HPV
Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have required some health insurance plans to cover the HPV vaccine.  Via RHRealityCheck, Denmark and the UK recommend that all girls get the HPV vaccine.  Did we already discuss this?  The HPV test is more useful at finding cancer than a Pap test - at least the version of the Pap test researchers used, which is not the same one used in the US.  (Again, I'll note that my boyfriend works for the company that has the only FDA approved HPV test in the United States, as a full disclaimer).

Domestic:
Speaking of Illinois, apparently the pharmacy refusal clause issue has reached a settlement.  The Post reports "Trained technicians or store owners would contact a pharmacist at another location, then follow his or her directions for dispensing the morning-after pill."

Birth control at middle school?  There are very few 11 to 13 year olds having sex, but those that do are hopefully making informed choices, and need access to safe and effective contraceptives.  But wow, 13...does that sound young to anyone, or am I getting old?   

India:
Two Indian news stories, a country for which I have a special place in my heart.  First, unwanted sex common among married women in India.  Second, GE says it is willing to do more to reduce the use of ultrasound machines for determining a fetus' sex.  It is illegal to use an ultrasound for that purpose in India due to the high rate of sex-selective abortions.  Nonetheless, it is possible to get around this law, as is the case with most laws.  Especially in developing countries.  I did a fair amount of work on rule of law stuff, especially as it relates to human rights in developing countries, which is why I am eternally amused by the man from Ghana who wanted me to ignore Ohio's 24 waiting period for abortion, and give his wife an abortion that day, promising me that he wouldn't tell anyone.  Anyway, another story on India is the lack of affordable sanitary pads for menstruation.

Foreign:
Illegal abortions in South Africa are common.  Abortion law in the UK may be changing, lowering the 24 week legal limit.

Fertility:
Low birth weight babies born in the NYC area around 9/11 due to stress.  New birth control, for women, of course, and years away.  Egg freezing not the number one choice, as the odds aren't fabulous that the egg will survive.  Embryos and sperm, as we've discussed, fare much better.  Chinese herbs useful for menstrual pain.  Kroger offers some Pills for $4.

Men:
Chlamydia damages male fertility as well as female fertility.  Gene linked to male infertility discovered.

Feminism:
Feminists have better relationships; the feminist movement is about...blogging?

And the animal article: Geese on birth control.   

News Round Up (Sep. 21)

Happy Autumnal Equinox and Yom Kippur everyone.

Let's start off with the PP clinic in Aurora, IL (Chicago suburb) that's getting so much attention.  PP has a blog they've started with correspondents on the ground and a YouTube page.  At this time, the clinic will remain closed.  What happened is that PP didn't use its own name when applying for the building permit.   So now this is really about occupancy and building permits, but has, of course, turned into a huge abortion debate with the antis protesting and counter-protests and all kinds of nonsense.  PP has a petition and a ribbon campaign and whatnot, but this is going to happen all over: until we stop depending upon the courts to protect our rights, they will be eliminated.  Vote pro-choice (Democrat or Republican).  Or, run for office.

Another big issue is the potential repeal of the Global Gag Rule.  So here's what happened.  A million years before blogs ever existed, President Reagan signed the Mexico City Policy, which restricted US federal funds to foreign Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).  These NGOs, in order to receive US federal funds, could neither perform nor refer patients for abortions.  The first thing President Clinton did when he came into office was to repeal the Executive Order, and it was one of the first things President Bush did when he took office.  Anyway, there's been a lot of back and forth since then, including this summer.  Senator Boxer attached a provision that would basically repeal the GGR to an appropriations bill.  The bill hasn't yet gone to conference, and it's unlikely the President will sign, but that's how it stands.

Other news:
Lisa wants you to know that the NYT is reporting that NY refused ab-only funds.  Thanks, Lisa!  This is good news, because ab-only education --> STIs.

The HPV vaccine is more effective (works against more strains of HPV) than previously thought.  Also, you know that HPV causes cancers other than just cervical?  The link between HPV and head and neck cancers is also documented (so now we have cervical, anal, throat, oral, head, neck and vulvar cancers caused by HPV).  Catholic parents in Windsor, Canada, will be allowed to opt their daughters out of getting the HPV vaccine (they're being provided for free to girls in Grade 8).  Speaking of cancer, alcohol consumption in older women is linked to endometrial cancer.

Slovakia did not alter its conscience clause, which it had considered removing altogether.

Stem cells that make sperm can make other kinds of cells.  Baby needs a new pair of knees!  Actually, what this does is further endorse the idea that embryonic stem cells are not necessary for scientific research.  Which is good, because the US doesn't really have a whole lot of those.

The NYT and IHT have front page stories on FGM in Egypt. Funny - I did a whole project on FGM in Egypt while I was in graduate school.  My friends were horrified by just the line drawings of what it is.  As well we all should be. 

This is really part of my whole wrongful birth thing, but a lesbian couple in Australia is suing a doctor who gave them twins, rather than a single child.  I really will write more about wrongful birth and wrongful life one of these days. 

An alarmist article on tattoos and epidurals; I would mostly ignore this, but thought I should post it regardless.  I mean, really, is there anything a pregnant woman can do these days?  And I'm not getting back into the whole women should always think of themselves as pre-pregnant thing from earlier this week, because I just calmed down from it.

Arizona won't have a "Choose Life" license plate.

And that's all I have for now.  Not even a good animal story.  Have a great weekend.