Reproductive Rights Blog

FDA Official Resigns over Plan B Mess

Susan Wood wrote "I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled...The recent decision announced by the Commissioner about emergency contraception, which continues to limit women's access to a product that would reduce unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions, is contrary to my core commitment to improving and advancing women's health."

Fetal Pain, JAMA & Congress

Saletan, as always, covers the most recent abortion-related topic. For now, it's fetal pain. The argument over the validity and objectivity of the new JAMA article stating that fetuses do not feel pain before 28 weeks is an interesting one. Saleten makes the point that the authors are only reviewing existing studies; Congress, on the other hand, had no scientific basis for its finding that fetuses feel pain.

The bill pending requires certain language that doctors must say to patients who are having late term abortions; this language is false.

This is not the first time a legislature has required doctors to lie to abortion patients (e.g. the breast cancer "link" some doctors are required to point out in states) but I can't believe that such laws are Constitutional. They certainly aren't ok.

Abstinence Only Harms Uganda

The US's policy of favoring abstinence only has led it to stop shipping condoms to Uganda. This, in turn, has led to a shortage of condoms in Uganda. This is not really news. Human Rights Watch declared, six months ago, that Ab-only was harming Uganda's prior success in fighting HIV/AIDS.

One HIV+ minister said:
"We are still hopeful that America, being a strong and well-meaning country, will not go down in history as a country which exported ideas at the expense of people's free will to choose."

States Make Numerous Efforts to Restrict Abortion

The Post runs a story on the various ways individual states have sought to restrict abortion access. Examples include: fetal pain bills, fetal homicide bills, trigger laws (laws that are on the books outlawing abortion; when Roe falls they are triggered, and outlaw abortion in that state immediately), informed consent laws and parental consent laws. To read more about these issues, or what your state is doing, check out NARAL's Who Decides?. It's updated daily.

FDA Delays MAP Decision, Again

What is this, like, the 100th time the FDA has decided not to do its job and rule on the OTC application for the Morning After Pill? The Post also covers it here.

Crawford, who was approved by Congress to his position as Commissioner, had declared that the FDA would rule on the application by September 1. Now, he's extending that decision making period another 60 days to figure out how to let only people who are 16 or older buy the Pill.

Why is this complicated? My CVS sells alcohol (21) and cigarettes (18). The clerks check the age of the purchaser. I mean, we DO this already. There was a debate about it on C-SPAN yesterday, asking if the delay was a matter of politics trumping science. I had to turn it off after some guy called in saying it was a matter of "ethics" and "values", although at the same time tried to argue that it was not, in fact, a political decision. I don't even want to go into this right now, but any reader of this blog knows that the MAP does not promote unprotected sex, and it reduces the number of abortions, so how this is even a "moral" issues for the antis is beyond me.

Russia Reports more Abortions than Births

That's according to this article, which attributes the high abortion rate to financial reasons.

Eric Rudolph Sentenced

Convicted clinic bomber Eric Rudolph was sentenced, earlier this week, to life in prison for his 1996 Olympic Park bombing. While "apologizing" for the Olympic bombing, Rudolph maintained the necessity of his other bombings. For a summary on who this guy is, in case you don't know, check out rotten.com's profile.

Race and Birth Control

It's no secret that blacks in America distrust the medical establishment. This distrust has led to a lack of acceptance of birth control in the black community. Women who don't trust the medcial profession don't want to use prescription contraceptives. Black women have 35% of abortions in America, but are only 13% of the civilian population.

Ab Only Group Loses Federal Funding

The Silver Ring Thing has been found to use federal funds for religious purposes, and will lose its funding.

Fetal Pain Contested

There have been a number of fetal pain statutes introduced recently (past post on Minnesota here, in Congress, S.51 & H.R. 356). This legislation requires abortion providers to offer fetal anesthesia for abortions. A new study, coming out tomorrow, contends that fetuses do not feel pain until about 28 weeks - 7 months. The bills put the time of fetal pain around 20 weeks. Only 1.4% of abortions occur after the 20th week, 0.08% of abortions are performedafter 24 weeks.