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