Tag Archive for "reproductive health"

Posts Tagged reproductive health

Native women gain better access to emergency contraception–but still not enough

While women of color may receive more counseling on emergency contraception, they certainly don’t always have access to it when they do need it. From the age restrictions that were finally lifted after a court order to pharmacists who spread misinformation or refuse to stock the drug, we know is still not as easy as it should be to get your hands on some EC in many places. And for many Native American women, it’s been all but impossible. As MoJo explained last year:

On many reservations, the only medical facilities are the Indian Health Service centers, which are a federally administered division of the Department of Health ...

By Juliana Britto Schwartz • 10 years ago

Poor women of color receive more counseling for emergency contraception

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has released a report showing that black, Latina and low-income women are more likely to receive counseling for emergency contraception. According to this New York Times piece, “Eleven percent of white and Hispanic women and 7.9 percent of black women reported having used emergency contraceptives at least once, but Hispanic and black women were more than twice as likely to have had their health care provider discuss emergency contraceptive options during routine pap smears and pelvic exams. The survey found that 18 percent of Hispanic women, 12 percent of black women and 5.7 percent of white women were given such advice by their clinicians.” The survey also demonstrated that poorer women were more likely ...

By Chloe Angyal • 10 years ago

Update on Wichita radio station’s refusal to air ads for abortion clinic

As we’ve reported in the last few weeks, Clear Channel in Wichita, Kansas, has been refusing to air ads for the local reproductive health clinic, South Wind Women’s Center. The ads, Clear Channel says, are “indecent.” Not indecent? Ads for “male enhancement,” and for local adult book shops (man, that’s a lot of euphemisms. Boner pills and porn, folks).

But, the awesome Women Action and the Media, helmed by friend of the site Jaclyn Friedman, launched a big campaign to get Clear Channel to reconsider their position. A petition, tweets, emails, and a fair bit of totally-merited public shaming, because there is nothing indecent about healthcare, and the people of Wichita shouldn’t be kept in the dark ...

By Sesali B. • 10 years ago

Why young women are still relying on partners to “pull out”

As ThinkProgress reports, new research has found that a third of young women are still relying on the “withdrawal method” to prevent pregnancy. As those of us lucky enough to have benefited from a more comprehensive sex education probably know, this method is far from reliable as a form of birth control. According to the report:

“Researchers at the Duke University Medical Center analyzed data from 2,220 participants in between the ages of 15 and 24, and found that 31 percent of those women had used withdrawal as a form of birth control at least once. Twenty one percent of the women who had used the “pull out” method experienced an unintended pregnancy, compared to only 13 percent of ...

By Lori Adelman • 10 years ago

Chart(s) of the day: Americans consistently support abortion rights, but attitudes vary by region

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you might have the impression that everyone and their mama, no pun intended, wants to slash abortion rights.

Not true, according to recent data collected by the Pew Research Center. In fact, according to a national survey conducted July17-21 among 1,480 adults (that’s sound methodology, folks!), over half of all Americans (54%) say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But as Pew researchers explain it, “while the balance of opinion toward abortion nationwide has remained largely steady over the past 20 years, there are widening disparities in public attitudes on the issue across different regions of the country.”

The researchers ...

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you might have the impression that everyone and their mama, no pun intended, wants to slash abortion rights.

Not true, according ...

By Chloe Angyal • 10 years ago

Coverage of reproductive rights features almost no reproductive health experts

On cable news, coverage of the Texas abortion restrictions has been light on medical experts. Via Media Matters:

I think there’s something to be said for including political commentators in conversations about an issue that is so clearly political. I’m also grateful when advocates for reproductive justice are given a place at the table, since, again, this is a justice issue and not just a medical one. But I also want doctors, and public health experts – people who can explain why abortion bans are medically harmful and why forced vaginal ultrasounds are medically unnecessary. The more viewers know about that stuff, the better they can understand the politics of the situation. But based on ...

On cable news, coverage of the Texas abortion restrictions has been light on medical experts. Via Media Matters:

I think there’s something to be said for including political commentators in conversations about ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 10 years ago

Senator Frank Lautenberg, champion for reproductive health, dead at 89

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) died early this morning at the age of 89. Think Progress has compiled a great list of ten of the World War II vet’s progressive triumphs. Some of his distinctly feminist achievements included:

4. Wrote the domestic violence gun ban to protect women and children by keeping spousal and child abusers from owning guns. Gun safety advocates are now seeking to strengthen the law…

6. Wrote the Responsible Education about Life (REAL) Act, which provides funding for comprehensive sex education, and the Access to Birth Control (ABC) Act that would prohibit pharmacies from denying access to birth control. As he said on the floor in March of 2012, “So I want them to ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 10 years ago

Breaking: SCOTUS declines to hear defense of Indiana’s anti-Planned Parenthood law

The Indiana government really, really wants to defund Planned Parenthood, but the U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear its appeal of a lower court’s ruling that the state really, really can’t do that. The LA Times reports:

Without comment, the justices turned away Indiana’s defense of a 2011 law that would ban all Medicaid funds to an organization such as Planned Parenthood whose work includes performing abortions.

The high court let stand decisions by a federal judge in Indiana and the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago that blocked the measure from taking effect. The “defunding law excludes Planned Parenthood from Medicaid for a reason unrelated to its fitness to provide medical services, violating its patients’ ...