A few years ago, Family Planning Health Services took a look at whether or not minors in Wisconsin had access to emergency contraception and/or information about how to get emergency contraception or how it works. Here’s the picture from family planning clinics, emergency rooms, and crisis pregnancy centers.
On July 23, 2008 members of the House and Senate sent letters to President Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Leavitt protesting the proposed rule change that would define most types of birth control as abortion. Here you’ll find a list of all the Representatives and Senators who signed the letters. Please take a moment to say thanks by clicking on their name.
In Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, Mike Males writes, “The Real Mistake in ‘Teen Pregnancy.’” This op-ed takes a fascinating look at how teen pregnancy is charaterized in the United States. His look at how society views the situation is insightful and challenging for those of us working to improve the lives of families through delayed and planned childbirth. What do you think about his take?
Recently, The Statesman Editorial Board penned an opinionon Texas’ funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. This well written and reasoned editorial also sparked an interesting debate among online readers about how to approach the topic of comprehensive sexuality education in schools.
Most of us know someone who’s dated online. With the explosion of internet dating and the (possibly related) prevelence of sexually transmitted infections, it’s delightful to see someone take the opportunity to use technology to improve reproductive health care in a less traditional way. This article, published in the Minneapolis StarTribune, Josephine Marcotty talks to University of Minnesota developers about the website and why they think it will work. “Web May Hold Key to Fighting New HIV Wave”, is a fascinating read about the possibilities open to us through the internet. I look forward to seeing the results of their project in the future.
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is up for renewal. This article, published in the Boston Globe, demonstrates Congess could help increase the effectiveness of this funding. In “Global AIDS Policy and Women’s Health”, Pat Daoust explains how the Global Gag Rule has stunted the success of AIDS prevention initiatives in Africa and what Congress could do about it.
May is Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. Every year about this time, we take a moment to talk about pregnancy as a consequence of unprotected or underprotected sexual activity. In “The Silent Epidemic”, Lisa Kaiser of The Shepherd Express takes a look at the prevelence of sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates among teens in the Milwaukee area. Ms. Kaiser rightly points out in her article that while many were shocked when it came out that 1 in 4 teen girls in the United States has an STI, the numbers can be higher in our backyard.
Several resources exist to help families in America access family planning and reproductive health care. This year, the Institute of Medicine is reviewing the Title X program to develop recommendations for the future of the program. Here’s a look at how Title X, along with Medicaid and 340B Public Sector Drug Pricing could be woven together to form a strong and resilient reproductive health care safety net. This presentation created by Lon Newman and the Wisconsin Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association outlines the benefits of such a plan. The presentation is posted here with permission from both Mr. Newman (a regular here at BelowtheWaist) and the Wisconsin Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.
In another case of ideology over public health, several fringe special interest groups have asked President Bush to reinstate an American version of the gag rule. In this letter to the editor of The Hill published on May 14th, Lon Newman responded to their misguided attempt to prevent abortions in the United States.
BelowTheWaist has been up in the world for about a month now and it’s been pretty interesting for those of us behind the scenes to see how many people are checking out the podcast, who’s registering and who’s commenting. Now, we think it’s time for a few more of you to come out of the woodwork. We know you care and that you have things to say on our many topics and we’re ready to hear and share them. We designed this site based on the idea that everyone should have access to the reproductive health care and family planning services they want. Here at BelowTheWaist, we understand that idea means different things to different people and that the fields of family planning and reproductive health care are constantly changing and evolving. And we want to know what it means to you. With that in mind, we would LOVE it if you sent us your thoughts, ideas, and impressions. We’ll post as many of them as we can on our home page and archive them in our various topic areas. Send your articles to submit@belowthewaist.org and join the free flow of ideas! Got an idea for a podcast? Want to participate in a podcast? Contact Dino, our podcaster at podcast@belowthewaist.org.
