Author Archive
September 23rd, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
In a classic Grimm brothers’ fairy tale, the fisherman’s wife uses wishes given her to gain more and more riches and greater power, until finally she wishes to be the ruler of the universe. The fable teaches the consequences of greed, pride, and it is the ultimate “be careful what you wish for” allegory.
Reproductive health care advocates and providers have written extensively the last few weeks about proposed HHS “conscience protection” regulations — the period for public comment ends this Thursday, September 25.
In Wisconsin, approximately one-third of all health care organizations are religiously affiliated and many workers sign a contract promising to follow the Unit
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3 Comments • Posted in: Policy, Action
August 18th, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Family Planning Health Services (FPHS) put 20,000 emergency contraceptive pills (Plan B) in the hands of 10,000 women last year. Is preventing unwanted pregnancy as simple as that? Yes. No.
Last week the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics published a study showing that urban minority teen girls lacked knowledge about emergency contraception. Almost all of the sexually active adolescents had heard of emergency contraception, but were not knowledgeable about how it works or when to take it. Girls who were not sexually active had less information.
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No Comments • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
July 31st, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
How would you feel if you called a federally-funded family planning clinic and the person who answered the phone refused to make an appointment for you until you prove that you’re married? How do you feel about asking for emergency contraception at a public health clinic and being told by the public health nurse that you have to go somewhere else because Plan B is the same as having an abortion? What if these employees were protected by federal regulations so they couldn’t be fired, transferred, or disciplined?
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No Comments • Posted in: Abortion, Policy, Action
July 16th, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
On June 29th the New York Times Sunday Magazine published Russell Shorto’s essay titled “No Babies?”that fostered a timely discussion related to World Population Day (July 11th). In the article, Mr. Shorto writes, “The fears on the right are of a continent-wide takeover by third-world hordes – mostly Muslim – who have yet to be infected by the modern malady called family planning and who threaten to transform, if not completely delete, the storied, cherished cultures of Western Europe.” It seems clear that changing global economics and regional immigration pressures must be addressed. However, it is unreasonable to deal with these issues solely in the context of specific regional/ethnic birth rates.
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No Comments • Posted in: Policy, Birth Control
June 24th, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Political profiteering may well be older than Congress and sexual exploitation is certainly older. In Washington D.C., political exploitation of sexuality has been perfected over the past 30 years and last week it showed up in its second-most familiar form: appropriations negotiations. Elected officials appreciate the advantages of sexual moralizing and, on the other side of the same thin coin, elected officials understand human weakness and salacious sexuality. This obsession is a weak representation of human sexuality — especially when it comes to reproductive health and family planning — nonetheless it provides a throw-away bargaining chip for our representatives.
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1 Comment • Posted in: Policy, Birth Control
May 1st, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Are we talking about ‘the facts of life’ anymore, or have we renounced the realities of biology and science in favor of protecting our beliefs?
May 7th is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Day and a good time to study what’s working and what’s hindering out national progress. It would also be a good time for parents of teens to consider their own vital role in sex education.
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No Comments • Posted in: Abortion, Sex Ed, Policy, Emergency Contraception, Birth Control
April 28th, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Thanks to solid local reporting, a Crisis Pregnancy Center website designed to deceive women who were looking for information about reproductive health services was taken down this week. Website visitors who typed in “fphs.com” instead of “fphs.org” were sent to a crisis pregnancy center site instead of to the family planning clinic site they were looking for.
Pat Peckham, a reporter with Wausau, Wisconsin’s weekly newspaper, City Pages, discovered the alternate site and pursued the story to its end. In this case, the end was that Hope Crisis Pregnancy Center took the website down because others might see their deceit as ‘untoward.’
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2 Comments • Posted in: Action
March 25th, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Can we get a break (make that a ‘Spring Break’.) from uncontrolled irresponsible immature behavior that increases the risks of unwanted pregnancies and abortions? In a media-salacious example of the national debate, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s (PLW) Spring Break campus advertising campaign on Emergency Contraception (EC-Plan B) seems as Bacchanalian in its misinformation as the sexual misbehaviors it opposes. The campaign arguably could increase unwanted pregnancies and abortions.Pro-Life Wisconsin’s campus newspaper ads state: “Be good to yourself over spring break. Make smart choices the night before … that way you won’t have any emergencies to deal with the morning after!” Good points . . . everyone agrees that good responsible sexual choices are safer, healthier, more respectful, and less likely to result in life-changing negative consequences — just plain smarter.
. . . but the PLW ad goes on to state that; “emergency contraception is a powerful, high dose of steroids that tricks a woman’s body into thinking it is pregnant” and can cause “chemical abortions and deadly blood clots.” PLW promiscuously crammed as many misleading and unsupported claims into one short statement as it possibly could, but the main and most clearly refutable points are often heard and too often echoed across the country: ‘chemical abortions’ and ‘blood clots.’
The latest World Health Organization information is explicit that EC works by preventing ovulation and fertilization. There is no evidence that EC prevents implantation and there is substantial evidence that Plan B’s rate of not preventing implantation of a fertilized egg fully explains the pregnancies that occur after the pills have been taken. In other words, the primary argument that opponents of EC make (we should not risk the destruction of a single fertilized egg) is scientifically, theoretically, and statistically head-of-a-pin microscopic.
Weighed against the larger risks of an unwanted, untimely, or risky pregnancy or perhaps an abortion at a later stage of a real pregnancy, the microscopic objection should vanish completely. And, since unlike many forms of hormonal birth control, Plan B does not contain estrogen, PLW’s warning about ‘blood clots’ seems to be based on their own beliefs and very little else. Again, weighing the risks of a real pregnancy against the theoretical . . . this argument should also disappear completely.
What will not disappear and what is impossible to ignore in this debate about possibilities, is the question of why an organization opposed to abortions would discourage women at risk of unwanted pregnancy from acting to prevent those pregnancies? Why is an organization repulsed at the idea of risking a single fertilized egg acting in a way that puts women (including those who will subsequently abort an unwanted pregnancy) at a greater risk of pregnancy?
To a rational person seeking to reduce abortions, an unproven possibility of the presence of a fertilized egg and a theoretical possibility of preventing a potential implantation on the uterine wall is simply not morally or ethically equivalent to an unwanted pregnancy. The imbalance is dramatically and clearly shown when the woman at risk is likely to have an abortion if she becomes pregnant.
Spring break is a good time for anti-abortion advocates and supporters of accurate safer-sex education alike to call for sexual responsibility and restraint. Perhaps we can agree to exercise responsibility and restraint in our advertising too. Opponents of abortion, like Pro-Life Wisconsin, could demonstrate that they will not risk increasing the number of abortions to quench an insatiable desire for public attention.
No Comments • Posted in: Sex Ed, Emergency Contraception
January 21st, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
My mother died last year. When my wife and my daughter leaned over for her quiet last frail embrace and a few final words, she gave them a message of encouragement and love. To me, she expressed a sense of regret: “I wasn’t always there for you,” she whispered.
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1 Comment • Posted in: Policy
November 4th, 2007 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Lon originally posted this article at rhrealitycheck.org.
Senator Hillary Clinton (RH Issues) recently called on activists to include access to reproductive health care in every discussion of health care reform. In thoughtful comments, she cautions us to leave “nothing to the imagination” because opponents will take advantage of any loophole.
Senator Clinton took the opportunity to demonstrate a broad and detailed understanding of practical solutions to address gaps in access to reproductive health care. In this four minute vignette, she outlines a three-point immediate action plan to address gaps in the reproductive health safety net. We can act on each point right now:
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No Comments • Posted in: Birth Control
