Blogs Comment On Women Deliver Conference, Birth Control Coverage, Other Topics

The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.

~ "Filling the Unmet Need for Contraception: Can We Deliver for Young Women?" Carmen Barroso, RH Reality Check: Unintended pregnancy and abortion are reason enough for advocates to pay more attention to the unmet need for contraception among adolescents and young adults, but there are "three other reasons that are as or more compelling," according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region's Carmen Barroso, who will be presenting on the topic at the Women Deliver conference this week. The first reason "is purely demographic," Barroso writes, adding that "early childbearing contributes to population momentum, the neglected component of population growth." According to Barroso, a slower population growth rate can be achieved by "fulfilling young women's right to information, to health services and to autonomy regarding the decision on whether and when to have children and how many children to bear." Second, meeting the needs of younger women "has proved more difficult than is the case with older women," likely because of varying social conditions in different countries, Barroso writes. "A third and pervading factor that affects both wanted and unwanted pregnancies of adolescents in most societies is the basic question of young people's sexual rights," she continues, noting that "[i]n most societies there is a deep resistance to recognize young people as subject of rights, and an equally strong denial of the recognition of them as sexual beings." To meet young women's unmet needs for contraception, Barroso suggests that advocates endorse the Millennium Development Goal 5B, lobby for services and education funding, and support policies aimed at empowering young women economically. "But above all," she recommends "promot[ing] the sexual rights of young women, their full recognition as rights bearers, according to their evolving capacity" (Barroso, RH Reality Check, 6/7).

~ "For Women, the Ultimate in Preventive Health Care: Birth Control," Cecile Richards, Huffington Post blogs: "Despite the approval of the [birth control] pill 50 years ago, and the subsequent development of new and superior forms of contraception like the ring or the patch, half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned," Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Richards writes. She adds that "millions of American women ... need birth control, but for too many women, it is not easily accessible or affordable." Noting that contraception is "a critical topic of debate in the U.S. as the newly signed health care law (PL 111-148) begins to go into effect," Richards says that a "key question is what type of health care services for women will be considered essential preventive care -- and therefore made more affordable?" Because of the pill, "[m]aternal and infant health improved dramatically; the infant death rate plummeted; and women were able to fulfill increasingly diverse educational, political, professional, and social aspirations," according to Richards. She asks, "So -- for women -- what could be more basic preventive care than birth control?" Richards continues, "It is time to finally make birth control not just a medical reality," but "a practical reality for all women." She concludes, "Only then will we achieve our shared goal of reducing unintended pregnancies and giving women the ability to raise happy and healthy families" (Richards, Huffington Post blogs, 6/4).














~ "Sex Shaming and the Rhythm Method," Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check: Advocates of abstinence-only sex education "can count one success in altering teenage sexual behavior," Marcotte writes, noting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that the "percentage of teenage girls who use the rhythm method as birth control (at least some of the time) jumped from 11% in 2002 to 17% in 2008." She adds that it is "high enough of a jump that it might explain why the teenage pregnancy rate is still as high as it is." Marcotte says that abstinence-only advocates can be "blame[d]" for the increase because the rhythm method is "associated with the prudish stand of Christian moralizing that also drives the abstinence-only movement," adding that "the more popular that kind of thinking, the more likely the rhythm method will be seen as a legitimate practice by teenagers." While it is possible that "a few" teenage girls using the rhythm method are "experts in their own fertility," Marcotte notes that to "use the method effectively requires more than counting the days in your cycle," and that "merely counting days is ineffective in women who have regular periods. For teenage girls, who often have irregular periods, it’s basically a waste of time. In addition, the rhythm method offers no protection against STDs." The impact of abstinence-only programs "is softened every time right-thinking politicians strike a blow against it," Marcotte writes, concluding, "Hopefully the next time the CDC takes this study, there will be more comprehensive sex education, and we'll see improvements in contraceptive use amongst teenagers" (Marcotte, RH Reality Check, 6/8).

~ "Reproductive Crisis? Do Not Proceed to a Catholic Hospital," Angela Bonavoglia, Huffington Post blogs: "So many things are galling" about the excommunication of a Phoenix-based nun who helped approve an abortion at a Catholic hospital "that it's hard to know where to begin," Bonavoglia writes. The nun, Sister Margaret McBride, was excommunicated by Bishop Thomas Olmstead for participating in the decision to authorize an abortion to save the life of a woman who was 11 weeks' pregnant and experiencing pulmonary hypertension. Bonavoglia writes that "surely one of the most urgent issues this case raises is the danger faced by any woman who sets foot in a Catholic hospital in the midst of a reproductive crisis." It is unknown "how often such decisions come up in Catholic hospitals" or "if any go the other way -- that is, the beliefs of ... the Church prevail and discharge is followed by a funeral," she continues. "What we do know is that Catholic hospitals, charged with abiding by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, pose a real danger to women's health and lives," she states. Bonavoglia writes that "more research into how often and in what ways physicians compromise patient care as a result of the Catholic Directives" is needed, adding, "But for now, the experience of the nameless, faceless, pregnant woman who Bishop Olmstead would have sentenced to death ... is a cautionary tale." She continues, "Unless you are a deeply devoted Catholic and want your local bishop to make your most intimate medical decisions, when the ambulance pulls up, be ready" with "your own ethical and moral directive saying: Do Not Take Me to a Catholic Hospital," because "there may not be a Sister Margaret in the house" (Bonavoglia, Huffington Post blogs, 6/7).

~ "Anti-Choice Activity in the States Implores You To Act," Grace Lesser, National Women's Law Center's "Womenstake": The "flurry of anti-choice activity in the states" that has resulted from the passage of the national health reform law (PL 111-148) constitutes an "emboldened attack on women's reproductive health," according to Lesser, a program assistant at NWLC. "Health reform energized the far right," she writes, adding, "State laws making abortion services less affordable, less accessible and less respectful are being pushed across the country." Lesser notes that a "particularly dangerous form of recent anti-choice activity has come in the form of insurance restrictions on the state level." She adds, "How ironic that a national bill that was designed and crafted to increase access to non-discriminatory, fair, equitable and quality health care has energized anti-choice forces to push for just the opposite on the state level." She concludes that "those of us who care about women's autonomy and choice must organize and push back" and "fight to restore access, funding and ownership over our reproductive health freedoms in every state across the nation" (Lesser, "Womenstake," National Women's Law Center, 6/4).

~ "Women Deliver Promises Hope Around the World," Tamar Abrams, Huffington Post blogs: Abrams writes about the ongoing Women Deliver conference in Washington, D.C., which has drawn thousands of participants who "gathered to celebrate the role of women in the well-being of families, communities and nations." Abrams says it is "galling that American antiabortion advocates are excoriating Women Deliver," with some describing the conference as "anti-women." Antiabortion-rights activists also "claim that the conference is a cover for some sort of worldwide conspiracy to force abortion on women everywhere," she adds. "Reproductive health is not [just] abortion, and mentioning the word does not subsume every other part of reproductive health," Abrams writes, noting that topics discussed at the conference included how to ensure better newborn health rates and how to collaborate to lower maternal mortality. She concludes, "Perhaps someday 'women deliver' will be not only a clever turn of phrase but also a promise of prosperity, good health and hope no matter where you are born on this planet" (Abrams, Huffington Post blogs, 6/7).


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