Sex

Roundup: Rwanda Aims to Vaccinate All Girls Against HPV

Beth Saunders

Rhode Island's legislative agenda on abortion; Louisiana state rep introduces abortion ban; and Rwanda unveils national campaign to address cervical cancer.

Photo by Neil Palmer, CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture

Rhode Island’s legislative agenda on abortion; Louisiana state rep introduces abortion ban; and Rwanda unveils national campaign to address cervical cancer.

  • Rhode Island will look at changing some of their abortion laws in the coming weeks. On deck are provisions that would ban abortions based on sex selection, require an ultrasound prior to an abortion, relaxing the current parental consent law by allowing adult relatives to give permission for a minor’s pregnancy termination, and a fetal homicide law.
  • A state representative in Louisiana has introduced a bill that would ban abortion in the state by expanding the definition of feticide to include pregnant women who seek abortion and the physicians who perform pregnancy termination.
  • Rwanda is unveiling a national plan to vaccinate girls age 12-15 from HPV, a virus that can cause cervical cancer. The action plan is the first of its kind in Africa, and the nation has a particular challenge in that not all of its young female citizens are in school, which is how other many other countries vaccinate their youth. Rwanda is relying on three years’ worth of donated vaccine by Merck, the makers of Gardasil, and an extensive network of community health workers to provide the series of three shots.

Apr 26

Apr 25