As public health professionals and AIDS prevention advocates prepare for next month's International HIV/AIDS Conference in Toronto, Janet Fleischman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, writes in today's Baltimore Sun about the need for integration of family planning and HIV services. This same notion, long supported by those working in the reproductive health field, was also recently promoted in a major new study arguing for the inclusion for reproductive health in the Millennium Development Goals, as a means of of reaching the goal for HIV treatment and prevention.
Good news from Missouri, where a federal district judge ruled last week that the state is required to provide transportation to women prisoners seeking to exercise their legal right to an abortion. Transportation is a critical detail, since both state women's prisons are over two hours away from the nearest abortion provider, and to the best of my knowledge, incarcerated women (35 to 50 of whom are pregnant in any given month in Missouri) can't exactly hop in a cab when they need healthcare. In honor of the ruling, I want to devote a little space to the reproductive rights of female prisoners in the United States, a topic first brought to my attention by the incredible women of Justice NOW, an Oakland-based organization that "works with female prisoners and local communities to build a safe, compassionate world without prisons."
Advocates for Youth intern Lylyana offers her reflections on the PATHWAY Act Intern Lobby Day on Monday, July 24.
As a 25 year-old female interning with Advocates for Youth, I have received many unrecognized privileges accessible to those of us in the United States and other developed countries. I have the ability to seek out education and resources that can protect me from HIV. I have learned the ability to negotiate during sexual encounters; much of which is not afforded to women and youth in developing nations. During my internship this summer, I have focused on international HIV/AIDS and how youth are affected. My passion has grown tremendously for this area. To hear that of the seventy-six percent of the young people infected in sub-Saharan Africa are girls can be disheartening. Yet I know that one person’s voice, story, and action can make a difference towards global HIV prevention.
Once again – trying to stop abortion by limiting access, rather than preventing unwanted pregnancy...
A bill to limit access to abortion for young Americans is being debated in the Senate.In an effort to strengthen the bill, both Senators from New Jersey offered an amendment to provide funding for medically-accurate sex education that helps to delay sexual activity and give young people the information they need to make healthy decisions. They also tried to get support for programs to help parents learn how to talk with their kids about sex.But unbelievably, I mean really unbelievably, this common sense provision could not get a majority of support in the Senate.I honestly just do not get it – what is so terrifying about this information?Boggles the mind.Kudos to Senators Lautenberg and Menendez for trying.
Today the Senate confirmed ardently anti-choice and anti-woman judge Jerome Holmes to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.This means one more anti-choice individual who thinks that “no issue of our time is more important, not the economy, not the deficit, not health care, not foreign policy, as important as those matters are” will be a sitting judge.A believer that a wife is to subordinate herself to her husband and former president of a state-wide “right to life” coalition, Holmes believes that Roe v. Wade is contrary to the principles of natural law he finds in the Constitution.Holmes was “promoted” from the US District Court to a court that sets binding precedent.No doubt he’s hoping to have some opportunities to set new precedents sometime soon.
In the great tradition of the Senate, you rally 'round your own, no matter what, so here is blogger Connecticut Bob filming the "Boxer Meltdown" as reporters pepper Senator Barbara Boxer (D) about Senator Joe Lieberman's (D) position on emergency contraception, women's rights, and other issues. The video via the bloggers at Firedoglake.
You may recall that Lieberman suggested women who had been raped, and are in need of emergency contraception, should just drive, drive, drive if they can't find emergency contraception because a local individual pharmacist, or a Catholic hospital, is exercising their right of refusal, sometimes known as a conscience clause.
Senate debate began on Friday on a bill, S. 403, otherwise known as the Teen Endangerment Act. The bill would make it illegal for anyone other than a parent to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion. Pro-choice Senate Democrats are expected to offer a variety of amendments to the bill in order to soften its restrictive impact, including a provision that would allow clergy and grandparents to transfer minors as well as parents.
As debate progresses and the Senate votes on the bill, which is expected to happen as early as today, Rewire will be keeping you up-to-date with more commentary.
In the ongoing global search for reason on stem cells, the European Union yesterday refused to ban funding for stem cell research, but also refused to allow scientists to use embryos discarded following in vitro fertilization (IVF). Scientists were disappointed that the EU didn't go further, and Stephen Hawking called the manuever a "fudge." Self-described "pro-life" lobbyists, who seem more concerned with life before birth than they are with the challenges life presents to people who might benefit from this research, continued to push the argument at the EU that use of discarded IVF cells constitutes taking a human life.
In the weeks leading up to the 16th annual conference of the International AIDS Society, to be held this year in Toronto, Canada from August 13-18, Rewire will from time to time be looking at issues related to the conference.
The Toronto Starhas begun covering some of those issues as well, and today, they profile issues of censorship and misinformation promoted by the Bush Administration in the fight against HIV/AIDS.No surprises here perhaps, but the Bush Administration has attempted to limit the number of NIH and CDC employees attending the conference to 50 people, when there could potentially be hundreds from those organizations who would want to join the 26,000 other attendees from around the world.
Denial, as the saying goes, is not just a river in Egypt.
When it comes to HIV/AIDS, denial, which leads to delay, can be deadly. Unfortunately, a handful of people continue to deny that HIV causes AIDS, creating doubt where scientifically there should be none. AIDS Truth.org very clearly debunks any myths deniers succeed in ciruclating. The alternative therapies deniers promote may stregthen the immune system, promote a healthier life and are significantly less expensive than the pharmaceuticals prescribed to manage HIV. There is no denying the fact that the medications are toxic and have side effects that can be difficult to manage, and are expensive if available. But alternative therapies alone will not work.
