HIV won’t disappear overnight. Unintended pregnancy won’t magically cease. But by working with and through young people to gradually change Jamaicans’ access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, JFPA is ensuring that the next generation of Jamaicans will be knowledgeable and empowered to demand and the care they deserve.
Many reporters and columnists have consistently used the word "free" when describing the new preventive health- care benefits for women under the Affordable Care Act. While these benefits are critical to women's health, public health, and the economic health of our country, they are not "free."
A judgment by the high court in Namibia in favor of three women who claimed they had been sterilized without their informed consent confirms the principle that in order for consent to be truly “informed,” it must be freely given and clearly understood.
This unprecedented effort to fund family planning worldwide could be a major milestone in global health, development and women’s rights. But we need to make sure this new funding and political commitment is followed by swift action—and change felt on the ground.
I am not against PrEP. But I am against its domination of today’s HIV prevention discourse. We have huge barriers to address, and putting all of our eggs in the PrEP baskets may allow us to circumvent some of them, but without social, structural, and behavioral intervention, it will not create the real change that needs to happen in communities around the globe to address this epidemic and future ones.
Today, for a brief moment, we can take time to celebrate a victory in womens health. Because today, most private insurance companies in the United States will begin to cover all FDA-approved forms of contraception, free of co-pays. This is a BIG step forward.
Offering women contraception without co-pays under the Affordable Care Act isn't just good for them -- it's good for their families, communities and the planet we all share.
![[Photo: Two white pill bottles and dozens of sky-blue pills on a green tray.]](https://rewirenewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/../../files/teaser-images/2012-08-02-truvada.jpg)
