Mitt Romney moves to the right on reproductive rights. New research indicates we may be over-testing for prostate cancer. And is Hollywood making the problem of eating disorders worse?
A campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation has taken off in Senegal. What if, with the incredibly small sums of money needed by the United Nations campaign to fund these strategies across a continent, we could end FGM within the next ten to 15 years? Both UNICEF and UNFPA work to end FGM, though the GOP-led House of Representatives is seeking to eliminate funding for both.
It is difficult to tell if we are witnessing the death throes or re-upping of the radical right-wing. The frenetic pace with which the states are instituting draconian abortion laws, defunding Planned Parenthood and bringing ultrasounds to Capitol Hill could be either. It is going to be up to the us in the pro-choice movement to decide.
Reaching seven billion people on planet Earth has prompted renewed debates about the balance between population size and consumption of natural resources, about age structure and political stability, and about the consequences of rapid population growth rates for poor countries' ability to develop economically. To a large extent, however, these macro-level dilemmas reflect a micro-level problem about which there is a universal consensus and where the solution is relatively straightforward.
Catholics today expressed anger about the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ role in promoting support for the so-called “Protect Life Act” (HR 358), a bill that will endanger women’s lives across the US with an extreme ban on abortion coverage while expanding permission for health professionals to refuse to provide reproductive healthcare services, even in life-threatening situations.
Today the GOP-led House of Representatives, with the blessings and encouragement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and extremist religious groups such as the Family Research Council, as well as 15 Democrats, passed a bill that would, among other things, allow doctors and hospitals to "exercise their conscience" by letting pregnant women facing emergency medical conditions die.
A new study published this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases suggests that use of hormonal contraceptives, particularly injectables, may double the risk of uninfected women acquiring HIV.
This week the CDC released another study based on data from the latest NSFG. Once again, this survey suggests that when it comes to sexual behaviors teens are, for the most part, very responsible. And while that seems to surprise a lot of adults, I’d like to point out that I’ve been saying this for many years.
