Some things that caught my attention this week, with bonus “this week in misogyny” content.

I don’t know how many people noticed, and I assume it won’t go anywhere, but Michele Bachmann introduced a forced ultrasound for abortion bill in the House. It’s been sent to the Subcommittee on Health.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has launched a new website, Bedsider, about birth control and says it’s intended for women ages 18-29 years. I haven’t looked through it thoroughly, but it includes comparisons of different methods of preventing pregnancy by factors like cost, immediacy, STI prevention, ease of getting and using the method, ease of hiding it from a partner, and degree of mistake-proofed-ness. It is focused through a pregnancy prevention lens, so the site is focused on penis-in-vagina sex, not other forms of sex or prevention. I haven’t reviewed the site thoroughly, but let me know what you think. Some of the language seems a little, uh, teen magazine-y for my tastes and for a target audience that is actually made up of adults, but perhaps it’s my advanced age talking there (early 30s).

Over at OBOS, between C and I we’ve covered Mississippi, personhood, and reproductive justice, and new research on in vitro fertilization and ovarian cancer risks.

The CDC released the final data on 2009 births [PDF] in the United States. It’s full of data on the number of births, birth rates by things about women, like their age and marital status, and rates of cesarean (another all-time high), low birth weight, preterm, and out of hospital births. [hat tip to Jill]

Jaclyn Friedman, who I met briefly at the Our Bodies Ourselves 40th, has a new book out, What You Really, Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety. I haven’t read it yet, but there’s a Twitter chat happening at 9pm Eastern tonight using the hashtag #shamefreesex.

B points out the ridiculousness of news coverage taking the “vodka-soaked tampon” story seriously. Notably, liquid-soaked tampons expand and are not exactly convenient for insertion. Aside from which, alcohol+mucous membranes would probably hurt. And the likelihood of it being widespread for teenage boys to be inserting said vodka-soaked tampons rectally is just absurdly small. And then there was the follow-up to B’s post, which takes a quick downward spiral in the comments to “if we take your picture without permission but link to you, you should be glad of the traffic”-land.

The FDA released a new statement on Makena, a drug intended to help prevent preterm birth. It has been the subject of controversy because versions of the same ingredient in Makena has been available for pretty cheap through compound pharmacies for a long time. FDA’s approval of Makena with it’s extremely high price, have generated strong reactions and concerns about access. The FDA’s new statement basically says, “The company that makes Makena says those vastly cheaper compound pharmacy products vary in their strength and purity, so we’re going to look into it.”

The agency also approved the first therapy derived from cord blood cells.

Jill at Feministe had a note left in her suitcase by the TSA when she checked what she’s referring to as a “personal item.” A note that read, “get your freak on girl.” Jill follows up that the TSA agent who left that note has been suspended, and Jill responds to the lack of response to the real problem here: “…I get no satisfaction in hearing that someone may be in danger of losing their job over this. I would much prefer a look at why ‘security’ has been used to justify so many intrusions on our civil liberties, rather than fire a person who made a mistake.”

This week, the CDC is running a campaign focused on the smart and appropriate use of antibiotics. Go to the website to learn more about why you don’t always need antibiotics and why it’s bad for all of us to use too many.

Transgender Day of Remembrance is coming up on November 20th.

The Abortioneers ask when to speak up, when to keep your mouth shut, and how to know the difference.

The fact that women prisoners often get shackled during labor is discussed at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, in an interview with a fiction writer who covered this practice in a book.

Sometime this week, I stumbled across #occupyhealthcare and the accompanying website. The contributors seem to be mostly healthcare providers and adjacents, focused on increasing access to healthcare.

The government has issued a “Leading Health Indicators App Challenge,” soliciting developers to create apps that promote the use of key measures of health (“indicators”) to improve the health of communities.

The Census released new data with the headline, “Half of First-Time Mothers Receive Paid Leave, Census Bureau Reports.” Before you get too excited, “paid” leave included not just official paid maternity leave, but using up your own existing balance of paid sick and/or vacation leave, if you’re fortunate enough to have that. They also noted that women who got some type of paid leave were *more* likely to return to work within 3-5 months, making me wonder if they are often returning to work when they exhaust their reserves of paid sick or other time. Then there’s this limitation: “Given that FMLA and other leave policies in the United States do not allow for leave for more than 12 weeks, it is not entirely surprising that new mothers return to work relatively soon.”

ePatientDave writes about how impossible to understand an “explanation of benefits” document can be and how we’re prevented from stopping errors and reducing costs because of this lack of transparency.

This week in misogyny:
Rick Perry’s “departments I would close” gaffe has received most of the news coverage, but in the same GOP candidate debate, Herman Cain referred to Representative/former Speaker Nancy Pelosi as “Princess Nancy.” He or his team reiterated this remark on Twitter, before offering the fauxpology that he “probably shouldn’t have” made the remark, but “was trying to make a point.” A point that required a gendered diminishing and dismissal of a powerful woman politician, apparently. I guess he thought he had built up too much goodwill with women over the course of his sexual harassment scandal.

Using the #mencallmethings hashtag (which Sady Doyle apparently started), feminist women bloggers took to Twitter to talk about some of the vile things that have been said to them in the course of their writing, including rape and death threats. I contributed a rape threat I received through the comments here because I had the temerity to dislike a rape joke on tv. Just another humorless feminist who deserved threats of violence because of it, right? @metalmujer and others pointed out that the hashtag itself would be better focused on misogyny rather than “men.” Yes, most of the excessively hateful and threatening remarks I’ve been subjected to have been made by men, but the problem is not something about all men, it’s the misogyny these particular men have carried out and a culture that encourages them to do so.

I also keep seeing this image on Facebook intended at a critique of dubstep and its fans. I don’t have an opinion one way or the other about the actual quality of dubstep or its fans over time, but I do know that when the main critique is presented as “it was good when it was a bunch of men standing around, now it sucks and is by/for little girls,” that’s misogyny.

Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Contraception, Drugs, Events & Observances, Government, Laws, Legislation, & Courts, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups, Sex & Sex Education, Web Resources

For the clinical folks among you, I wanted to pass along that the new, 40th anniversary edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves is available at a 70% discount to clinics and other groups providing health counseling services.

As detailed on the clinic discounts page, “The discounted price is currently $7.80 per copy plus plus applicable tax and shipping. Orders must be for 12 or more copies.”

There are some additional details online about how you can pay, and what documentation is needed to get the clinic or non-profit discount. There are also discounts on some of the other books, including OBOS: Pregnancy and Birth and OBOS: Menopause.

Note: I contributed to some pieces of the book and am a blogger for OBOS but do not receive any direct payment from sales of the book.

Filed under: Abortion, Adolescent Health, Body Image & Eating Disorders, Contraception, HIV/AIDS, HPV, Menstruation, Mental Health, Pregnancy, Sex & Sex Education, Vaginas & Vulvas, Women’s Health

Recently, Our Bodies Ourselves was featured on the NBC Nightly News, and there are some great clips – like Susan Love saying, “Our Bodies, Ourselves really set the stage for my whole career.”

Wow. I’ve been meaning to write a summary post of my time in Boston/Cambridge for the OBOS 40th anniversary, and how inspiring it was for me to be around so many fantastic women with so many strong things to say. I left inspired and reenergized. Susan’s commentary reminds me all over again, as does that from some of the other prominent women interviewed for the piece, including OBOS’s own Judy Norsigian. Hearing Brian Williams call it “a groundbreaker, a game changer” makes me pretty proud to be associated with OBOS in my own little way, too. I’ll have to forgive him the “plumbing” intro.

Posts from Christine with embedded video and commentary:

• The Legacy of “Our Bodies, Ourselves”: Sex, Plumbing and Menopause – The main video

• Judy Norsigian on “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” Past, Present and Future – Judy! Judy! Judy! Judy is a tireless advocate for OBOS, and why it matters into the 21st century and beyond as more than just a book, but a tool for knowledge and change.
• Susan Love on the Impact of “Our Bodies, Ourselves” and Why Breast Cancer Should Focus on Breasts – Susan (of Army of Women) reminds us how women’s bodies were viewed and taught when *she* was in medical school, and how OBOS played a role in transforming that mindset of women as “small men who have babies.”

There was also a nice review from Ms. Magazine recently. I love the end of the review, which again reminds us that OBOS is more than a book:

OBOS is a complete resource–or the closest to one that I can imagine–for women’s health and activism. Not only does the reader find clear, trustworthy information about her body, but also a thorough introduction to the politics of having that body. When you read OBOS, you join a community, one that is growing and changing (as each editions’ increasing thickness testifies to) and that provides the resources to start and keep talking.

OBOS certainly did that for me when I first encountered it, so I’m pretty excited that the new edition may provide that experience for a whole new set of women and girls.

Note: the NBC/MSNBC sites are really iffy about which videos they provide transcripts for. I didn’t see them on the OBOS videos.

Filed under: Access, Rights, & Choice, Women’s Health

This Saturday, Our Bodies Ourselves will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of the original book on women’s bodies and health, editions of which have informed and inspired women ever since.

To mark this milestone, the organization is holding a free public symposium this Saturday at Boston University, with speakers including Loretta Ross of SisterSong, Jacyln Friedman of Women, Action, & the Media, Bylle Avery of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, and OBOS’s own Judy Norsigian. There will also be panels on OBOS’s global initiatives, activism, and change, and partners from 12 countries there to “share their extraordinary journeys transforming ‘Our Bodies, Ourselves’ for their own countries.” Last but not least, the 40th anniversary edition of the landmark book will be released on the day of the event.

I’m super-excited.

Realizing that everybody who might be interested in these sessions – which include a great deal of representation of OBOS’s global partners – might not be able to attend, the event will be live-streamed online starting at 9am on Saturday.

If you’re following along at home and want to tweet about it, the hashtag we’re using is #obos40. There will be a post-event round-up at Our Bodies Our Blog.

Filed under: Events & Observances, Global Issues, Women’s Health

The Institute of Medicine released its recommendations of which women’s health services should join the list of copay-free preventive services under the Affordable Care Act health care reform legislation. Birth control was included, along with services related to STIs, breastfeeding, and domestic violence. Over at OBOS, I have more information and links to some good commentaries and coverage of the news.

Filed under: Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Breastfeeding, Contraception, Government, HIV/AIDS, HPV

I haven’t been very good recently about linking from here to my posts at Our Bodies Our Blog, where I write about twice a week. Here are some recent posts there:

Access to Abortion as a Health Disparities Issue – Highlighting a recent commentary in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, in which the authors call for not just expanded access to prevention of unwanted pregnancies, but the treatment of them – and access to that treatment through reducing barriers to abortion access.

“Reel Grrls” Empowers Young Women to Create Videos, Take on Corporate Giants – a bit about what happens when Comcast picks on a bunch of girls learning media skills

Vermont Passes Law Providing for Insurance Coverage of Home Births and Midwives, Birth Certificate Changes for Transgender Individuals – information on a new law in Vermont that reduces certain barriers, as you could already tell from the post title.

Judge Set to Hear Arguments in Indiana Planned Parenthood Funding Case – Indiana passed a law to deny Medicaid funds for non-abortion care at Planned Parenthood, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services responded to by sending a letter explaining that states are not allowed to pick and choose which qualified providers can be paid for services through Medicaid. Let’s be clear – this is not forbidding federal funds for abortions, which is already forbidden in several different ways. It’s prohibiting women who get care – such as cancer screenings and birth control – through Medicaid from choosing Planned Parenthood as the place they want to get that care, and prevents Planned Parenthood from getting paid through Medicaid for providing that care to poor women.

On the day of the post, a hearing was set to happen to consider halting enforcement of the law; the judge has since said she will decide by July 1. Several Senate Republicans, led by Orrin Hatch, have sent a letter to HHS saying that the law should be able to stand, and calling it “an important model for every state.”

New Guttmacher Video Tackles Misconceptions About Women Who Choose Abortion – exactly what it sounds like, with the video embedded. I don’t *think* there’s a transcript.

Health Literacy Resources for Providers – several useful resources I learned about at a recent health literacy conference.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Over at Our Bodies Our Blog, I have a post on the FDA’s approval of Makena (17-Hydroxyprogesterone or 17OHP) for prevention of preterm birth and the huge price hike that followed, with links to commentaries on the controversy, including calls for boycotts, questions about the March of Dimes’s role in supporting the approval, lots of good posts from The Preemie Primer blog, and a New England Journal of Medicine perspective piece decrying the potential impact on Medicaid and decrease in access to the drug as a result of the price hike.

Filed under: Access, Rights, & Choice, Drugs, Ethics, Pregnancy

Over at Our Bodies Our Blog, I have a link to the published 2007 abortion surveillance data for the U.S., and some highlights. Not too surprisingly for folks who follow this data over the years, there’s nothing particularly new or worth-hiding there.

Filed under: Abortion, Access, Rights, & Choice

The Now@NEJM blog posted a new item in its Clinical Practice series, Streptococcal Pharyngitis. This seemed particularly relevant after a worker fixing a light on Friday – after about 20 minutes in my office – told me all about how his current case of strep throat. The NEJM piece doesn’t seem to address people like me, though – I have a penicillin allergy!

Acquaintance Ilissa has a diary up at Daily Kos on her first morning as an abortion clinic escort. I particularly liked one of the comments: “There is not room in one skin for two people with full rights.”

At the New York Times, Study of Breast Biopsies Finds Surgery Used Too Extensively. This would be the kind of harm people were talking about when they talked about what happens when we do too many mammograms on low-risk women.

Ema at the Well-Timed Period says it clearly with regards to the South Dakota bill that could have made it legal to murder abortion providers, and how any changes they make to the bill now don’t make up for it:

Bottom line: Just because Rep. Phil Jensen and his cohorts were caught in the act of trying to legalize domestic terrorism and, when called on it, made some changes to the bill doesn’t mean they are absolved of responsibility.

Relatedly, over at Our Bodies Our Blog today I have The State-Level War on Choice: Updates from South Dakota. Note: I’m no longer even considering the possibility that Republicans “didn’t mean it that way” when they propose egregious legislation.

Over at The Unnecesarean, emajaybee writes about a 1940s experiment at the larger workplace in which pregnant women were given radioactive iron as part of an experiment. As I mentioned there, I first learned of this a few years ago when helping some students look for materials for a project on these studies. Over the weekend, I went to use the Nashville Banner (local newspaper) archives at the Nashville Public Library and pulled a news item on the experiments, if anyone would like to see it.

In the midst of the House vote to defund Title X (which funds family planning health services, including those non-abortion services provided by Planned Parenthood), I’ve picked up on some comments on Twitter stating that Planned Parenthood is anti-trans. While I support Planned Parenthood’s provision of low cost health services and tireless support of choice, those are serious allegations that deserve attention. I’m in the process of trying to learn more, but haven’t found much online – I’ve run into comments like this one and this one, but would like to find out more about how much this involves individual screw-ups vs. organizational policy, and if PP staff are held accountable by their employers for anti-trans statements and practices. If anyone has insights into how/whether PP folks are trained to provide services to trans women and men, or how PP is failing trans women individually or systemically, I would like to hear about that. There need to be clear consequences for PP staff members who discriminate against *any* women.

That said, I do believe PP provides crucial access to abortion services and other family planning and health services for so many women, and defunding Title X further disadvantages poor women who rely on their services.

Relatedly, in my searching, I found this post: Promoting and Protecting the Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health of Transgender People: What We Can Do, which outlines actions to be taken by the public, donor agencies, and states.

Not really health related, but some bills have been introduced in Tennessee that are similar to the union-busting bills in Wisconsin. The Tennessee Education Association is having a rally in Nashville on March 5th.

Filed under: Access, Rights, & Choice, Government, News Round-Ups, Pregnancy, Women’s Health

Some of my recent posts at Our Bodies Our Blog:

Breast Implants and Possible Risk of Rare Cancer – links to FDA information on the possibility of a link between breast implants and a rare cancer.

Leapfrog Group Releases Data on Early Elective Births – rates of early (37-39 weeks) induction and early cesarean without a medical indication from hospitals around the U.S.

Surgeon General Releases Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding – link to the call to action and a brief overview of its contents, which include not only encouraging women to breastfeed, but a call for workplaces, fathers, grandmothers, and communities to work to reduce barriers to breastfeeding.

Upcoming Event: EQUAL/OBOS House Party in Palo Alto – in three days, OBOS’s Judy Norsigian will be in California; come to the party and support the organization!

Upcoming Conference: The Body and the State – details on this February conference in New York City.

Quick Hit: New Guttmacher Report Details U.S. Abortion Trends, Availability – data! trends! 2008!

Also, co-blogger Christine has Do You Trust Women to Make Their Own Choices About Reproductive Healthcare? on a multi-organization pro-choice effort.

Filed under: Abortion, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Body Image & Eating Disorders, Breastfeeding, Cancer, Government, Miscellaneous

First things first: the Senate voted on Saturday to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Hurray! The roll call vote for all of the Senators is here, reflecting the 65 votes for repeal and 35 votes against. The votes for repeal came almost exclusively from Democrats, with just eight Republicans voting yes. My own Senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, were unsurprisingly among the Republicans who voted against repeal; I’m disappointed in them for voting their party and their prejudice to be on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of human rights and dignity.

The repeal will not become active for at least 60 days; HRC has a Pathway to Final Repeal document [PDF] that explains the necessary next steps, and warns service members about the interim:

The Human Rights Campaign issues this critical warning to service members: Repeal of DADT is not effective immediately and service members are still at risk of being discharged on the basis of their sexual orientation until certification occurs and 60 days have passed.

Also, as @polerin was clearly pointing out yesterday, the repeal of DADT does not protect trans service members, and passage of ENDA is still needed to protect trans workers everywhere. Trans Talk has a copy of a statement on this issue from the Transgender American Veterans Association.

Of course, the Senate also failed to pass the DREAM Act, which would have provided some avenues to education and citizenship for young immigrants brought here as children. I keep reading the “DREAM Act defeated” headlines as “DREAM Act deferred…”

In other news, Kate Harding has a completely amazing post, Some Shit I’m Sick of Hearing Regarding Rape and Assange. You really just need to read it if you have heard the commentary that Wikileaks’ Assange *just* didn’t use a condom, are tired of that commentary, or don’t yet understand what’s so problematic about that line of Assange defense. It’s a crash course in recognizing and combating rape apology.

Relatedly, Sady of Tiger Beatdown has had some internet drama related to Michael Moore’s reaction to the Assange situation and his minimizing comments related to the rape accusations – Sady has been demanding that rape victims’ stories not be thrown under the bus of Wikileaks worship. It involves a Keith Olbermann Twitter flounce. Thanks to Sady for tirelessly afflicting the powerful. Just go catch up over there. Kate Harding has also posted her support in Why I’m On Board With #mooreandme.

I just finished reading “Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity,” a collection of essays on passing, gender, race, and identity. Some of the essays are better than others, but the whole book is worth a read for an interesting meditation on dominant narratives, the ways in which so many individuals don’t perfectly fit our assumptions about who/what people are, and how we create and convey our identities along the way.

I have issues with this story and the reactions it has generated that probably need to be explored in a longer post. I never saw the “Is She A Hero Or A Danger?” language CNN purportedly used to discuss this woman who had a home VBAC after three cesareans (VBA3C); that’s not the headline now, but I think the answer is probably “neither,” and “these are the very cases against which we test our principles about what a woman can and cannot be compelled to do with her body for the sake of another person’s body.”

New sexually transmitted infection treatment guidelines are out from the CDC; they also include screening and prevention recommendations.

Renee at Womanist Musings shares a video about images of women in advertising.

Cara at The Curvature points to a local story I’d missed: Nashville Police Officers Charged With Domestic Violence Get to Keep Their Jobs. Ugh. This reminds me that I need to contact Nashville police to follow up on an incident of police action I witnessed/reported.

In other local news, the story of Coach Howe’s dismissal from Belmont University because of her sexual orientation made the New York Times. For ongoing coverage, the Belmont Vision student newspaper and Pith in the Wind (blog of the local alt-weekly) seem to be doing the best job.

At Feministe, Hospital saves woman’s life; is told by Catholic leadership not to do it again, Oops, I forgot to have babies!, and two posts related to the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers – It’s not just violent clients who abuse sex workers, and Whore Stigma Makes No Sense.

RHRC is also hosting a series to explore and combat violence against sex workers.

Perhaps I’m entirely too skeptical, but I find it hard to buy this official story that the 36 LGBT books damaged with urine in a Harvard library were “accidentally” damaged by a staff member who just *happened* to spill a nearby open bottle of urine on said books. I’m a librarian, and a spilly/messy one at that, but this really strains my credulity.

As always, please check out Our Bodies Our Blog – this week we’ve been talking about genetic testing and privacy, and Avastin.

Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Ethics, Events & Observances, Government, Infectious Diseases, Libraryland, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups, Pregnancy, Reviews