One Year Later: The women of Haiti Cherie & an American feminist

For a while there it seemed as if most of the world had forgotten about Haiti (again). This week, by all indications from the news media, the ongoing tragedy has not been completely forgotten. Unfortunately, I can't help but feel discouraged when nearly half of the people I speak to about Haiti are sure that it was a hurricane that occurred last January (?!) or believe that Haiti is an island near Africa.

Immediately following the January 12 earthquake I began searching for volunteer opportunities, but quickly found that without a medical or emergency response background, few organizations were interested in taking advantage of my willingness to help. In May, however, I was finally invited to join an amazing group of nurses and doctors to volunteer at a medical clinic run by the organization Raising Haiti. In total, I have traveled to Haiti 3 times, working twice in a general medical clinic and once in a cholera treatment center. I return in 15 days (but who's counting).

There have been so many issues complicating the situation in Haiti this past year, but given my background as a passionate feminist and advocate for women's health & rights, I can't overlook how these circumstances will always disproportionately effect the women of Haiti. Women head nearly half of all households in Haiti, and face a constant threat of gender based violence (GBV).

Prior to chaos of 2010:

• An estimated 72% of girls have been raped
• 40% of women suffer from domestic violence.
• Contraceptive use is reported at a dismal 13.2% (including condoms)
• Pregnancy rates among school-age girls is approximately 3% - compare that to the US, which has the highest teen pregnancy rate of industrialized nations at 0.07%
• Abortion is illegal in Haiti - which leads many women to abandon education, enter into unsafe relationships, or seek risky illegal abortions
• Maternal mortality rates remain high, estimated at about 0.006% (compared to the US's relatively high rate of 0.00008%)
• Only approx. 26% of births in Haiti are assisted by a skilled birthing attendant

And this is all prior to the chaos which followed the earthquake which claimed the lives of over 300,000 people, and lead to increased civil unrest as well as a cholera epidemic whose death toll is approximated to be 2-4 times worse than the official reports of 3700.

But the Haitian people are warm, grateful and funny. They persevere in the face of insurmountable odds and great obstacles, always seeking to do what is best for their families, their community and their country. Every Haitian, whether living in Haiti or building a life in the expansive Haitian diaspora, knows the greatness which lies beneath the surface in Haiti. I've fallen in love in Haiti, in so many ways.

From a Campus Organizer who assisted in a impromptu pharmacy and monitored cholera patients:
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little" - Edmund Burke
[A quote which can be found on the legendary table of the MMRC HQ in Port-au-Prince.]

For more information on the women of Haiti:
We Advance: NGO in Haiti focusing on GBV and women's health
Kay Fanm: "House of Women" Haitian non-profit focusing on health & GBV in Haiti
Ms. Magazine: Please also check related posts for information on rape & GBV. Additionally the Winter 2011 issue of Ms. has a story dedicated to the women of Haiti.
UNFPA: UN Population Fund work on GBV and maternal health

Sources & information

Thank You Thursday 08/19/2010

Today we'd like to thank....

• the suffragists who worked hard to get the 19th Amendment ratified on August 18, 1920, giving women the right to vote


• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for filing a lawsuit against the high school that removed a girl from the yearbook for wearing a tuxedo in her senior portrait (They removed her name, photo, etc-- she was not mentioned anywhere in the yearbook at all!)


• French pharmaceutical company HRA Pharma for developing the emergency contraceptive EllaOne


• Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving Ella, giving women in the U.S. another way to prevent unwanted pregnancy

THANK YOU!!!

Birth Control Access in Review

As an undergrad attending a women's college, having birth control and other forms of contraception readily available was far more than a novelty. It was considered a normal part of our women's health and wellness program. After receiving a wellness check up, the option of selecting generic contraceptives at a very reduced cost or for free was as second nature as selecting dessert to complete a full course meal. But once the Student Health Center made its announcement that it would no longer carry birth control, it left a lot of students frazzled and uncertain of how to continue using birth control in their daily lives.

The reality of a women's college--consisting of 2300 fertile young women, most of whom are likely to be sexually active--no longer offering any form of birth control is somewhat of an oxymoron. I began to question where would the first year students, who are required to live on campus with no personal transportation, go to get birth control? Would they be able to afford it? Many college-aged women depend on their Student Health Center to offer birth control because of its affordability and accessibility.

Our FMLA went to the Director of the Student Health Center and our Vice President of Student Affairs to get some clear answers. What they shared helped us to understand this issue in a bigger context beyond just our campus community. It was affecting most colleges and universities in the nation and public clinics serving low-income communities.

They explained that the unreasonably sudden hike in cost of birth control was more than the college's entire family planning budget. So unfortunately, they had to make drastic cuts. How did this happen, you might ask? Why did the cost increase?

Well, according to the facts given in FMF's Access to Birth Control Campaign, for almost 20 years, Medicaid pricing rules allowed pharmaceutical companies to provide college health centers and over 400 clinics serving low income women with birth control at a substantial discount. As a result, many students and low-income women nationwide had access to affordable birth control through these clinics and college health centers. In 2005, the rules changed, going into effect on January 1, 2007. The result: birth control prices skyrocketed on campus - some saw prices increase by up to 5 times their original prices! In some cases, prices went from $10 a month to over $50 a month. FMF's campus program worked with students all over the country to mobilize and demand a fix in legislation.

By being plugged into FMF's Birth Control Access Campaign, we immediately went to work by petitioning the student body. We received an overwhelming support from both students and administration. And the work of hundreds of young women across the country paid off, because in 2009, Congress reversed the 2005 act and passed regulations to permit discounted prices on campuses and affected clinics servicing low-income women once again. YES! A huge victory for us all, right? Well, unfortunately there's still one more hurdle to jump.

Still many student health centers have not adjusted their prices and there are still not enough federal dollars going to family planning programs. Want to get involved? Here's what you can do:

1. Go to your Student Health Center and make sure birth control and emergency contraception is offered and its given a discounted price.
2. If you can't access birth control on campus, start a petition, write op-eds in your student newspaper, present resolutions to student government and administration.
3. Encourage the Health Center to be on your side.
4. Get plugged into FMF's Birth Control Access Campaign action kit and disseminate information on campus.

Unfortunately, the ongoing battle to secure and protect reproductive health and rights for women continues on. But let this be one more battle won for young women in college and other women across the nation!

This article was featured in our February 2010 monthly Choices eZine. Sign up for our alerts to stay up-to-date with the latest feminist news and to receive the monthly eZine.

Great American Condom Campaign applications now being accepted

Just passing the word along from our friends at Advocates for Youth:

Advocates for Youth is excited to announce SafeSite applications for the Great American Condom Campaign are now open! The GACC is a youth-led grassroots movement to make the United States a sexually healthy nation. To do this, college students apply to become SafeSites, or individual condom distribution points. Once selected, SafeSites receive a free box of 500 Trojan condoms to distribute to their peers. For more information or to apply, go to www.amplifyyourvoice.org/gacc.

Applications close January 3, 2010.

photo credit: trec_lit on flickr

Ditch the candy, this Halloween sign yourself up for some good ol' fashion fear mongering!

Everyone has their own Halloween traditions. In his documentary Hell House, director/ producer George Radliff shows the not-so-common Halloween traditions of a town on the outskirts of Dallas, where the production of "Hell House" is annually held.

Hell House is a haunted house-style play focused on decisions that will exempt a person from the pearly gates. Teens and parents alike try out in large numbers, hoping to play "rave master" or"school shooting kid."

During Halloween season, "those who dare enter" watch a series of five-minute skits, showing what each character did to get in Hell. There's the boy who "chose the gay lifestyle" and became HIV positive; the woman who cheats on her abusive, alcoholic husband; the girl who took the abortion pill and died from blood loss, the boy who was so fed up with teasing that he commits suicide in front of his class and (can't forget this one!) the girl who goes to a rave, gets drugged and raped and commits suicide because of her guilt!

After seeing the characters tortured and burned in the final "Hell" scene, the audience is taken to calm room. Here, a person asks the group if they know where they would go if they were to die that night. Those who would like to go to heaven are offered entrance into a room where they can pray with church members.

This is where I sat on my couch, watching and thinking "WHAAAAAT! WAY TO BLAME THE VICTIM!"

This movie put things in the most disgusting terms: It's not the rapist who goes to hell, its the poor survivor. It's not the abuser or the mean students, it's the abused and the taunted.

It's time to identify this as what it is: fear mongering! They are showing extreme situations as scare tactics to sway their audience towards their unrealistic cause. To find out more about Hell House, rent it!

Criminalizing abortion doesn't decrease numbers!

Remember when I told you that the level of a country’s women’s health care directly correlates to its feminist movement (yet another handy factoid learned at the Feminist Majority’s Women, Money, Power Summit?) Well, it seems as if our panelists were onto something because the theme proves true yet again.

For quite some time, the Guttmacher Institute has been researching the relation in a country's abortion rights and its number of abortions.

This week, the results were set. The data showed that the legal status doesn’t change numbers; roughly the same amount of women was getting the procedure under both liberal and heavy restrictions. The big variable was women's access to contraception and family planning.

So, giving women the tools to decide when and if they want children affects the number of unwanted pregnancies. Funny how it works out like that, huh?!?

This is not to say that the legal status of abortion doesn’t change anything. We have seen time and time again those countries with heavy abortion restrictions (40% of the world’s women!) tend to be developing countries, where illegal and unsafe abortions aren’t hard to find, but the difference in the care and health of the woman before and after the procedure is immense.

Because women try to seek alternatives through unsafe abortions, 700,000 deaths occur each year. Also, consider the other five million who are left with medical complications after the fact.

The Guttmacher Institute walks out from their research with three areas of improvement: increased access to modern family planning, access to legal and safe abortions and access to post-abortion care.

photo credits: willem_velthoven from flickr.com

From the Feminist Vault

With four children by the age of 20, I can imagine Loretta was one happy woman to see the pill. This line is a classic:

"This incubator is overused
Because you've kept it filled
The feelin' good comes easy now
Since I've got the pill"

Amen, Loretta. Amen!

Advocates for Youth accepting applications for Great American Condom Campaign!

Advocates for Youth is now accepting applications for Great American Condom Campaign (GACC) SafesSites! The GACC is a youth-led grassroots movement to reduce unintended pregnancies and the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections by normalizing condom use on college and university campuses. Students from across the country apply to become SafeSites, or individual condom distribution points. Once selected, SafeSites receive a box of 500 Trojan condoms to distribute to their peers. Applications are due September 27, 2009. To apply, go to http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/GACCApply. If you have any questions, contact Sarah at gacc@advocatesforyouth.org.

Newsday Tuesday: August 18 Edition

Good afternoon everyone! Today is one of our campus organizer's birthday! Happy brithday Val!

In the rest of the world, lots has been going up to, so let's get to it: it's Newsday Tuesday!!

Urgent News

The US Department of Justice has withdrawn the federal marshals charged with protecting Leroy Carhart, MD, one of the few physicians in the country who provides late abortions.

Middle East
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Sunday that he will appoint at least three women to his cabinet. If approved, these appointees will be the first women cabinet ministers since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Iranian authorities allowed Esha Momeni, an American graduate student and feminist activist who was imprisoned and then detained by the Iranian government, to return to the US Thursday. Momeni's passport had been confiscated by the Iranian government after her release from the notorious Evin prison in November 2008.

Iranian opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi announced that he has received reports of jailers raping prisoners during the government crackdown on protesters after June's disputed presidential election.

The controversial Shia family law that restricts the rights of Shia women in Afghanistan was published in the country's official Gazette on July 27th, making the law's provisions official. President Hamid Karzai published the law as he courts fundamentalist Shia mullahs in advance of the presidential elections scheduled for next week.

National Rulings

A jury in Florida awarded Alejandra Ramos and Maria Onelia Maco Castro, two women hired to work as nannies, $125,000 in back wages and damages and found the couple that employed them guilty on five counts, including violating labor and human trafficking laws.

A federal judge ruled Monday that the Gay-Straight Alliance at Yulee High School in Florida must be permitted to meet on campus and be granted the same privileges as other student clubs.

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Belmont Abbey College discriminated against its employees on the basis of sex by denying them health care coverage of contraceptives, through removal of coverage for oral contraceptives, voluntary sterilization, and abortion.

Reports and Polls

Equality California, California's largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, released a report Wednesday urging gay rights activists to wait until 2012 to repeal Proposition 8.

A poll released Saturday by CBS and the New York Times indicates that just 53 percent of American adults support military women serving in combat roles. The poll also found 83 percent support women serving in support roles for ground troops. The US currently restricts women from direct combat roles in infantry positions or in the Special Forces.

Global Happenings

The International Olympic Committee voted Thursday to add women's boxing to the 2012 Olympics in London.

Fourteen Nobel Laureates released a letter Tuesday urging the United Nations Security Council to take action to support fellow Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years and was sentenced yesterday to 18 months of house arrest after temporarily housing an American who swam to her lakeside property unannounced.

The Organic Laws and Statues Bureau of Taiwan's legislature has released a report suggesting changes to the nation's abortion laws to give women greater control over their reproductive rights. The bureau proposes that women should be able to obtain abortions without spousal consent.

Photo courtesy of Matt Callow on flikr.com

Science To The Rescue

There have been many advances in the area of contraception and STI-prevention since the early days of the first birth control pills and diaphragms. We have oral and injectible medicines, physical barriers, and IUDs that help women (and men) protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and diseases. Although I am not a science person whatsoever, I found this new breakthrough very interesting.

Scientists at University of Utah have designed what they are calling a "molecular condom." This breakthrough was first made in 2006 and has gone through a massive redesign to come to the product that they have presented today.

To use this "molecular condom," a women would insert a vaginal gel that turns semisolid in the presence of semen before sex, trapping the AIDS virus particles in a microscopic mesh so they can't infect vaginal cells.

The goal of this new product is to help in the prevention of the spread of HIV so women can protect themselves without having to try and persuade their partners to do it, like with normal male-use condoms.

Another goal for this product is to target some of the most under-resourced countries like sub-Sahara Africa and south Asia where the rate of infection is as high as 60% in women.

So what does this means for women like you and me? Well the "molecular condom" is still going through testing and clinical trials and probably still has several years before it will be available to the general public. However, this does give women more control over their own bodies and reproductive health, which is another step in the right direction. This new form of protection gives women more option in their arsenal of disease prevention and looks to help out those women who need more protection the most.

Photo courtesy of ynse on flikr.com

Commission Finds College Policy Discriminatory

I was checking out the news on our website this morning and I found a story that I thought was pretty interesting.

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that Belmont Abbey College discriminated against its employees on the basis of sex by denying them health care coverage of contraceptives. According to the Gaston Gazette, the complaint involved the college's December 2007 decision to alter its employee health insurance plan by removing coverage for oral contraceptives, voluntary sterilization, and abortion.

According to Inside Higher Ed, eight faculty members filed a discrimination complaint with the EEOC after the health insurance coverage changes were announced. The complaint was originally denied, but this decision was reversed in late July, when the EEOC released a ruling that stated, "by denying prescription contraceptive drugs, [the college] is discriminating based on gender because only females take oral prescription contraceptives. By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women." The commission also ruled that a charge of religious discrimination had no merit since all employees, regardless of their personal religious beliefs, were affected by the change in coverage.

The college's president, William Thierfelder, retaliated against the complaint by sending an e-mail to the campus community identifying those who had filed the complaint. Victoria Mackey, a senior investigator with the EEOC, said that Thierfelder's disclosure of names created "a chilling effect...on the campus whereby other faculty and staff members would be reluctant to file a charge of discrimination with the commission against the respondent for fear that their name would be in a memo from the president to faculty and staff at the college" reported Inside Higher Ed.

Belmont Abbey College is a Roman Catholic institution located in Belmont, North Carolina.

Photo courtesy of www.flick/Carolinadoug

The IUC - Is It Right For Me?

Contraception can be overwhelming...There are so many options available with various side effects, costs and efficacy rates that it is challenging to really understand the spectrum of options available. As a result, I imagine many young college women use the pill by default: its often subsidized by student health plans, its heavily marketed to our age group and many of our friends select this method, so why stray from the pack (pun intended)? But really, do we know what other options are out there?

While I feel the pill is a phenomenal option for many women and I'm thrilled that its available on most campuses at lower costs, it doesn't always work for everyone and sometimes has its challenges. While we are busy rocking this world as powerful feminists, sometimes we miss a pill or sometimes we forget to pick up the next pack in time to start the new month. These simple mishaps can cause stress and worry and distract us from doing the incredible work we do. So what other options exist out there for young women?

I'd like to introduce...the IUC (previously known as the "IUD")! IUC stands for Intrauterine Contraception which does exactly what it sounds - its a 1 inch "T" shaped object inserted into the uterus by a gynecologist that interferes with the implantation of an egg on the uterine wall so it cannot be fertilized.

The IUC is a fantastic, safe and easy method for busy young women with a 99% efficacy rating! There is no daily, weekly or even monthly remembering to do and it is a method that can be kept private from a partner or family member if this is important to you. Furthermore, it is a one time investment rather than monthly bills and it is often covered by health insurance.

There are two kinds of IUCs, the ParaGaurd® and the Mirena®. The ParaGaurd® works for 10 years of continuous contraception coverage and the Mirena® last for up to five; however, both methods can be taken out by your gynecologist at any time to restore fertility. Slate just published a great article on young women and the IUC.

An IUC only prevents pregnancy and therefore will not provide any protection from sexually transmitted infections or HIV, but a barrier method such as a condom or dental dam can provide protection when used properly.

The IUC has gotten a bad rep in the past - ask anyone from our mothers' generation and they will probably be terrified that you are considering this option. Unfortunately, this is from a ton of bad press and negative coverage on the Dalkon Shield, a method with faulty manufacturing that was pulled from the market in 1975 but lingering negativity around IUCs remain.

Sadly, people seem to continue to focus on the negative and ignore the extensive positive research on the safety and efficacy of the IUC. The IUCs on the market today have completely different design and manufacturing than the problematic IUCs of the 1970s.

So if you're looking for a method that is safe, easy and completely reversible - talk to your health care provider about IUCs, it just might be a method that works for you!

For more information on contraception options, check out this awesome interactive tool from ARHP.

photo courtesy of Ed Yourdon on Flickr.

Rally Today: Unlock the Condoms at CVS

There is a rally scheduled for today at 12:30 at the CVS at 6 Dupont Circle in D.C. Never fear, there will be plenty of protection... but you may have to ask for it. In fact, that is precisely what this rally is about. According to the Washington Business Journal, this is a part of the "Cure CVS: Unlock the Condoms" initiative.

After five minutes of solid thinking, the only defense that I have come up with for CVS is that maybe the condoms present a choking hazard for children rummaging around the store and opening things up? In that case, I would like to see balloons, rubber gloves, and anything smaller than a child's fist locked up, too. Seriously, that is the only reason that I can dream up.

According to the EarthTimes, individuals involved in this initiative have concluded that the condoms are locked up more frequently in areas with higher instances of HIV/AIDS. If that is actually a fact, then I am personally appalled and horrified by CVS, and you should be, too. There is going to be a press conference at the rally where members of the initiative will release a letter that asks CVS to create a policy to ensure that condoms are unlocked in all of its stores.

If we are silent about the issue of locking up condoms, who knows where this could lead? Anyway, you should go out to this rally to support the the right to easily accessible contraceptives! If they refuse, Walgreens is right down the road, and their condoms are right on the shelf...

If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact campusteam@feminist.org.

Health Over Politics: EC victory for young women

Exciting news! The FDA announced yesterday that Plan B, the emergency contraception better known as the morning-after pill, will now be available over the counter for 17 year olds. The drug had previously only been available to young women with a doctor's prescription. The FDA's decision to ease the age restriction comes after a federal judge ruled last year that inhibiting access to Plan B was based on politics, not science.

We are thrilled to see another Bush-era restriction on women's healthcare fall. Giving young women greater access to emergency contraception helps prevent unintended pregnancies when other contraception methods fail. Plan B is NOT the same as mifepristone/RU-486, the abortion pill. Emergency contraception is taken up to 5 days after unprotected sex and contains a high dose of hormones which can delay or prevent ovulation, or interfere with fertilization or implantation.

To learn more about EC, visit our website.

How "magical thinking" can lead to pregnancy

More than half of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. This morning, NPR Morning Edition posed an important question: why are so many pregnancies unplanned, given the vast number of contraceptive options on the market?

There are a number of different factors at play — cultural influences, ignorance, a lack of access to appropriate medical care.

Dr. Vanessa Cullins, the medical director of Planned Parenthood says, "Consistent and correct use of contraceptives is hard. It should be a responsibility that society shares... correct and consistent condom use requires that women be true to themselves and honest about the fact that they are having sex — if they want to avoid becoming pregnant."

Most interesting part of the piece was the story of Joy Migala, a young woman who became pregnant after having unprotected sex with an ex-boyfriend. Her situation was a classic case of a kind of cognitive dissonance that Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy termed "magical thinking."

"You either say, 'I'm not planning to get pregnant, and therefore I'm going to be very careful,' or, 'I am planning to get pregnant,' " said Brown. "If you are the middle, in a fog and magically thinking, you're planning to get pregnant."

I was struck by the sex-positive and feminist tone of this piece, as well as the vast amount of information in such a short article (check out the contraceptive list — we could all use a refresher). Such a frank discussion of pregnancy and contraception, without blame and moral posturing, is often hard to find.

Photo courtesy of NPR