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

HPV Vaccine Does More than Bargained For

I'm a fan of preventing cancer. Most people are. I got the three Gardasil shots a year or so ago. It wasn't really a big deal. Three shots=no HPV, didn't seem like a huge decision. I was reading the Huffington Post and saw this piece about the vaccine and there were a few things that I was a little surprised about.

For example (and this may only illustrate how little I know), I didn't realize how easily HPV can be spread. It could be just skin-to-skin contact. Also, according to the author, there's evidence that the vaccine may prevent not only cervical, vaginal, anal and vulvar cancer, but also other forms of cancer, like some oral and throat types.That's pretty impressive.

Not to mention that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease. Let's face it. Rates of cancer and STIs are pretty high. The fact is both are extremely destructive and can cause serious problems. It's scary how little most women know or understand about their own bodies and their reproductive health, myself included.

Reproductive health is an important part of our lives, which is part of why abstinence-only education is so destructive. I checked out the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals website to see what they had to say about HPV and the vaccine. The site also has a lot of information about every aspect of reproductive health, I'd recommend it. Let's empower ourselves by understanding our bodies and taking care of them!

Photo Courtesy of www. flickr/kimonomania

not-2-late.com

Wendy Matheny, the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Campus Program Coordinator (a.k.a. my boss), e-mailed me a link this morning to “The Emergency Contraception Website,” a very navigable and informative resource on EC. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before, seeing as it’s operated by Princeton, the university I attend, and the Association for Reproductive Health Professionals, and I spent a good chunk of the morning clicking around the site.

From a very comprehensive EC Q&A page to a search function to locate EC providers, the website does a great job presenting information in a clear, accessible fashion. You can search for types of emergency contraception by brand or by country (in Bolivia, for example, you can find 8 types of “progestin only” EC products), read a “more detailed academic review of the medical and social science literature about emergency contraception,” or use the site as a portal to countless other resources on preventing unintended pregnancies. And in a web world plagued by anti-choice (and anti-woman) propaganda, it’s a refreshing change of pace to stumble upon such a positive, trustworthy resource.

The URL is not-2-late.com, which will take you to http://ec.princeton.edu/. Check it out. Tell your friends.

Cross-posted with Princeton's Equal Writes blog.
Photo courtesy of flickr.com/freedomtoast.

Dr. Beth Jordan: More Women Choosing Medical Abortion

A great post up at Vitals: Spotlight has good news today on medical abortion. According to a study by Planned Parenthood, last year one quarter of women who chose abortion used medicine instead of surgery.

Feminist Majority Foundation Medical Director, Dr. Beth Jordan, who fought for FDA approval of this medicine for 12 years, says that this study, which also details the extremely low-risk of taking the drugs, is very promising for the future of reproductive rights for women. Jordan, who is also the medical director of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, hopes that more physicians will offer the abortion pill given the results of the study.

The medical option gives women more control and privacy over their abortion, and has been proven to be very safe. Used during the first nine weeks of pregnancy, the drugs are taken orally and come in two doses. First, mifeprex is given at at the doctor's office, and 24-48 hours later misoprostol is taken.

Experts are hopeful that as women learn more about the medical option for abortion, more women will choose it. For more information on exactly how the drugs work and other facts about medical abortion, check out this website.

Photo courtesy of flickr

Grant monies, feminist style

Know a talented sexual and reproductive health researcher? Nominate them for the Guttmacher Institute's Darroch Award, which recognizes an emerging leader in the field of sexual and reproductive health. The award includes a $2,500 prize.

The deadline to submit a nomination is this Friday, May 15. To download the application, visit Guttmacher's website: http://www.guttmacher.org/

And let us know who you nominate! We always love finding feminist researchers and health professionals. Comment below or drop us a line at campusteam@feminist.org.