Stop Something

This week marks the one year anniversary of the EC (Emergency Contraception) pill Plan B being available over the counter for women 18 and older. Well, the FDA approved it one year ago this week...it took a few months to get it over the counter. Well, actually - it is still technically "behind" the counter, but available without a prescription. Still a step in the right direction, even with the limitations that exist.



But for now we shall celebrate! So check out this video put together by Planned Parenthood. It's cute!

Vote for Instant Birth Control

“Instant Birth Control,” which provides women in Washington and Oregon with access to birth control pills and emergency contraception online, is one of 10 finalists in an international competition to identify “Disruptive Innovations” — replicable, sustainable ideas that could change health care delivery forever.

The competition is hosted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), which makes grants to improve health and health care and by Change Makers.net.

The Instant Birth Control project, which is a collaborative effort among five Planned Parenthood affiliates in Washington and Oregon, is hosted through the online health center of the Portland, OR, affiliate, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette (PPCW).

Cast your vote for the PPCW Instant Birth Control program. Scroll down and click on the register option just above the list of finalists. It won't take long — less than three minutes.

Our work is not done

Remarks of
The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale
Birmingham, AL
7/21/07

Well Operation Save America came, they saw, they harassed, and they annoyed; but they did not close the clinic. The clinic stayed open, no patients were turned away, and the doors never closed. We remain victorious. And that victory is a good thing – but, make no mistake, even though OSA has gone home; our work is not done.

If we were to leave this park and discover that clinic violence had become a thing of the past, never to plague us again, that would be a very good thing, indeed; but, still, our work would not be done.

If we were to find that, while we were here, Congress had acted to insure that abortion would always be legal, that would be a very good thing; but our work would not be done.

If we were suddenly to find a host of trained providers, insuring access in every city, town, village, and military base throughout the world, that would be a very good thing; but our work would not be done.

When every woman has everything she needs to make an informed, thoughtful choice, and to act upon it, we will be very close; but, still, our work will not be done.

As long as women, acting as responsible moral agents, taking responsibility for their own lives and for those who depend on them, have to contend with guilt and shame, have judgment and contempt heaped upon them, rather than the support and respect they deserve, our work is not done...as long as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States can argue, as Justice Kennedy recently did, that women are not capable of making our own informed moral decisions, that we need men to help us so that we won’t make mistakes that we later regret; as long as a Supreme Court Justice can deny the moral agency of women simply because we are women – and can do it without being laughed off the public stage forever – our work is not done. What has happened to us that he could even think he could get away with publishing such an opinion? Our work most certainly is not done.

How will we know when our work is done? I suspect we’ll know it when we see it. Click here to read more from Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale on our work.

Her words are eloquent, passionate, and true. I believe that our work is not done and that there are many out there who are working so hard to protect women's health. What are you doing?

I can't imagine seeing anything like THIS in OK!

Manhattan Mini Storage is getting some flack for their billboards, which I just love to death!

A few particular Catholic groups are complaining about them. A lot. In fact, here is what they have to say. One particularly ridiculous quote reads:

"It's trashy and its vulgar and it's in your face with its crudity," Kiera
McCaffrey, of the Catholic League said on Thursday about the Manhattan Mini
Storage billboard.
The Roman Catholic group, a vocal opponent of abortion rights, has been urging
people to complain to the company.

Jessica from Feministing has the best response to this I have seen yet. She says, "You know what's really vulgar? Women dying from illegal abortions."

So the mini storage company is getting a lot of flack, why don't you give them some kudos? You can email or call them - here is their info.

Anti-Woman Quote of the Day

It's Friday, which always makes me happy. But then I see things like this, a quote from anti-choice fundamentalist Richard Land.

"It's not demeaning to assume that any person who is a mother who could make the
decision to do this [have an abortion] must be suffering from some form of psychological impairment because of the crisis of the pregnancy or because of societal demeaning of human life," Land said.

UHG! Yes, yes...woman who exercise their right to chose an abortion MUST be mentally impaired. *shakes head* This quote was contained in an article and post over at Pam's House Blend. Go there to read it in it's entirety. Even though it might be hard to stomach!

International News Roundup - August 2007

From Planned Parenthood Federation of America's monthly roundup of recent news related to sexual and reproductive health and rights outside the United States.

Doctors and hospitals in Portugal are making it difficult for women to obtain abortions despite the recent legalization of the procedure. Read more...

Mexico City is facing challenges in its efforts to make safe abortion widely available. Read more...

In India, the government has proposed that all pregnant women register with the government and go through a formal request process in order to obtain an abortion. Read more...

A condom manufacturer in Indonesia has launched a question-and-answer text messaging hotline after a study revealed that more than 50 percent of teens in the country relied mostly on friends and pornographic movies for information about sex. Read more...

A study conducted in South Africa and Zimbabwe confirmed earlier studies that found that diaphragms are not effective in preventing HIV/AIDS. Read more...

Uganda has seen a significant decline in the number of women dying from pregnancy-related causes, from 505 out of every 100,000 live births in 2001 to 435 in 2006. Read more...

Free Birth Control for Pigeons

I read this story over at the BBC.

"Birth control is to be used on pigeons in California in an effort to combat the
"unmanageable" mess their increasing numbers are causing. OvoControl P,
which interferes with egg development, will be put in bird food in new rooftop
feeders in Hollywood. The pilot program is expected to show results within a
year. "

While I am not opposed to the program because I think it is a very humane way to deal with an overpopulation problem in pigeons (and whatever animal rights views you hold is irrelevant), I do get frustrated at the following:

College students are now paying an arm and a leg for contraception.

Many women do not have adequate contraceptive coverage on health their insurance plans

Pharmacists feel the need to refuse birth control and lecture women on their reproductive choices.

Rape victims still are not guaranteed an opportunity to have access and information about emergency contraceptive in Emergency Rooms.

Just a little bit of food for thought here...

Dr. Tiller faces more anti-choice attacks

Dr. George Tiller has pleaded not guilty to 19 misdemeanor charges brought up on him from the state of Kansas. These charges against Dr. Tiller revolve around a (ridiculous) Kansas law which requires that two legally and financially uninvolved physicians sign off on any late-term abortion procedure. The charges against Dr. Tiller allege that he has an improper financial relationship with one of the doctors from whom he regularly receives authorization. As a result, he faces up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for each charge.

In my opinion (which has no legal background to it) it seems like the legal/financial relationship he is being alleged with having with another doctor could probably be construed by anyone to mean anything. Okay, maybe that is overreaching, but I'm sure it only takes a small stretch of the imagination for anti-choicers to find some way to charge him with this law that almost appears to be on the books specifically for him.

Most people know that Dr. Tiller has been harassed, assaulted, shot at, threatened, and his clinic vandalized many times. He is a frequent target of anti-choice fanatics, but also of anti-choice legislators as well as from Kansas Attorney Generals.

I admire Dr. Tiller, his bravery, and his strength in the face of adversity. He is one of the only late-term abortion providers in the country. He helps women who want their babies make painful decisions and he understands the importance of his work to the women who travel across the country to see him, as well as to their families.

Do you admire him as well? Then let him know. Feministing posted about this today and also gave an address to use for sending your thoughts to him via snail mail. It cost .41 cents to drop a thank you note in the mail. May I suggest that you please do? I am.

WOMEN'S HEALTH CARE SERVICES

5107 East Kellogg

Wichita, Kansas USA 67218

Anti-Contraception Activists

We know that there are a lot of folks out there who are staunchly anti-choice. They funnel their activism into opposing Planned Parenthood and other women's health centers. They protest, misinform, and often portray themselves as the extreme end of the ant-choice fray. And even now and then we hear about how they are anti-contraception. "Wow!" we think to ourselves, "that is really extreme".

Or is it?

Cristine Page exposes the views on some of the GOP candidates who are taking on these anti-contraceptive views in order to align themselves with the far right. Page writes:

"The American public is unaware of the new wave of anti-contraception activism
by opponents of abortion. Possibly they are unwilling to believe something so wacky
and ironic. Whatever the reason, it has made it easier for politicians to stroke the anti-contraception base. For example, while Bush has delivered some big victories for the anti-abortion movement in the last seven years (Roberts, Alito, Federal Abortion Ban), the anti-contraception work has taken up more of his time (attempting to strip contraceptive coverage for federal employees, appointing anti-contraception leaders to critical posts including the contraception advisory panel of the FDA and to oversee nation's contraception program for the poor, de-funding international family planning programs, investing unprecedented sums into sex-ed programs that prohibit mention of contraception except for failure rates.)"

She looks at some of the speeches of Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, and John McCain to uncover the way in which they campaign with this anti-contraception stance (often covertly). She even looks at Oklahoma's own Senator Tom Coburn as he serves as John McCain's advisor on sexual health matters. She write that he "...is (Coburn) famous for leading campaigns claiming the condom is unsafe and opposing expanded access to emergency contraception." So...very...true.

It is a good, if not frightening read, check it out.

Get Saved or Get Busted

Traditionally religious groups and churches have a tendency to help out their communities in the human service sector. Many churches sponsor homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and even provide help for recovering from drug and alcohol abuse. But I think I found a church group movement that has crossed the line.

The Rev. Doug Abner, pastor at Community Church -- whose slogan for a 2004
anti-drug march was "get saved or get busted" -- said the presence of Court
Watch volunteers puts "mild pressure" on judges "to do the right thing." The
volunteers collect information for a database and look for trends in drug
crimes.

According to a CNN article, this Court Watch movement doesn't nothing to evaluate the root causes of drug use or assist those struggling with drug use to get into treatment. No, they would rather put them in jail. And to make sure that judges are "tough on crime" they sit in the court room with their legal pads and take notes - "monitor judges overseeing drug-related cases" (i.e intimidating judges).

When will they ever learn that scare tactics don't work? Fortunately, The program concerns some other people of faith, who say it cuts against Christian values.

"The churches have traditionally been the humanitarian influence in
society," said the Rev. John Rausch, director of the Catholic Committee on
Appalachia. Churches should focus on drug counseling and ministering to inmates,
he said, citing part of the Gospel of Matthew (25:36) concerning the final
judgment: "When I was in prison, you came to see me."

"It isn't 'I was up for charges and you made sure they threw the book at
me'," Rausch said.

Father Rights for Fetuses - Uhg!

Oh Ohio - have you gone and lost your mind? Feministing blogged about this today and well, it makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

From Feministing:

Oh this is rich. A group of legislators in Ohio are pushing a bill that would give men a say in whether or not a woman can have an abortion.

"This is important because there are always two parents
and fathers should have a say in the birth or the destruction of that child,"
said [Rep. John] Adams, a Republican from Sidney. "I didn't bring it up to draw
attention to myself or to be controversial. In most cases, when a child is born
the father has financial responsibility for that child, so he should have a
say."

As written, the bill would ban women from seeking an abortion without written consent from the father of the fetus. In cases where the identity of the father is unknown, women would be required to submit a list of possible fathers. The physician would be forced to conduct a paternity test from the provided list and then seek paternal permission to abort.

Written notes? Submitting a list of potential fathers? Sometimes I think that anti-choice folks forget that women are, you know, adults.

But seriously here's the best part of the bill: Claiming to not know the father's identity is not a viable excuse, according to the proposed legislation. Simply put: no father means no abortion.

But wait, it gets even better. Women would be required to present a police report if they want to "prove" that the pregnancy was a result of rape of incest. Because women can't be trusted, obviously.

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio executive director Kellie Copeland says, "This extreme bill shows just how far some of our state legislators are willing to go to rally a far-right base that is frustrated with the pro-choice gains made in the last election...It is completely out of touch with Ohio's mainstream values. This measure is a clear attack on a woman's freedom and privacy." Not to mention our intelligence.

The text of the bill is here. And if you want to contact Rep. Adams, who is sponsoring the bill, all of his info is here.

Transsexual Sportswriter Returns to Work

I wanted to blog about this story because it warms my heart to think of the courage it must have take Christine Michelle Daniels to put her life out into the public eye. I know that sometimes the world can be a cruel place, and I'm sure Daniels knows that all too well. However I think there is hope in this story because much of the coverage speaks loudly to those who have embraced acceptance, tolerance, and diversity.

From Alternet:

On April 26, Mike Penner wrote what he thought would be the toughest
article of his career. "I am a transsexual sportswriter. It has taken more than
40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me
to work up the courage to type those words." The piece ran in the Sports
section, next to his regular column.

Responses to the revelation came in three distinct flavors: kudos from
sports fans, effusive thanks from other transsexuals and rants from
bible-thumpers. Readers' initial shock, however, subsided almost
immediately.

Michael Daniel Penner returned to work on May 23 as Christine
Michelle Daniels. So far, it appears to be smooth sailing. But Daniels' very
public transition has put a spotlight on a culture that is slow to acknowledge,
let alone attempt to rehabilitate its ingrained intolerance and bigotry.

I am not an avid sports fan, but I imagine that coming out with this as a sportswriter might have added challenges. However, Daniels is not the first transsexual to emerge from the world of sports.

In 2003, Chris Kahrl, sportswriter and founding columnist of the annual
Baseball Prospectus, the gold standard for baseball analysis, became Christina.

In 1972, Richard Raskind reached the final of the men's national
35-and-over tennis championships. Three years later, he underwent
sex-reassignment surgery, becoming Renée Richards.

You can read more about Daniels at her Woman in Progress blog.

Regardless of what comes her way, Daniels will do what she does best: churn out 2,000-plus words a day that speak to her readers. For reporter and reader alike, there's not much better than that.

For more information on transsexuals and gender issues, visit the Planned Parenthood website.