Favorites from this week

It seems as though everyone is working on new images in the new year. Planned Parenthood and other organizations announcing efforts to distance themselves from the label 'pro-choice' is incredibly surprising to me, but an interesting academic exercise in working within the culture to engage a wider group of individuals who believe what you do, but feel ostracized by language that somehow became exclusionary. And then there is this ridiculousness of Manti Te'o and the fictitious girlfriend who fictitiously died and garnered him national support beyond his football talent. To me, this is another story of a disembodied woman being discussed in a negative way, with Notre Dame reporting that she, that tricky woman, lied to him and ruined his rep. Only recently has the attention turned back on whether Te'o himself made her up, this new line of inquiry spawned by journalists' egos being maimed by lack of fact-checking, underscoring that for them, too, this woman, fictitious or not, tricked them. Fascinating to hear all these men and how they talk about the issue. Tomorrow, President Obama will be sworn into office for a second term, and I am curious if there will be any immediately advertised 'political image updates' associated with that. 2013 has been full of surprises already!...Healthier Births and Babies - With Midwives - Nathanael Johnson at The Wall Street Journal"...Something has gone wrong with the way that we handle birth in this county. After nearly a century of progress, deliveries are now getting more dangerous rather than less so. The number of women who go into shock during childbirth has more than doubled in the past decade, and those who suffer kidney failure rose 97%. Globally, we are tied with Belarus in maternal mortality.As we look for solutions, we'd be well served to examine a remarkable 1920s success story that has almost been forgotten. The key was taking a more personal approach, with a focus on prenatal care, in the style of British midwives. While Americans treated birth as a medical event performed on the mother, British midwives learned that birth was a physical event, performed by the mother..."...Guttmacher Infographic on Racial and Ethic Disparities in Reproductive Health Outcomes

...5 Nosy Questions / 5 Honest Answers About Being Transgender - Riley at Sex-Ed Loop"...Have you ever wondered about trans or genderqueer people but didn’t know how to ask a question without seeming rude or nosy? Are terms like “trans” and “genderqueer” new to you? If so, Sex-Ed Loop has a new guest blogger with you in mind. My name’s Riley, and for the next few months, I’ll be blogging about trans issues and answering every trans-related question you may have (yes, even the nosy ones and ones other people might call “inappropriate”).In this first blog, I’ll answer the top 5 most frequently asked questions as well as explain a bit about who I am and provide a handy how-to about submitting your questions for next time..."...The Message and the Meaning: Is Pro-Choice Passé? : Katha Pollitt at The Nation..."According to one poll PP handed out, 40 percent say their personal view of abortion “depends on the situation.” Polls show a large majority support a woman’s right to abortion in cases of rape or risk to her life or health, and about half would permit it when the fetus is mentally or physically impaired. But a majority oppose abortion when the woman is poor, young, wants to finish school or keep a job, has all the kids she can handle, doesn’t feel ready to be a mother—in other words, they disapprove of about 90 percent of the abortions women actually have. Does that mean people who say abortion is a “gray area” would support more restrictions if they were tailored to those preferences? Or do they just want to feel they have the right to judge? In any case, I don’t know how we get from “it depends” to reclaiming the ground we’ve lost, including overturning such restrictions as parental notification and consent (“it depends” on parental approval), waiting periods (“it depends” on proof that a woman has thought hard), stricter time limits (“it depends” on the woman overcoming obstacles more expeditiously than many of them can) and bans on federal funding (“it depends” on taxpayers not being involved in this morally suspect activity).I’m old-school about labels. I don’t see what was gained by dropping “liberal”—aka “the L-word”—for “progressive.” It just looked cowardly and evasive. I like “feminist” too. People who say they identify with the goals but reject the designation (I’m not a feminist, but…) may think they are making fine ideological distinctions, but basically they are fleeing stigma: “feminist” means you’re a hairy man-hater, so call yourself a womanist, a humanist, a slutwalker, a supporter of gender justice. The trouble is, the stigma is not about the word, but about the concept behind it, and eventually the negative connotations migrate to the new term. That girl may call herself a humanist, but the way she goes on about rape, you can tell she’s just a hairy man-hater!..."...Cochrane systematic reviews are useful to map research gaps for decreasing maternal mortality- Chapman, et al. in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, January 2013..."Study Design and Setting: The article describes the general mapping, prioritizing, reconciling, and updating approach: (1) identifying gaps in the maternal health research using published systematic reviews and formulating research questions, (2) prioritizing questions using Delphi method, (3) reconciling identified research priorities with the existing literature (i.e., searching of ongoing trials in trials registries), (4) updating the process. A comprehensive search of Cochrane systematic reviews published or updated from January 2006 to March 2011 was performed. We evaluated the “Implications for Research” section to identify gaps in the research..."...For Women, Things Really Haven't Changed -- Even in Medical School - Brooke Sachs at Forbes"...Some say feminism is dead. That it’s outdated and no longer the answer. But are we getting complacent? Has feminism fallen foul to the false logic plaguing the vaccination debate? Where, just like inoculations, we did so well for so long that we’ve forgotten what a pandemic really feels like. Have we decided that near-enough is good enough when it comes to women’s rights? Just like herd-immunity, you either have equality or you don’t. And if you don’t, you risk the subtle remarks turning into something more insidious. You risk an outbreak, where the most vulnerable in our community are the most susceptible. Except instead of risking someone in hospital with measles, where we have isolation rooms and appropriate treatments on hand, you risk a woman tolerating sexual harassment to avoid repercussions created by our social constructs. Instead of stopping a woman getting into tertiary education, you stop her at the glass ceiling. It’s claimed that her years out of work rearing children put her behind her male colleagues. That she’s gotten soft. That working part-time will never cut it..."...Planned Parenthood Cervical Cancer Screening Month Infographic

...Safety of Aspiration Abortion Performed by Nurse Practitioners, Certified Nurse Midwives, and Physician Assistants under a California Legal Waiver - Weitz, et al. in the American Journal of Public Health, Jan 2013"...Limited clinical evidence is available to inform policymakers about whether physician-only legal restrictions on abortion are evidence-based.21---24 Our study was designed to provide this evidence to policy- makers; it answers the question “What would be the impact on patient safety if NPs, PAs, and certified nurse midwives (CNMs) were permitted to provide aspiration abortions in California?”..."...