Me: Here are some percentages about HPV types and cervical and anal cancer!

Sometimes I feel sorry for my editor for National Women’s Health Network newsletter articles. Susan Flinn, you’re terrific!

Although I have been woefully isolated from the news for the past week, some things that have caught my attention:

• Bears repeating, and imagine how many *men in politics* are completely ignorant of this fact: Half of Women Unaware that Pregnancy Is More Dangerous Than Contraception. These are results released by ACOG from a very small study presented at their annual meeting, so complete methods and data is not available. I’d be interested in the results of a larger study that would also look at public knowledge about the safety of pregnancy vs. abortion (abortion similarly is safer than pregnancy/birth for women).
• Weld County Board Renews Decision to Ban Plan B at Health Clinics – in Colorado, where people are still completely wrong about how emergency contraception works, but also don’t want to help low-income people afford birth control. *headdesk*
• First the Egg is announcing a book project on feminist parenting, and is soliciting word-spreading, help, and story-sharing.

  Among the issues to address: “Mainstream parenting culture–and books–make big assumptions about what men and women, boys and girls are like. And what we ought to be like, too. On top of this gender essentialism, most advice about parenting either ignores or participates in heteronormativity, classism, racism, ableism, and the power of commodity culture.”
  So, as is often the case but not always executed in feminism, I think it would be good to get some voices in there that aren’t just secure, middle class, white highly educated feminist perspectives. Seriously.

• Go here to help out with fundraising for a Queer Women of Color Reproductive Justice event – “Sister Song will host a gathering of LGBTQ Indigenous women and women of color who are leaders in the reproductive justice movement in order to help strengthen a shared vision, build support of peer-leadership, strengthen intersectional movement alignment and develop potential policy agenda action items.”
• SisterSong is also having a live-streamed symposium on May 22 on “a mother’s right to parent her children.”
• The judge in the Plan B case has refused to issue a stay delaying over-the-counter emergency contraception access for young women in response to the Department of Justice’s appeal.

  Props to Judge Korman, who is quoted as stating that “If a stay is granted, it will allow the bad-faith, politically motivated decision of Secretary Sebelius, who lacks any medical or scientific expertise, to prevail” and calling the appeal’s argument about women’s confusion both “silly” because the appeal itself creates confusion, and “largely an insult to the intelligence of women.”

• Haven’t read this, but definitely want to check it out: the Dari Project book, the first bilingual collection of LGBTQ Korean American stories (found via I am Korean American)
• These Mama’s Day e-cards from Strong Families are amazing.
• Resource of interest: Native Youth Sexual Health Network
• James Perry asks, “Is sexism obscuring the cure to American poverty?” – looks at America’s lack of paid pregnancy leave, the wage gap, and argues “Affording women equal rights, fair salaries, maternal support and the right and easy access to reproductive health care will go a long way stemming poverty.”
• Random media notes: Neil Gaiman did an episode of Doctor Who. The Doctor’s line near the end referring to Clara as a mystery wrapped in a “skirt that’s just a little too tight” just really ruined the episode for me, regardless of its other problems. Too bad that instead of being a companion through whose eyes we can see the Doctor – and someone who is interesting, courageous, clever, and a leader in her own right – Clara is reduced to an object for both the Doctor and the viewer, a mystery to be solved and a skirt open to policing comments by others. Just, no.

First up, “Old Granny is up with my wife right now,” said by the smith, whose wife is giving birth. “Granny” is a common old term in the U.S. south for a lay midwife. Granny Weatherwax is a witch, too, the concepts of witches and midwives as women healers being somewhat intertwined in the imagination and history.

Later: “Esk knew that she [Granny] was famous throughout the mountains for special potions for special illnesses that her mother-and some young women, too, once in a while-just hinted at with raised eyebrows and lowered voices…” The mention of the occasional young women along with the secrecy here suggests that we are likely meant to think of herbal remedies for a late period (i.e., methods of terminating early pregnancy). Infertility and other menstrual problems are a possibility as well, but we can be fairly sure that Granny is working within the realm of women’s reproductive health.

“..a number of mysterious potions that Granny said she might learn the use of in good time.” Potentially a reference to sex or menstruation-related potions young Eskarina wouldn’t have need of just yet.

Esk out with Granny, Hilta Goatfounder speaking at her shop at the market: “…I say, there’d be many a family in this town a good deal bigger and poorer if it wasn’t for Madam Goatfounder’s Pennyroyal Preventatives.” Pennyroyal is well-known for its use to end pregnancies.
(Disclaimer: do not attempt! You can read about this elsewhere, and I do wonder how much knowledge we can pull together given MS, ND, and other states, but I’m emphatically not encouraging anyone to dive into this in a self-experiment-y kind of way.)

This is the first of Pratchett’s witches books that I’ve read – has anyone caught similar references in the other books?

PS – I’m reading books again! *For reasons,* I had to go on hiatus for a bit, enjoying briefer blog posts, fanfiction, and other online materials. Also reading: Dorothy Roberts’s Fatal Invention : How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century. I’ll probably have to return it before I’m finished. I also just finished the last book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, about which I have *feelings.*

• How Can We Help Teen Mothers Avoid and Cope With Postpartum Depression? – discussion of a study that tried to answer that question
• Study: IUDs Offer Safe Contraception Option for Teens But Rarely Prescribed – analysis of a study looking at IUD use in adolescents, with data on complications
• Supreme Court Hears Case Against Myriad Genetics: Why Patents Hurt Women’s Health – OBOS is a co-plaintiff in the case against BRCA1 an BRCA2 gene patents. I look at the oral arguments.
• “Can We See the Baby Bump, Please?”: Film on Commercial Surrogacy in India Screens in Boston – a film you might want to track down

Statement on State Legislation Requiring Hospital Admitting Privileges for Physicians Providing Abortion Services – The major U.S. ob/gyn professional association issued a statement specifically opposing laws and regulations requiring hospital admitting privileges for abortion providers, and generally opposing TRAP laws intended to restrict access. I’ve written here about why I think it’s obvious that admitting privileges rules are much more about controlling women than protecting women’s safety.

National DNA Day was celebrated last week, marking the 60th anniversary of Watson and Crick’s landmark paper describing the structure of DNA. In observance, let’s actually remember the role of Rosalind Franklin: The Rosalind Franklin Papers – Profiles in Science from the National Library of Medicine. Also: Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA – describes a book that may be of interest on Franklin.

Oh, good grief, more with LEGO? Pro tip: promoting street harassment in stickers for kids is not cool. See this post for a LEGO sticker construction worker with the word bubble, “Hey babe!” *vomits*

Today in “no duh:” More Birth Control Knowledge Equals Less Repeat Pregnancies For Teens

In Missisippi:
Mississippi’s Last Abortion Clinic Can Stay Open, For Now
But: Mississippi law will regulate abortion-inducing drugs
You know, when I think about where I’d be willing to live to take the next step in my medical librarianship career, I actually automatically crossed Mississippi off the list because I think I’d get too distracted by wanting to do activist work around this. Or just, like, yelling at politicians all day every day.

GOP bill would ban DC abortions after 20 weeks

Fat-Shaming All Around Us – at The Nation

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/04/26/4624237/mississippi-law-will-regulate.html#storylink=cpy

NYTimes interactive graphic on overlapping disease in the elderly.

This is an extremely contentious issue, on American Christian push to adopt from other countries: Is There Really An Orphan Crisis?

Good job, Philadelphia! City of Brotherly Love, indeed! Philadelphia Passes Historic LGBT Health Equality Bill! – “The transgender health provision would make Philly the largest city to remove trans health care coverage exclusions for city employees.”

At Dartmouth, students are protesting the college’s handling of sexual assault. This apparently resulted in their being threatened, both with disciplinary action and by classmates. Classes were canceled. Follow the struggle and background at Real Talk Dartmouth.

AutoStraddle’s Make a Thing series makes me smile. One of those made things is underwear.

Book stuff:
Books on Bisexuality: An Annotated Listing
Queer Books for Griffyndor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. I just…nerdgrin. Via the queer book club tumblr.

Later this week I’m headed to Boston, MA for the annual Medical Library Association conference, where I’m presenting, official conference blogging (covering posters), attending a committee (Government Relations) and a special interest group (Relevant Issues, chair-elect for 2013) meeting. I’ll also get to see a former colleague and lots of other amazing medlibs from around the country, which is always refreshing. So blog posts will be light here, as they have been lately. Then I’m actually taking about a week off work. Woohoo!

Also professionally speaking, I’ve struggled with how to represent the variety of my interests and experiences in a way that integrates both the medlib stuff and the repro health writing/advocacy stuff. Here’s one attempt. If you have feedback or suggestions, I’d love to hear it. It’s a work in progress: http://rachelrwalden.wordpress.com/

Want to see more abortion “care” like Gosnell’s? Continue to ignore women’s sex ed and contraception needs, defunding family planning services, cutting state budgets because “government” is the enemy, and working toward elimination of legal abortion. I guarantee you’ll see more of it. Using Gosnell to further restrict abortion virtually guarantees more cases *just like Gosnell.*

More:
There is no Gosnell coverup: ” If you’ve never heard of the Gosnell story, it’s not because of a coverup by the liberal mainstream media. It’s probably because you failed to pay attention to the copious coverage among pro-choice and feminist journalists, as well as the big news organizations, when the news first broke in 2011.”

Recent posts at Our Bodies Our Blog:
Eating Disorders in Adolescence Can Have a Long Term Effect on Women’s Health – long-term bone effects might cause issues well past the teen years
The Long Political History of Increasing Access to Emergency Contraception – A judge ruled that emergency contraception pills should be available OTC. Sebelius’s “what about 11 year olds?” excuse was always crap. I’m still mad at Obama for supporting that nonsense.

Some other stuff:
Morality and Techie Aesthetics are Not “Health” – Great post from Aunt B – “So, if I fail to be “fit” I’m now fucking it up for the business community? It’s now my fault if the right kind of people, the people we really want and need in Tennessee catch a glimpse of me and decide that I’m too ugly for them to want to live here? I’m ruining the whole fucking state now?” The idea that “fat people” are ruining it for our potential unseen glorious tech takeover of the world! is absurd, when this type of TN nonsense gets national attention.

State Policy Trends 2013: Abortion Bans Move to the Fore

North Dakota Is Determined to Make You Have Your Baby – Dear North Dakota: Please next pass a law requiring parents to provide organs to their own children in need of transplant. Do not let them decide/consent, just force them to have surgery. I’m just saying.

U.S. government moves to ban ‘fake pot’ – You know what else would take care of the “fake pot” problem? Legal pot. Then we could also stop throwing people in jail and disenfranchising them for life for something that’s arguably less harmful than legal alcohol.

Upcoming Healthy People 2020 Webinars: Violence Across the Lifespan and Social Determinants of Health

‘Stop Telling Women to Smile’ Exhibit Opens in Brooklyn. Yeessssss.

I can’t remember if I linked it already, but one of the We Do Campaign couples (Matt and Raymie) applied for a marriage license in the town where I grew up, Morristown, TN. So, you can see images of this liberal librarian’s place of origin, and you’ll be able to guess it’s not a metropolis where LGBTQ people have a lot of community. Their video made me tear up. No, I don’t think marriage equality is *everything,* but I want to hug those babies.

Drawing the impossible? Fully dressed Superheroines – This is pretty great. I need somebody to make me the Black Canary outfit. (I’d also like to drop the “heroines” part. Because I don’t really need that gendering.)

*weekly title: I’m finishing my taxes *today,* have to prepare a conference presentation and travel for an event in a couple of weeks, and am generally stressed. Eep. That’s also why the short update. I think after the conference I’ll take a few days off work! Soothing pictures of adorable kittens or attractive people at Coachella are appreciated.

Reminder: I’m allowed to call myself a mutt. Other people, not so much. Jokes about my ancestors getting around, historically speaking, are fair game. Click to embiggen. Set on Standard composition.

Did East Asian have to be color-coded yellow? For real?

This image shows information on my maternal haplogroup, or ancestry derived from mitochondrial DNA. The A4 designation reflects the fact that my mother’s mother was ethnically Korean. Explanation provided in the image. Again, click for a larger, more readable size.

Finally, my percentage of DNA that is considered Neanderthal in origin. Jokes about my hard-headedness will be appropriate here:

Study: Expand Abortion Access by Expanding the Types of Professionals Who Can Provide Care – Many states only allow MDs to perform abortions. A new study looks at abortions performed by nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and physician assistants, and finds the safety outcomes fairly comparable to those of more experienced physicians.

Tennessee women who take illegal drugs during their pregnancy cannot be arrested for the harm they do to their babies. But some ended up in jail anyway.

That’s because some police and prosecutors — unaware state law changed last year — pursued criminal charges thinking they had the authority to do that. They did not realize lawmakers eliminated their ability to charge women with assault or homicide against their unborn children.

Even the state attorney general overlooked the change when he issued a written opinion Jan. 7 about whether women could be prosecuted.

Well, that just fills me with confidence about the justice system in this state.

Avoiding criminalization pregnant women with drug addictions is sound public health policy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says “The use of the legal system to address perinatal alcohol and substance abuse is inappropriate.”

There’s a good reason why public health people object to criminalization of these women, and it’s a reason that’s actually good for protecting the health of women and babies. Women with addictions who fear prosecution avoid prenatal care, and don’t get help for their substance abuse issues. Criminalization, on the other hand, simply demonizes women for not performing perfectly as incubators, especially low-income women with fewer resources for care.

The criminalization approach simply fills jails and separates families, rather than ensuring both mother and baby have the best chance at being healthy and forming health relationships. From one affected woman:

“The day before I was supposed to bring my daughter home from the hospital, they took me to jail. My daughter is almost 8 months old, and I’ve never spent time alone with her.”

It’s unfortunately not unusual to treat women as though they are simply baby vessels, expected to perform perfectly on command. One thing I notice in the tone of the Tennessean article is the lack of emphasis on the barriers to getting addiction therapy while pregnant, or the need to actually help women with this. Instead, there is disappointment about not getting to prosecute new mothers against the advice of public health experts. It’s all as if it’s simply natural to look at women as baby-making objects who should be acted on for everybody else’s good.

“Hemenway said she would prefer to be able to bring charges”
and
“Even though we don’t like it, we don’t think we can charge the two ladies in these cases.”

There’s also a real lack of emphasis on anything specific about actual damages to the specific children whose mothers were wrongly jailed. There has been a fair bit of scholarship on the hype and misinformation of the “crack baby” epidemic, and we know that not all drug use has the same severity of effect. What we get in the news coverage, though, is:

“a 30-year-old Murfreesboro woman gave birth to medically fragile twins on Sept. 5 after using cocaine and opiates, and ‘very rarely’ attending prenatal visits, according to court records”
and in another case
“Her charging document didn’t specify an exact incident date for her drug use, although it does refer to Crum smoking cigarettes and failing to get prenatal care for 12 weeks.”
and about nobody in particular
“Medical records filed in courts show the birth defects and costly hospital stays that accompany many drug-addicted newborns. These babies are often born premature and suffer seizures, vomiting and hyperactivity.”

Now, maybe they can’t talk about it because there are cases pending or whatever. And some drug exposures can indeed have negative effects on babies. But twins are often born “medically fragile,” period. Cigarettes are legal. Smoking during pregnancy is legal. A specific number and timing of prenatal care visits is not mandated by law. It seems like, if we’re talking about jailing women for addictions suffered during pregnancy, while doing very little as a society to actually help them get better, we ought to at least be able to be specific and avoid all the hand-waving about what specific damage warranted the taking away of their freedom. Nothing in the above does that for the cases described, where women were jailed under a law that wasn’t even real at the time.

It comes as no surprise that the newspaper article online is getting comments like, “they shouldn’t get pregnant,” or “they should have gotten off drugs before they got pregnant.” Look, fully half of the pregnancies in this country are unintended, across all types of folks. People have no room to be self-righteous about planning pregnancy when that rate is so high, and when there can be many systemic barriers in place to getting help with addictions and preventing pregnancy in the first place. When addiction itself can make it more difficult to consistently use contraception. Fear of prosecution and lack of contextually sensitive treatment programs are huge barriers for women who find themselves pregnant with an addiction, and many women simply cannot afford addiction therapy at any time.

It’s not like two lines on a stick is a kind of magic that makes addiction vanish. It’s not like we have good options in place for pregnant women with addictions. It’s not like we can reasonably, legally prohibit pregnant women from taking any actions with any possible risks for fetuses. Should we all be legally required to present for X number of prenatal visits? To stay home? To avoid car travel? To avoid coffee? Are we actually interested in helping mothers and babies, or in controlling and punishing women for failing to perform perfectly as incubators, in reminding women that they are under surveillance because we want something out of them?

Apparently we are so zealous in our desire to punish drug-addicted mothers, that we can’t be bothered to learn when laws change. We just jail them anyway. Forget whether it’s good health policy – it wasn’t even the law.

A related article explains that a couple of bills are up for consideration in Tennessee, debate over which will further demonstrate what folks think the answers are to the questions above.

The Safe Harbor Act (SB 0459/HB 0277) would give pregnant women priority for entry at drug treatment centers, requires centers that get public funding to treat pregnant women, and prevents healthcare providers from seeking to terminate pregnant women’s parental rights because of addiction. In other words, it encourages access to treatment and avoids punishment of pregnant women with drug addiction problems. Another bill tries to make it so 90% of the women in the state have access to prenatal care.

In contrast, HB 1295/SB 1391 would make it so a woman could prosecuted for assault or murder if she uses a narcotic drug while pregnant and the child is born addicted, is harmed, or dies.

One of those approaches does something positive for the health of mothers and babies. The other gets off on punishing women. Full stop.

Further reading:
The National Advocates for Pregnant Women is an excellent resource for learning about this issue.
These previous posts of mine may also be of interest for exploring the topic of pregnant women’s rights:
Expanded Commentary on SB1065/HB890 – Forced Drug Tests for Pregnant Women
Case on Court-Ordered Bed Rest Highlights Reproductive Rights Concerns for Pregnant Women
Exploring the “Crack Baby” Myth
Of particular importance is this:
Drug-Addicted Women Need Medical Care, Not Jail

Vanderbilt Feminists in partnership with VUEES is happy to present “A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer.”

This is a groundbreaking collection of monologues by world-renowned authors and playwrights, edited by Eve Ensler and Mollie Doyle. These diverse voices rise up in a collective roar to break open, expose, and examine the insidiousness of violence at all levels: brutality, neglect, a punch, even a put-down. The reading will feature members of the Vanderbilt community who are proud to speak out to end violence.

Tickets are $7 and are available at Sarratt Box Office
*All proceeds from this event will go toward ending violence against women and girls locally*

Reviews of sports bras for big boobs.

A couple of my recent Our Bodies Ourselves posts:
Are Right-to-Know Breast Density Laws Good for Women’s Health?
Rally at the Supreme Court – Breast Cancer Gene Case to be Heard Next Month
Also of interest: FDA Approves Silicone Gel Breast Implant Without Public Meeting

Also Supreme Court-related, gay marriage is up this week. Lots of wonky coverage on SCOTUSblog, if you’re not familiar with that source.

Steubenville’s Jane Doe asked people to do something

This is just…no. Doctors Turning Away Patients With Disabilities – the DisabilityScoop item summarizes a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Mobility Impairment Reduces Access to Subspecialty Care – only the abstract of that paper is freely available.

Things we are not even remotely surprised by: Shuffleboard? Oh, Maybe Let’s Get High Instead – on more “older” Americans smoking pot.

We the People petition of interest:
Make Consent a Mandatory Part of Sex-Ed in Public Schools

The New York Times did a Q&A with Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth, who is working on a book “Trans Bodies, Trans Selves” as a guide for trasgender and gender-variant folks.

And in Arizona, a hateful and dangerous bill that could create criminals of transgender persons for using their restroom of choice.

No one should have to “show their papers” to use the restroom. Tell the Arizona legislature to stop demonizing one of the most vulnerable group in our society, and work to promote their safety instead.

An oldie but goodie: How Not To Be An Asshole: A Guide For Men

If no woman in your life has ever talked to you about how she lives her life with an undercurrent of fear of men, consider the possibility that it may be because she sees you as one of those men she cannot really trust.

Anti-Choice March Madness: The Worst State for Women – Well, that’s a depressing take on March Madness. But it has good, succinct overview on what each of many states (including Tennessee, North Dakota, and Arkansas) is up to on the anti-choice front.

On Palestinian women forced to give birth at checkpoints. This is an issue I’m extremely underinformed to understand or interpret, but here’s a 2007 UNFPA item with info as well: Checkpoints Compound the Risks of Childbirth for Palestinian Women

Sidra Zaidi at RHRealityCheck asks why HIV prophylaxis gets addressed in VAWA, but emergency contraception doesn’t.

ACOG released a statement on robotic surgery for hysterectomy, expressing concern that the robots are expensive and use of robots may not improve patient outcomes. The Academic Ob/gyn has some thoughts in response. Nobody seems to be talking about – regardless of method – whether there are too many hysterectomies being done period, and specifically in women of color.

Nice commentary on bisexuality at the Hairpin (second question and answer):

Being actively, proudly bisexual is a pretty radical way to live. People really get uncomfortable about it. If you date a guy, they’ll want to proclaim you cured; if you date a girl, they’ll say you were gay all along, they knew it. But when you insist on your right to your own identity, your right to self-define even when it disrupts someone else’s ability to fit you into a category, you’ll feel way more powerful and anti-patriarchal and rebellious than you ever have before.

I haven’t read this, but looks interesting: What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal.

Have you all seen the film, This Film is not yet Rated? It’s a look at MPAA rating systems. Some readers might enjoy – it includes both Lawrence Lessig (briefly) and interviews with Kimberly Peirce, director of Boys Don’t Cry.

First the Egg is doing a series, children’s books from feminist readers.

C-section rates vary widely in the U.S., and probably not in a way that is actually based on patient factors.

A couple of useful things from Bringing Health Information to the Community:
Information Sources on Ethics in Disaster Medicine and Public Health
AHRQ Question Builder – a helpful tool to prepare for health visits

At Oberlin Microaggressions, students trying to stir dialogue on the need for need-blind admissions. This is basic. It’s been proven that the more people have exposure to people unlike them, the less prejudiced they are. It should be a given that an institution working toward social change needs to respect the “nothing about us without us” mantra. Oberlin College is a place that has the potential to be a beacon in the night, but also the potential to easily, easily, be nothing but absurdly privileged white kids. Need-blind admissions is one important remedy. Marvin Krislov, do it.

Not even remotely relevant, but these permanent marker installations kick ass. The artist’s site is here.

Finally, I’m taking Google Reader replacement suggestions. I kind of hate Google right now. How much could it take to just let Reader putter along as-is? It really discourages me from investing time in using other Google services. Yeah, I’m bitter.