Repro Health Hub

Feministing reports that the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) has launched a new initiative, the kNOw More Initiative, which connects the dots between sexual violence and unintended pregnancies.

On the topic of reproductive coercion, FVPF President Esta Soler says,

The intersection of sexual violence and reproductive health is largely unexplored…With this initiative, we are overcoming stigma and raising awareness about the many women who, while dating or in relationships are forced into choices not their own through rape, sexual coercion or because partners prevent them from using protection. These women are at risk for sexually transmitted infection, unintended pregnancy, HIV, and more. Some suffer miscarriages when they want to carry pregnancies to term. Others become mothers before they are ready. Still others lose their fertility. We are creating a space for women to share stories, and raising awareness among those who may be at risk as well as their friends, policy makers and others.

Get the facts on reproductive coercion and read the chilling firsthand stories that the kNOw More Initiative has collected.

By Tara Sweeney

In many prisons and jails throughout the country pregnant women are routinely shackled during labor and delivery. Surprisingly, California, Illinois, and Vermont are the only states to have passed anti-shackling legislation.

Prison and jail protocols require ankle shackles and, until recently, stomach restraints. Access to Reproductive Health Care in New York State Jails, a New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) report released last March, argues that shackling violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Shackling seems especially ridiculous when we consider that the majority of women are in custody for non-violent crimes.

A few months ago the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) finally decided to prohibit “face-down four-point restraints and restraint belts that directly constrict the area of the pregnancy.” Further amendments to the shackling policy are in the works. Policies in state jails vary extremely. According to the NYCLU report, only three New York jails have written procedures concerning the shackling of pregnant women; of those three, only two forbid it.

The Second Chance Act of 2007 (HR 1593) was recently passed into law and requires the Attorney General to submit a detailed report to Congress on correctional facility policies regarding the restraint of pregnant women. Facilities must also report on “the reasons for the use of the physical restraints, the length of time that the physical restraints were used, and the security concerns that justified the use of the physical restraints.” The bill should become effective by next spring.

In the past thirty years, the number of incarcerated women has increased by 800%–and women of color are the fastest growing prison population in the US. Groups like the Rebecca Project and the Prison Doula Project are fighting to ensure that pregnant women are never shackled and even to provide for a positive labor experience. We need to respond responsibly with additional anti-shackling legislation and appropriate health care for the safety of these women and their newborn babies.

By Samantha Hurley

While 3.5 million pregnancies are among women ages 19–29 and one-third of all HIV diagnoses are made among young adults, many people in this age group are uninsured and lack regular health care.

According to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund, 13.7 million young adults, ages 19–29 were uninsured in 2006, an increase from 13.3 million in 2005. What’s even worse is that low-income young adults, especially young adults of color, are disproportionately uninsured. 53 percent of Hispanics and 36 of African Americans in this age group lack insurance, compared to 23 percent of whites.

Many young adults go without coverage because they lose it as soon as they graduate from college. In the year following their undergraduate graduation, 34 percent are uninsured at least part of the time. Those who do not wish to further their education after high school are also cut from their health care policies. 60 percent of young adults who do not enroll in college full-time lose coverage under a parent’s policy around the age of 18. To avoid becoming uninsured, some graduates resort to creative methods. According to a Wall Street Journal article, one college grad enrolled in an online university simply so he could stay on his parent’s insurance plan as a student.

What’s most upsetting about this data is that young adults, and particularly young women, are left without coverage to receive regular preventative and reproductive health care. Having no insurance, young adults are either burdened with the costs of health care or forced to go without. More than 60 percent of uninsured young adults opted out of getting health care they needed in the past year due to high costs. This includes failing to fill prescriptions, skipping treatments, and avoiding the doctor all together. Presumed to be a strong, vital source of life, young adults are becoming a larger demographic within the uninsured, overlooked as a group of people that both need and deserve good health care.

By Samantha Hurley

You’re probably familiar with the anecdotal evidence of select pharmacists across the country refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control. But an article in today’s issue of The Washington Post discusses how some pharmacies are taking this troubling trend one step further by refusing to carry contraceptives at all.

One strand of the argument in support of pharmacies’ “right” to refuse certain medications is that stores should be able to exclude any products they choose, and pharmacists should not have to do anything that violates their personal points of view.

But we have come to expect that pharmacists, as health care professionals, place the health and well-being of their clients above their own political ideology. And what about women’s right to receive adequate, and equal care? As Marcia Greenberg from the National Women’s Law Center told the Post, “Contraception is essential for women’s health. A pharmacy like this is walling off an essential part of health care. That could endanger women’s health.”

Another strand of the argument against the widespread availability of contraception says that consumers can simply go elsewhere to have their birth control prescriptions filled. That may well be the case in cities and large towns with a plethora of pharmacies. But what about women who live in areas with fewer pharmacies from which to choose? The Post quotes R. Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin bioethicist who says,

We may find ourselves with whole regions of the country where virtually every pharmacy follows these limiting, discriminatory policies and women are unable to access legal, physician-prescribed medications. …We’re talking about creating a separate universe of pharmacies that puts women at a disadvantage.

And even if women are able to fill their prescriptions at another local pharmacy, what about the women who are so humiliated at being turned away from a pharmacy that they are afraid to even try their luck at other pharmacies? And what about women seeking the morning-after pill, who could lose vital hours in searching for a drugstore that provides this most basic service of filling a prescription?

While some states have laws that allow pharmacists to refuse to fill certain prescriptions (one wonders whether other medications, like Viagra, ever meet pharmacists’ refusal), California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Washington have passed legislation requiring pharmacists to either fill prescriptions or help women fill them elsewhere.

I doubt these anti-choice pharmacies would provide any such service. Even so, it could be too little, too late.

By Tara Sweeney

Another pat on the back for the Guttmacher Institute! Earlier this year, the research center published some enlightening information about the recent trends in abortion rates within the U.S. and have now released their most recent research is a study on sexual behavior of American teens.

According to the study led by Laura Lindberg, the Institute analyzed information about teens between the ages of 15-19 taken from the 2002 National Survey of Family growth, with findings that demystify the myth that teens perform oral sex as a way of both being sexually active and remaining virgins.

The findings were as follows

• 55 percent of teenagers have engaged in heterosexual oral sex
• 50 percent have engaged in vaginal sex; and 11 percent have had anal sex.
• Both oral and anal sex are much more common among teens who have already engaged in vaginal intercourse than among those who haven’t, suggesting that teens initiate a range of sexual activities around the same time, rather than substitute one for another, Lindberg says.

“Our research shows that this supposed substitution of oral sex for vaginal sex is largely a myth,” Lindberg said in a statement. “There is no good evidence that teens who have not had intercourse engage in oral sex with a series of partners.”

The study will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Studies like these are imperative to understanding teenage sexuality, how to best prepare those who are sexually active to act safely and be aware of possible risks, and how to shape policy that effectively support these findings.

“The study has clear policy implications,” said Lindberg. “While oral and anal sex carry no risk of pregnancy, engaging in these behaviors can nevertheless put teens at risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Counseling and education should take into account total STI risk by addressing the full range of behaviors that teens engage in, including oral and anal sex. It is crucial that teens receive evidence-based education and counseling about STI risks and protective behaviors for all types of sexual activity. The federal government’s exclusive emphasis on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs does not give teens the skills and information they need to be safe.”

We couldn’t agree more.

As our conversation about universal health care and its inclusion of women’s health continues, it is important to stay on top of events around the issue. It just works out that this week is Cover the Uninsured week, a week full of events in cities all across America and probably in a town near you! Cover the Uninsured is a campaign run by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Their website highlights programs and lists dates and locations for events happening from now until the middle of May. Go to events around you and raise your concerns as women of America who deserve equal access to good health care.