Womenstake

Are they Serious?!

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

A big thanks to Feministing for alerting us to this one:
The American Life League is launching a campaign against the birth control pill called “The Pill Kills Babies”. You read that right. According to ALL, plain old oral contraceptives are causing billions of abortions a year. Perhaps ALL’s next campaign should be against breast feeding, which can also have a contraceptive effect. 

I had my own experience with Judie Brown, the Director of ALL. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to debate her at a high school “Constitution Day” on the issue of reproductive choice. She was spewing the same nonsense then. So I asked her point blank: Do you mean to tell me that because I take birth control pills, I’ve had 12 abortions over the past year? She said yes, and you can just imagine the reaction.

Sexual Harassment in Schools is No Laughing Matter

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

When sexual harassment in elementary schools makes headlines, typically it is some version of this:
“For Little Children, Grown-Up Labels As Sexual Harassers.” The usual spin is that schools are going too far in labeling children “sexual harassers.” Fortunately, NWLC’s education group is on the case, and is quick to point out that while some schools are a tad overaggressive in doling out labels, such cases must not overshadow schools’ legal duty to address the very real and all too common problem of sexual harassment.

In further support of NWLC’s vigilant reminder that sexual harassment is no joke, a recent study shows that sexual harassment causes serious harm to its victims’ health. As compared to those who are bullied at school, students subjected to sexual harassment suffer more negative physical and mental health effects. The most important thing to remember about this new study for anyone who cares about children (I’m guessing that includes you) is its conclusion: the distinct health harms caused by sexual harassment mean that it shouldn’t be addressed as just as another form of bullying, but something separate and distinct.

You got EC, Eh?

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Once again, our friends to the north are leaving us (the U.S.) in the dust. Marriage equality; healthcare for all, and now over-the-counter access to emergency contraception. 

We are talking real OTC access: no asking a pharmacist (and possibly getting refused), no showing identification to prove your age, and no prescription required for those under 18.

Congrats Canucks. 

Learn about Emergency Contraception, Because You Never Know...

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

You’d be shocked (SHOCKED I tell you!) at the number of people who don’t know that there is something you can do if you have a birth control mishap, or in cases unprotected or unwanted sex. Fortunately for us (and you), our friends at Advocates for Youth sent out this excellent video on Emergency Contraception.

Watch the video.

I know lots of women who still get Emergency Contraception confused with the abortion pill (also known as Mifepristone or RU-486), but the two have as much in common as George Bush and ____________ [fill in your own snarky reference here]. Please circulate this message widely, because you never know who doesn’t know. 

Placing Teens at Risk

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

This story about tragic endings to two teen pregnancies in Texas really hits home. One 14-year-old girl miscarried in an airplane bathroom on a school trip, and another, also 14, delivered her baby in the school bathroom.

It just so happens that the teenaged girls I love most in the whole wide world live in Texas (hey Dara and Jada!). They are surrounded by caring and supportive adults, and are a phone call, text message or email away from an aunt who happens to know a little something about matters of reproduction (ahem!). I can only hope that they will never feel so alone in the world as to put their lives at risk. They are getting the information they need to make healthy choices, but they don’t get it at school. Why? Because Texas requires schools to stress abstinence. 

When young women (and men) are denied basic information about preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, they are not only placed at risk of the dangers so aptly illustrated by the Texas cases. The abstinence-only message also tells teens that they should be ashamed and fearful when they do have sex (and yes, teens do have sex). While these incidents are shocking, can we really be surprised that these girls didn’t reach out for help?

What can you do? First, make sure the young people in your life know that you love them without judgment. Second, see if young people in your community are getting the information they need at http://www.siecus.org/. And most importantly, support comprehensive sex education.

P.S. to my awesome sister and brother-in-law:

You both moved far, far away, so I can’t hang out with my nieces every week. That’s okay, but you two could at least have had the decency to move to some place like California, where they have comprehensive sex ed.

Young People Are Having Sex! (And this is "News"?)

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

The experts said that the recent “news” that STDs are running rampant among young women is already old to those working in public health.

Here at Womenstake, we’d say that the STD study would be perfect for the Journal of Duh. What other outcome could we expect when the federal government is funding abstinence only education, which deprives students of the basic information needed to make sex (which they are apparently having) safer? A growing number of states are finally getting it, and have actually rejected abstinence only funding.   

Comprehensive sexuality education can help reduce the STD rate. You can help out by joining the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice’s Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Campaign, which promotes comprehensive sex ed.

As the folks who deal with these issues every day noted in their op-ed piece, ignoring the reality of teen sex doesn’t make it go away.

From Alabama, Another Creative Twist on the Prosecution of Pregnant Women

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Alabama passed a “chemical endangerment” law that was intended to address the problem of children being exposed to the chemicals that result from the production of methamphetamine. Instead, an Alabama district attorney is charging women with chemical endangerment based on their use of meth during pregnancy. 

Time and time again, courts have found that you can’t prosecute women using laws that were intended for other purposes. And we’ve explained why the problem of addiction among pregnant women is best addressed through treatment and not the criminal justice system.

Nonetheless, this DA, Greg L. Gambril, said, “the purpose of the statute was to guarantee that the child has a safe environment, a drug-free environment. No one is to say whether that environment is inside or outside the womb.” 

Huh?! Would there be any limit on criminalizing a pregnant woman’s actions (food, drink, exercise, sleeping habits, failure to floss) under his interpretation of the law?  Hopefully, the New York Times coverage of this issue will call attention to the Constitutional violations being committed by this DA, and attorneys will stop urging their clients to plead guilty to these non-existent crimes.

Fighting the Urge to Merge

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

So what do Denver, Colorado, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Prince Georges County, Maryland, and Pottsville, Pennsylvania, have in common? 

Terrific coalitions in each of these communities are working with NWLC to protect access to reproductive health and end-of-life care in their local hospitals. Mergers, sales and takeovers by religiously-affiliated hospital chains may result in your hospital denying you family planning services, infertility treatment, or emergency contraception, or ignoring your advance directive. Know what to ASK! to make sure the beliefs of your providers don’t keep you from getting the health care you need, and contact us if they do.

File This Under "Bad Ideas"

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

As you may know, we are pretty passionate here about opposing measures that punish pregnant women who are addicted to drugs. We’ve briefed and we’ve blogged. As we’ve explained over and over, prosecuting or criminalizing pregnancy is not just ridiculously unconstitutional, it is also poor public health policy that leads to worse health outcomes for mothers and infants. It is also why this headline makes about no sense:

Measure forces care on pregnant, meth-hooked women 

The proposed Arizona law requires child protective services to request a judicial order to have sheriffs take women to treatment. It doesn’t say what sheriffs are supposed to do if a woman refuses to go. Could she be charged with resisting arrest, get arrested, and then be left to detox in a jail cell (which btw can be more deadly to both her and the fetus than taking drugs)?

You can’t “force care” on someone. It is an oxymoron. This is a serious problem, yes, but it is a problem better handled with social workers, doctors, trained addiction specialists and comprehensive family-based treatment targeted to the needs of pregnant and parenting women, not judges and cops. Let’s hope this bill doesn’t go anywhere.

And the Survey Says…..

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Have you taken Plan B (the emergency contraceptive) since Jan. 1, 2007?

Do you like to win stuff?

Then take a 10 minute survey on your experience here! 

This survey is an effort to help identify and address barriers to access like pharmacy refusals and stocking problems.

You get to help out a great cause! And you can win a gift card! And it just takes 10 minutes!

What more could you ask for?! Oh, yes, the deadline: March 31, 2008. 

P.S.: We know you have friends (and they don’t tell you everything) so send it to them just in case they have taken Plan B. Maybe they will share the gift card with you.

Thanks in advance.