Blogs Comment On 'Midnight' Regulations, Global AIDS Coordinator, Teen Births, Other Topics

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Public Health;  Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 14 Jan 2009 - 4:00 PST

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The following summarizes recent women's health-related blog entries.

~ "How Barack Obama Can Take a Fast Track To Undoing Last-Minute Bush Regulations," Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street, U.S. News and World Report blogs: Although "every president, on the way out the door, issues a whole bunch of last-minute regulations, causing the next president's staff to spend several months of precious time figuring out how to undo them," it appears that President-elect Barack Obama "is looking for new ways to end this game of musical chairs," Erbe writes. According to Erbe, congressional Democrats "may have found one." Congressional Democrats are considering a few legislative options, use of the Congressional Review Act of 1996 to overturn several Bush administration regulations. She adds, "[T]he American public should get interested because many important laws are planted or uprooted in this fashion." Erbe concludes, "The impact on health care, the environment, education, and other critical programs can be staggering" (Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog, U.S. News and World Report blogs, 1/12).

~ "Women's Health, Immigration Rights and Reproductive Justice Organizations Write the CDC To Oppose HPV Requirement," Our Bodies, Our Blog: The blog entry discusses a recent letter from the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum to CDC opposing the new requirement that female immigrants ages 11 to 26 receive vaccinations against the human papillomavirus. The letter requests that CDC "'modify its current system ... to prevent future unintended additions to the list of mandatory vaccinations and undue burdens on immigrants,'" the blog says. In addition, the letter highlights several concerns related to the new requirement, including "the lack of sufficient threat to public health, the lack of requirement that U.S. citizens receive the vaccine series, and the high cost, which creates a financial barrier for immigrant women," the blog states. According to the blog, the letter also "acknowledges related concerns about health disparities" among certain immigrant women. The blog encourages organizations to sign onto the letter by contacting NAPAWF by Jan. 16 (Our Bodies, Our Blog, 1/12).

~ "The Vatican's Misleading Birth Control Story," Jennifer Rogers, RH Reality Check blog: The "Vatican fails to look honestly at the scientific evidence or at the bigger picture" in a recent statement by a Roman Catholic official that linked oral contraceptive chemicals in the environment to infertility, according to Rogers -- programs and policy director at the Reproductive Health Technologies Project. She writes that although there is scientific evidence that exposure to chemicals in the environment is negatively affecting male and female fertility, and the health of developing fetuses, "there is no evidence that oral contraceptives are the main culprit." Rogers adds, "There are many estrogenic drugs in the environment -- including hormone replacement therapy and estrogen mimics that are used for chemotherapy" and industrial chemicals that can mimic hormones. Rogers writes, "The Vatican's effort to disparage contraceptives misses the larger picture -- we need better water treatment systems to get rid of all the chemicals," noting that the analysis also "fails to acknowledge the benefits of contraception to reproductive health and the environment." She continues, "The Vatican's overstatement of this science is just the most recent twist in their decades-long rejection of safe, effective, modern methods of contraception." Rogers offers suggestions for improving the environment, including researching the environmental impact of pharmaceuticals, supporting "green chemistry," and passing "comprehensive chemical policy reform," such as the Kids Safe Chemical Act. She concludes, "We urge the Vatican to join us in these efforts -- efforts that will move us in the direction of protecting the environment and our fertility" (Rogers, RH Reality Check, 1/12).

~ "Obama To Keep Abstinence-Only AIDS Coordinator," Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check blog: According to Jacobson, a "high-level source" has confirmed that President-elect Obama will retain Mark Dybul as Global AIDS Coordinator, at least as a stopgap measure. She writes that the decision is one "that signals we may not be getting 'the change we need' in global AIDS policies." Jacobson continues that Dybul "is strongly associated with the failed policies of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief." In addition, Dybul has supported funding of abstinence-only programs that "fail to provide all individuals with the basic information, skills and methods for practicing safer sex; supported policies that restrict funding to needle exchange programs; and kept restrictions in place on organizations providing HIV prevention among sex workers," Jacobson says. She writes that although Dybul "obviously works at the pleasure of the current administration, ... he also is morally and ethically responsible for speaking out when taxpayer funding is being used to perpetuate ideology over evidence, and is leaving people at risk of new infections, as has been the case with PEPFAR prevention programs since day one." She adds, "In short, even as a medical doctor, [Dybul] supported ideology over evidence, serving his own interests and the interests of politicians rather than those of people at risk." According to Jacobson, Dybul has supported the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services, which have lobbied to maintain restrictions on federal funding for prevention programs, needle exchange and sex worker organizations. She writes that appointing a new global AIDS coordinator, "even if only for an interim period, ... would have signaled the [Obama] administration's intention to make changes more clearly than keeping the old guard in place." She concludes, "[I]f Dybul is in for the long haul, this administration will have failed to do what is necessary to ensure confidence in PEPFAR and to make the changes necessary to replace ideology with evidence in U.S. global AIDS policy" (Jacobson, RH Reality Check, 1/12).

~ "Teen Sex and Pregnancy: Part of a Bigger Problem," Bernadine Healy, Heart to Heart, U.S. News and World Report blogs: "Finger-pointing" at state sex education programs is the "wrong reaction" to the increase in teen birth rates in several states, writes Healy. She writes that there is a "trend in society at large" of more births to women who are not married. Nonetheless, teens who give birth are "most apt to disadvantage both themselves" and their children, Healy writes. She continues, "But still, let's give the bulk of young people some credit," adding that half of teens have not had sex upon leaving high school and "many others have been largely abstinent." She writes that teenage girls in particular are "aware" that an "unwanted pregnancy puts girls in a mess emotionally, academically, health-wise and financially." Healy cites a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation in partnership with Seventeen magazine that showed that among teens ages 15 to 17 who were abstinent, almost all said that "fear of an unwanted pregnancy" was their top reason for not having sex. Healy writes that "teens may be smarter than we think," adding, "Maybe some of the hand-wringing over sex education needs to be informed by the voices of these young people." She adds, "As in most things unhealthy ... teenage motivation and behavior ultimately come from within," concluding, "And young people are clearly more health oriented and sensible than adults give them credit for" (Healy, Heart to Heart, U.S. News and World Report blogs, 1/9).

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