Tag: birth control

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Missouri Lawmakers Override Veto of Contraception Bill

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JEFFERSON CITY, MO. — Missouri lawmakers enacted new religious exemptions from insurance coverage of birth control Wednesday, overriding a gubernatorial veto and delivering a political rebuke to an Obama administration policy requiring insurers to cover contraception.

Although Missouri and 20 other states already had some sort of exemption from contraceptive coverage, Missouri’s newly expanded law appears to be the first in the nation directly rebutting the federal contraception mandate, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and supporters of the law.

Republican legislative leaders barely met the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto by Gov. Jay Nixon. They got help from a few of Nixon’s fellow Democrats and ultimately persuaded one particular Republican lawmaker who had opposed the measure to support the override. Read full article.

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Wheaton College lawsuit dismissed

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A federal judge has dismissed Wheaton College’s lawsuit against the Obama administration for requiring the evangelical Christian college to offer health insurance that covers the cost of contraception, including the morning-after pill, for employees.

The judge’s decision comes just two weeks after the west suburban college was granted an additional year to meet the requirement. Read full article.

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Birth Control Myths and Misconceptions

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The London Summit on Family Planning held in July marked a commitment by Melinda Gates to improve access to affordable contraception in the world’s poorest countries by 2020. Some of these countries are on our doorstep. In Papua New Guinea only one in five women uses a modern method of contraception compared to almost three quarters of Australian women.

I have seen the challenges of providing effective contraception in Papua New Guinea first-hand. Just over four years ago I was lucky enough to visit the very beautiful and remote Highlands and was naively delighted to come across a village health centre well supplied with boxes and boxes of female condoms. The female condom is useful not just for contraception but also to prevent sexually transmissible infections. A combination of myths, misunderstandings and a simple lack of information meant they ended up being used for an altogether different purpose. The female condom is, I discovered, a very neat way to catch small fish! 

This is an extreme example but misconceptions and myths about contraception not only happen in Port Moresby but also in Port Macquarie, Sydney and Dubbo. Some of the more common myths in the field of contraception relate to its effect on future fertility, the risk of cancer and its effect on body weight. I was recently asked whether contraceptive implants can migrate from the arm to some distant part of the body resulting in infertility later on. The short answer is: no. The contraceptive implant, a 4-centimetre flexible rod, is inserted just under the skin of the upper inner arm where it stays in place for up to three years and can be readily located and removed when required.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/birth-control-myths-and-misconceptions-20120829-250gx.html#ixzz25AZkn2nx

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The Awkward History of Americans Talking About Contraception

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The ACLU announced earlier this week that a California school district is being sued by parents and students over its abstinence-only sex education program. Among other affronts to the concept of comprehensive sex education, the program’s textbooks never once mention condoms — not even in the chapters on protecting oneself from STIs and unintended pregnancy. If the program is forced to introduce contraception into their literature, they can look to a long, awkward history of trying to figure out how to do it. Read full article.

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Canadian Doctors Want Ottawa to Pay for Birth Control

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Doctors at the Canadian Medical Association’s annual general meeting voted today in support of a motion asking the federal government to pay for birth control.

About 70 per cent of the eligible voters supported the motion on Wednesday in Yellowknife.

Dr. Sarah Cook, a family doctor in Yellowknife who introduced the motion, said teen pregnancy in the Northwest Territories is almost three times higher than the national average.

She said birth control is not accessible enough for many women.

“There are many women that don’t have access to employer benefits and who are not covered by NIHB [non-insured health benefits for First Nations and Inuit] here who do not have treaty cards that would be able to access that, so I see that very frequently,” said Cook.

Even if it is accessible, it’s often costly. Some methods, such as a hormonal IUD (intrauterine device) can cost almost $500. Cook said she sees cost barriers to contraception every day.

Dr. Ewen Affleck, also of Yellowknife, supported Cook, arguing that unwanted pregnancies are more expensive than birth control. Read full article.

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Finally, the Promise of Male Birth Control in a Pill: Compound Makes Mice Reversibly Infertile

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ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2012) — Researchers have finally found a compound that may offer the first effective and hormone-free birth control pill for men. The study in the August 17th Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows that the small molecule makes male mice reversibly infertile without putting a damper on their sex drive. When the animals stop taking this new form of birth control, their sperm rebound and they are again able to sire perfectly healthy offspring.

“This compound produces a rapid and reversible decrease in sperm count and motility with profound effects on fertility,” said James Bradner of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the lead author of the study.

A male birth control pill hasn’t been easy to come by in large part because of the challenge of getting any drug across the blood:testis barrier, where it can reach the sperm-generating cells. That lack of contraceptive alternatives for men is partially responsible for the high rate of unplanned pregnancies. Despite the unsatisfactory options for male contraception, nearly one-third of couples rely on male-directed birth control methods. Read full article.

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Continuous Oral Contraceptive Pills Offer Women Earlier Pain Relief

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HERSHEY –Taking oral contraceptives continuously, rather than as traditionally prescribed for each cycle, provides earlier relief for moderate to severe menstrual cramps — dysmenorrhea — according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.

Dysmenorrhea occurs during menstruation, resulting from abnormal uterine contractions, increased sensitivity to pain and added pressure in the pelvic area. It is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache and fatigue.

“Between 50 and 90 percent of women suffer from this condition, and it can really limit work, school, or athletic performance,” said Dr. Richard Legro, professor of obstetrics and gynecology. “Previous studies have estimated that dysmenorrhea accounts for 600 million lost work hours and $2 billion annually.”

Participants in this study suffered from unexplained menstrual pain. Their pain was not attributable to previous surgeries, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, or other pelvic or bowel diseases. Results were published in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“Oral contraceptives are often prescribed to treat this condition, since reducing menstruation is a relatively straightforward way to relieve this cramping,” said Legro. “However, we wanted to determine whether there was a measurable difference between cyclic and continuous oral contraceptive treatment methods.” Read full article.

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Which Personhood Endorser in Colorado Will Be Ryan’s Role Model?

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Colorado is America’s personhood Petri Dish, where anti-choice activists first put a question on the ballot (in 2008) about whether to extend legal rights to fertilized human eggs, otherwise known as zygotes.

They lost and tried (and lost) again in 2010, and they’re trying again this year.

As the personhood initiatives have come and gone here, Colorado has seen the different reactions of politicians who endorse personhood when the eyes of everyday people turn toward them, when the wider population becomes aware that they’ve aligned themselves with the personhood folks, who even stand on the fringe of the anti-abortion movement.

As an endorser of personhood, Rep. Paul Ryan is suddenly in this category. Before being selected by Romney, no one except anti-choice activists knew Ryan had sponsored federal personhood legislation, which, among other things, would ban common forms of birth control as well as all abortions, even in the case of rape and incest.

So the question is, now that Ryan’s personhood cat is out of the back alley, what will he do?

Will Ryan, who supported personhood legislation in Congress, stand by his position? Read full article.

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WHO approves coil as emergency contraceptive

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NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 7 – The World Health Organisation (WHO) has now recommended the use of Copper-bearing intrauterine devices (IUD’s) as an emergency contraception.

It says if inserted within five days of unprotected sex, an IUD which is also a regular contraception method can be up to 99 percent effective in preventing pregnancy following sexual assault, incorrect use of contraceptives or unprotected sex.

“This is the most effective form of emergency contraception available,” says the WHO.

It says once inserted, a woman can continue to use the IUD as an ongoing method of contraception and may choose to change to another contraceptive method in future.

“This may be an ideal emergency contraceptive for a woman who is hoping for an ongoing, highly effective contraceptive method,” WHO says in its website.

It says as an emergency contraception, IUD’s primarily prevent fertilisation by causing a chemical change that damages sperm and egg before they can meet.

“A copper bearing IUD is a very safe form of emergency contraception. The risks of infection, expulsion or perforation are low.”

However, the global health body has cautioned that IUD’s are not to be used if a woman is already pregnant. It adds that there are other contraindications to using a copper bearing IUD as ongoing contraception which should also be considered before its use as emergency contraception. Read full article.