Newsletter
Newsletter The Women’s Health Activist® is a bimonthly publication of the National Women’s Health Network. We’d like to hear from you. Please e-mail questions or comments to editor@nwhn.org.
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Can We Turn Back the War on Women?
May/June 2012
By Ellen Shaffer
The Virginia woman's hand-made sign summed it up: “I Can't Believe I'm Still Having to Protest This Shit!” The pro-choice majority is astounded by the tidal wave of vitriolic attacks on reproductive health, rights, justice, and on women's dignity, that constitute the War on Women. These include legislative proposals mandating intrusive and humiliating vaginal ultrasounds with no therapeutic justification before permitting abortion; Rick Santorum's advice that rape victims should celebrate a resulting pregnancy as a blessing; and debates on covering contraception, which is used almost universally. Transforming outrage into decisive policy and political victories requires understanding what is coming at us (and why), and new approaches to seizing the initiative.
Prescription for Change: Sorry, But We Are Out of Aspirin…
May/June 2012
By Charlea T. Massion, MD & Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD
Here’s an all too common scenario in health care today: Dehydrated from a severe stomach flu, you’re admitted to a hospital. Your doctor wants to order medication to relieve your nausea and vomiting. A savvy user of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), she enters an order for prochlorperazine, a generic drug in use for over 30 years. The electronic response from the pharmacy is: “This product currently unavailable from the manufacturer.” So, your doctor orders another antiemetic, ondansetron, medication that became generic more recently. The same message returns from the pharmacy: “Unavailable…”
COUNTDOWN TO COVERAGE
March/April 2012
By NWHN Staff
On March 23, 2012, we will celebrate the second anniversary of the new health reform law, the Affordable Care Act. And we’ll launch the Countdown to Coverage campaign.
Thank You, Health Reform!
March/April 2012
By Cindy Pearson
As I write this column, health care reform is under attack in Congress. Opponents of reform have seized upon one specific women’s health issue and are using it to try to undermine the entire effort. Sound familiar? It should. Almost exactly two years ago, health care reform opponents used a specific women’s health issue to try to stop the reform process altogether.
DES: 40 Years of Research with More to Learn
March/April 2012
By Fran Howell
A drug prescribed years ago is responsible for health problems today and individuals who were exposed have absolutely no memory of it. How could they? They were exposed before they were born! Diethylstilbestrol (DES) is a synthetic estrogen that was given as an anti-miscarriage drug to millions of pregnant women primarily between 1938-1971 (but not limited to those years).i Unfortunately, DES not only did not work to prevent miscarriage, but also caused severe medical problems for both the women who took the drug and their children who were exposed to the drug in utero, who are known as DES Daughters and DES Sons.ii In 1971, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised providers not to prescribe DES to pregnant women when it was found to increase the risk of clear-cell adenocarcinoma, a rare vaginal cancer, among DES Daughters.
Put a Ring on It!
March/April 2012
By Keely Monroe
Cities around the country are making sure that more women stay healthy and sexy by telling them to “put a ring on it”! What type of ring, you may ask? We aren’t talking about the kind Beyoncé warned men they better give their ladies or get kicked to the curb; we’re talking about the new and improved female condom.
Breast Cancer Risks & the Environment: So Much We Don’t Know
March/April 2012
By Rachel Walden
In December, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a new report, Breast Cancer and the Environment: A Life Course Approach.1 Commissioned by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization, the report reviewed evidence on breast cancer and the environment, explained the difficulties of studying how environmental factors affect breast cancer risk, and recommended both future research needs and ways to reduce breast cancer risk.
Rediscover the Network Online!
March/April 2012
By Shaniqua Seth
We did it before — and we did it again! In 2010, we gave our website a new look by adding fresh and exciting features to the site. This year, we have taken the website update one step further and added much more content and upgrading usability. You may be thinking, “What was wrong with the old website?” Or “It’s about time you made the change!” We felt that the NWHN has so much to offer that our previous site, which only highlighted certain components of the Network, wasn’t letting users take full advantage of everything we have to offer.
Young Feminist: Defining Young Feminism Today – My Personal Journey to Activism
March/April 2012
By Bora Chang
When asked to write this article, I spent several weeks pondering which topic to choose. The more I contemplated, the more I realized that I was not clear on what or who is a “young feminist” today. Upon poring over sources and visiting historic sites, I learned that the U.S. feminist movement divided into three waves, each with its distinguishing characteristics. First-wave feminism accomplished major legal feats like women’s suffrage. Second-wave feminists stood against the inequalities ingrained in our patriarchal society and enacted in schools,
Why are Women Afraid of Giving Birth?
March/April 2012
By Kate Ryan
Growing up, I never thought of giving birth as something painful or inherently dangerous. I didn’t realize until later in life that my perspective on giving birth, and pregnancy in general, was a bit out of the ordinary. For one thing, I was thinking about the process of giving birth when I was in grade school – which is apparently not typical! And, when I did think about birth, it seemed like a normal part of life, not a potentially life-threatening medical crisis.
G-Spots and Sore Spots
January/February 2012
G-Spots
This Halloween, an offensive costume called “Anna Rexia” was marketed on the Internet and in costume stores. It included a skeleton-print, skin-tight dress with a measuring-tape belt. One website raved, “Make no bones about it — this dress will spark some conversations!” Yes, it did! In response, Spark, a movement committed to ending the sexualization of girls, launched a petition on www.change.org asking Halloween Store to remove the costume from both its online store AND its shelves in Memphis, TN. Within five hours of the petition’s launch, the vendor promised to remove the costume from the Internet and storeroom shelves.
Snapshots
January/February 2012
Despite evidence that abstinence-only-until-marriage health “education” is ineffective in preventing teens from having sex, Texas continues to implement these programs state-wide, with dismal results. A new study finds the state’s high school students are more likely than average to have had sexual intercourse and not used highly-effective methods of birth control. 52% of Texas high school students surveyed reported having had sexual intercourse, versus a national average of 46%; 86% of Texas students surveyed reported not
The Spiral of Women’s Health Activism
January/February 2012
A report from the Global Symposium Celebrating 40 Years of Our Bodies, Ourselves
When 14 women got together around a kitchen table in Boston in 1970 to write Women and Their Bodies (which would later become Our Bodies, Ourselves), they had grand ambitions. They knew their newsprint creation was much more than a book, and asked readers to view it instead “as a tool which stimulates discussion and action, which allows for new ideas and for change.” Through writing the book, the authors explained that they learned “how we could act together on our collective knowledge [about our bodies] to change the health care system for women and for all people.”
Feminist Health Community Turns Out in Full-Force to Honor Susan Hester & Fushena Cruickshank at NWHN Fundraiser
January/February 2012
On Tuesday, November 1, more than 130 people packed Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C. for the National Women’s Health Network’s annual fall fundraiser. This year’s theme was 35 Years: Standing Strong, in celebration of the culmination of our 35th year as an organization. For the fourth consecutive year, we also presented two deserving activists with the Barbara Seaman Award for Activism in Women’s Health.
Politics & Women’s Health: Navigating the Year Ahead
January/February 2012
By Cynthia Pearson
I’ve been thinking a lot about weather lately — bad weather. A big storm can make getting around difficult, disrupt our plans, and delay our arrival at our intended destination. Doesn’t that sound like what we’ve experienced recently with the politics of women’s health? Last fall, we thought we were on our way to a long-anticipated destination: the end of unjustified age restrictions on over-the-counter access to Emergency Contraception (EC). Then, a big storm blew through DC and, when it was over, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to remove the age limit had been overruled and our arrival at our desired destination delayed, once again.
Why Is Science Under Fire?
January/February 2012
By Kate Ryan
Science is under fire in the U.S. Congress, and a central line of attack is to cut funds for Federally supported research. Whether such attacks are motivated by ideological opposition to specific research areas, or a desire to decrease government spending by cutting programs that Members of Congress deem to be “wasteful”, reducing research funding is harmful to women’s health. Advocates must push back and defend the value of agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Federally
