Nicolle Wallace blasts ‘gender apartheid’ in Texas

From the Raw Story -

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace slammed an anti-abortion law passed by Texas Republicans after the United States Supreme Court refused to block the law in a decision released overnight. Wallace said "everything has changed" after the court decision.

"The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, for all intents and purposes has green lit the reversal of Roe v. Wade, not just in Texas, but potentially all across this country," Wallace reported. "In refusing the block the draconian, near-complete ban in Texas, the Supreme Court has signaled its approval for what is the most restrictive abortion law in the country."

Wallace put the Texas law in context as part of a larger effort to restrict women's rights in red states.  "The court's decision last night is part of a larger battle playing out all across the country right now. If you didn't already know, now you do. 97 laws restricting abortion have been passed in 19 states since January of this year in what is the biggest wave of abortion restrictions since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973," Wallace noted.

The host described the law as "medieval state of affairs" and said "it feels like gender apartheid on the medical front for women."

read more here @ Raw Story

Scotland becomes first nation to provide free period products for all

From The Guardian:

Scotland has become the first country in the world to provide free and universal access to period products after a four-year campaign that has fundamentally shifted the public discourse around menstruation.

The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act, which passed unanimously through its final stage on Tuesday evening, will place a legal duty on local authorities to make period products available for all those who need them, building on the work of councils like North Ayrshire, which has been providing free tampons and sanitary towels in its public buildings since 2018.

Period poverty – the struggle to pay for basic sanitary products on a monthly basis – has surged during the coronavirus pandemic, according to charities.

Earlier research by the grassroots group Women for Independence revealed that nearly one in five women had experienced period poverty, which has a significant impact on their hygiene, health and wellbeing. Women are estimated to spend an average of £13 a month on period products and several thousand pounds over a lifetime.

The legislation will also enshrine in law the requirement for schools, colleges and universities to provide the products for free, which was announced by first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, in 2017. This was then a world first, while the Scottish government has also funded a project in Aberdeen to deliver free period products to low-income households as well as a further £4m for councils to continue the roll-out to other public places.

In the interim, a number of individual businesses – restaurants, pubs and even football clubs – started providing free products independently. It has become increasingly common in Scotland to walk into a women’s toilet and find free products by the sinks, or with an honesty box.

read more here @ The Guardian

Mistress of Herbs: Saving Uteruses Worldwide

Recently a racket involving the removal of uteruses from healthy women in Kalaburgi hit the headlines. In the city, however, an Ayurvedic doctor has prevented thousands of women from going under the scalpel. 

Dr Gowri Subramanya, has dedicated her life to educating people about the benefits of ancient Ayurvedic medicines and has treated several women ailing for various issues related to the uterus. She is the granddaughter of Pandith Narasimha Murthy, Palace Vaidya of Mysuru royal family. She resides in Banashankari.

She has successfully treated more than 1,300 women and prevent them from undergoing needless surgeries. Not only people in the country, she boasts of patients even from abroad, from countries like Australia and USA. 

Read More Here @ New Indian Express

Why Women Need Fat

From Salon:

On any given day, more than half of women in the U.S. are on a diet. In hopes of slimming their figures, millions take on Atkins, South Beach, Lean for Life or Hollywood 48. Some never eat after 5 p.m.; others only eat Subway sandwiches. While the diet industry has a less than noble reputation, it’s clear that American women, far more than men, remain obsessed with dieting. But what can evolutionary biology tell us about gender difference and eating habits?

In a new book called “Why Women Need Fat,” Steven J.C. Gaulin, an evolutionary biologist, and William D. Lassek, a retired doctor of public health at the University of Pittsburgh, explain the science behind women’s unique relationship to their diet. In the book, Lassek and Gaulin make a surprising argument for a more positive outlook on fat and illustrate the differences between the ways women and men gain weight. Think of it as the evolutionary biology diet.

Gene Simmons Campaigns For Women's Health

From the Daily Telegraph:

All things considered, it seems a little odd that Kiss axeman Gene Simmons, whose family life is laid bare in the dubiously titled reality series Gene Simmons: Family Jewels, has suddenly positioned himself as a campaigner on women's health.

Simmons has been derided for saying he's been "happily unmarried" to actor Shannon Tweed for 24 years.

Tweed, he maintains, is the best friend he's ever had. And when she found a lump in her breast - since given the allclear - it threw the family, including Gene, son Nick and daughter Sophie, into a spin.

Simmons, who was in full Kiss make-up backstage at a gig when Shannon called to say she was having a biopsy, cancelled touring commitments and flew home to be by her side during the trauma.

India: 70000 Women Die In Childbirth

From the Times of India:

India accounts for a quarter of all maternal deaths globally. Over 70,000 women die in India every year due to complications related to childbirth. That means over two million maternal orphans, little children who have to grow up without their mother to look after them. It is so tragic. Most of these deaths are preventable. And the solution is very clear and simple. It is the implementation that requires hard work. Something has to be done here urgently and I was very keen to see the work of the Alliance in India.

Namibia: Womens Health Urgent Priority

From AllAfrica:

THE deteriorating state of women's health worldwide has become "an urgent priority" for the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In order to address these concerns, the WHO said there was an "urgent need for more coherent political and institutional leadership, visibility and resources for women's health to enable us to make progress in saving the lives and improving the health of girls and women in the coming years."

In its latest report on women and health, launched in Windhoek this week, it is stated that although women live longer than men, their longer lives are not necessarily healthy lives.

The report also brought under the spotlight how a lack of income could affect women's health, especially regarding maternal mortality.

Argentina: Illusions of Care

From the Guardian:

Anybody wonder why we need a UN women's agency? Maybe the latest report from Human Rights Watch - out today - will offer some clues. It's about Argentina - not the poorest or the least sophisticated or illiberal country in the world. It voted to legalise gay marriage, after all. It has a woman president. Yet thousands of women and girls there, says the report, "suffer needlessly every year because of negligent or abusive reproductive health care".

Argengtina has far from the worst record in Latin America. No less than five countries ban abortion under any circumstances. Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic refuse to allow it even if it means the woman's death. Argentina and the others are not quite so harsh.

But international human rights law says that women have a right to make decisions about if, when and how many children they have, says Human Rights Watch. In Argentina, those rights have been "systematically flouted for years", it says.

NZ: "Unfortunate Experiment" Memorial Missing

From the NZ Herald:

Women's health campaigners were horrified this week to discover that a plaque commemorating two of the whistle-blowers on the "unfortunate experiment" at National Women's Hospital has removed.

Thursday was the 22nd anniversary of the public release of the Cartwright Report on the inquiry into Dr Herbert Green's unethical study at the Auckland hospital into carcinoma of the cervix.

An Otago University study published in June found a 10-fold higher rate of cancer among women initially managed with small diagnostic biopsies during the study period, than among women given treatments intended to cure them.

To mark the anniversary, as they do every year, a small group of women gathered outside the former National Women's Hospital building in Epsom on Thursday to remember the women harmed by the study - and those harmed by the cervical screening failure in Gisborne in the 1990s.

They went to pay their respects at the plaque, at the other side of the building, which commemorates the work of two of the doctors who spoke out against the study, Jock McLean and Bill McIndoe.

The metal plaque, mounted on concrete, was placed by the Women's Health Action Trust in 1993.

UK: Girl Guides Petition Against Airbrushing

From Children & Young People Now:

Young members of Girlguiding UK have launched a petition today (4 August) urging Prime Minister David Cameron to introduce compulsory labelling of digitally altered images in magazines and adverts.

Girlguiding UK will use the petition to lobby the government to enforce tighter control on the media’s use of airbrushed images. It believes that young girls who see these images are subjected to "unrealistic pressures" which can seriously damage their self-confidence.

The last annual Girlguiding UK Girls Attitude Survey published in July 2009 revealed that out of more than 1,000 girls half of those aged 16 to 21 would consider having cosmetic surgery to change their appearance. The survey also revealed that 42 per cent of girls aged 11 to 16 have tried dieting or cutting down on certain foods to improve how they look.

Natalie Fontaine, a Girlguiding member, warned: "Most of us have no idea how significantly these pictures are altered and young girls are shocked when they realise that the images they have of celebrities and models are not a reality. We think it is really important to highlight how serious this issue has become and demand action to protect all girls and young women."

Girlguiding UK has raised concerns that the use of airbrushed models and celebrities exposes young girls to body shapes that are "unobtainable" and that a more realistic picture of women’s bodies would make a big difference to young girls’ self-esteem.

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns at mental health charity YoungMinds, echoed this. "Girls and young women need to grow up feeling good about their bodies," she said. "Airbrushed images create an environment where girls are constantly comparing themselves to something that isn’t real and can’t be achieved. It only serves to make girls and young women feel bad about who they are, rather than secure and content. Compulsory labelling will help young women to see models’ and celebrities’ bodies as they really are and not the fantasy created by the industry."

Medical Breakthroughs: A - Z in Women's Health

From Times Live - a brief list of medieval breakthroughs in women's health.

Afghanistan: Rise in Suicide of Women & Girls

From RAWA News:

The advisor of the president of Afghanistan in health matters estimates that each year 2300 Afghan women and girls, aged between 15 to 40 years who suffer from depression, commit suicide.

Mr. Kakkar said that on the basis of the above information the rate of suicide among women is 5 out of every 100,000. Mr. Kakkar said that the continuation of civil wars and violence in Afghanistan, immigration, early and forced marriages, rape, domestic violence and widespread poverty in families are viewed as the main reasons for mental illnesses and depression in Afghanistan.

The report Mr. Kakkar gave to the media also included the effects of drugs on Afghan women and depression among them.

In 2008 the Ministry of Public Health of Afghanistan had estimated that two-thirds of the Afghan population suffered from mental illnesses. But the officials of this ministry said that all the people suffering from mental illnesses included in this research don’t need treatment.

Kenya: Women In Slums Vulnerable

From the Daily Nation:

Women and girls in Nairobi’s slums live under constant threat of sexual violence, a new report says.

Because of this, they are too scared to leave their houses to use communal toilets, says the report to be released on Wednesday by human rights group Amnesty International.

Titled Insecurity and dignity — women’s experiences in the slums of Nairobi, the report details how the government’s failure to incorporate slums in urban planning has resulted in poor access to services.

“Women in Nairobi’s settlements become prisoners in their own homes at night and sometimes well before it is dark,” AI East African researcher Godfrey Odongo says.

“They need more privacy than men when using the toilet or bathing and inaccessibility of facilities makes them vulnerable to rape.”

Mr Odongo says inability to access the limited communal toilets also puts them at risk of illness.

Kenya: Women & Abortion

From CNN News:

Women are being forced into backstreet abortions in Kenya because of the country's restrictive abortion law, a study says.

And the law could soon get even tougher with church groups urging a ban on almost all abortions.

The U.S.-based Center for Reproductive Health, which advocates abortions rights, found that women and girls in Kenya use metal wires, knitting needles and other unsafe practices to abort tens of thousands of unwanted pregnancies.

Musya said fetuses are dumped in the sprawling Kibera slum. She said that every week they find aborted fetuses in one garbage-filled stream. They wash away or get eaten by pigs, she said.

The report says that Kenya's current confusing abortion law forces women to the backstreets.

So in Kibera, where shacks are packed together on a warren of garbage strewn streets, they search out abortionists.

Now church groups in Kenya are pushing for the new constitution, coming up for a parliamentary vote soon, to make almost all abortions illegal. The church groups want to define 'life as starting at conception,' and heavily restrict abortion except for cases where a mother's life is in immediate danger.

Afghanistan: Focus on Maternal Health

From VOA News:

March 8 marks International Women's Day. Thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. The United Nations says the theme of this year's celebration is "Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all."

Four years ago on International Women's Day, the Afghan government unveiled a plan for accelerating the improvement of women's status in the country.

Today, almost one-fourth of the Afghan parliament is female. President Hamid Karzai also has selected three women as members of his new Cabinet.

And while the Afghan government expects more than 3.2 million girls to enroll in school this year, the country's acting Public Health Minister Suraya Dalil says improvements are needed to ensure their future wellbeing.

On average, an Afghan woman will get pregnant six times during her reproductive years. Dalil says officials are working to educate people on contraception, but only 15 percent of couples use one sort of family planning. Dalil says this contributes to a harsh statistic.

"Every 30 minutes one woman in Afghanistan dies from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. So that is [a] really alarming figure," she noted.

Many women around the country lack access to hospitals like the ones in the capital, Kabul. So it is up to the government to bring the medical care to them.

"One of the strategies to address maternal mortality is to increase skilled birth attendants," she added. "That means midwives, nurses and physicians to assist deliveries."

Skilled birthing attendants are present at 25 to 30 percent of births in Afghanistan. Dalil says the government hopes to expand its midwife training programs and install these professionals in local communities.

Also this year, the Afghan government, along with its international partners, is launching a new mortality study. Dalil participated in the last study in 2002, which she says uncovered some shocking results.

"It found that in Badakhshan the maternal mortality issue was 6,500 [deaths] per 100,000 live births and that is the highest ever documented in human history," she explained.

Dalil says she hopes the new study will highlight improvements that can lead to lasting achievements for women's health. But she stresses that the Afghan government needs a combination of international and public support for health advancements before the overall well-being of women in the country can show real progress.

Indigenous Women Meet

From Bigpond News:

Aboriginal women are meeting in Canberra this week to discuss ways to improve the lives of indigenous women and their communities.

Governor-General Quentin Bryce will join summit participants on Monday to hear their stories and concerns.

The group will also meet Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin at Parliament House on Tuesday.

The women will use the summit to discuss issues including domestic violence, health, drugs and alcohol, employment and education opportunities.

International aid group Oxfam, which organised the talk-fest, says Canberra needs to listen.

'Politicians need to hear them, as they make the decisions that affect these women's lives,' spokeswoman Sabina Curatolo said in a statement.

Magazines & Real Women

From the Herald Sun:

IT'S not often that you have to take your clothes off to make a serious political point. But in today's edition of this newspaper I have bared all in the name of improving the body image of women.

I'm not doing it to prolong my career as an Aussie supermodel, or to answer a calling as a table-top dancer.

Instead, I am taking the gauntlet thrown down by model Jennifer Hawkins this week, but making it real.

As a concept, it appears to have backfired somewhat, with the move appealing primarily to Ralph readers rather than normal women battling with a variety of body image issues.

Jen appears on the cover of the magazine without airbrushing, to show her body has real "flaws".

It's just that putting Jen's body up to make women feel good about their bodies is a bit like putting up Tiger Woods to make beginner golfers feel good about their bumbling game.

For another opinion on this - read Bianca Dye's article.

Breast Cancer Breakthrough

From Fox News:

A pioneering Australian surgery may make it possible for breast cancer patients to "regrow" their breasts.

Professor Wayne Morrison’s team at the Bernard O’Brien Institute in Melbourne will stage a trial that offers hope to more the thousands of women who lose their breasts to cancer each year.

Up until now, mastectomy patients have had the option of either getting breast implants, or forgoing replacement altogether.

This new breakthrough could also completely revolutionize the cosmetic surgery industry by allowing women to grow bigger natural breasts.

For the past two years, Morrison has successfully "grown" breasts on pigs by inducing the animals’ own fat cells to reproduce into molded chambers implanted beneath the skin on their chests.

The chambers are inserted under the skin and each is "sown" with a chunk of fat about the size of two adult fingers, which has been taken from the pig’s body.

A blood vessel is looped through the fat, feeding it and allowing it to recruit more fat cells until it fills out the chamber. After 6-8 months, the chambers are removed leaving perfectly formed, functioning breasts, complete with their own blood supply.

If the human trials follow the pigs’ success, the new procedure will result in breasts that look and feel perfectly natural — because they are perfectly natural.

Bernard O’Brien Institute CEO Dr. Phillip Marzella said the process could take longer in women because, unlike animals, humans stop growing at adolescence.

Morrison said the breast replacement technique could be the tip of the iceberg. "If it is satisfactory we could use this method to treat any type of contour defect whether it is breast, a congenital deformity or trauma such as where someone has suddenly lost chunks of themself," Morrison said.

Abortion: The True Cost

From Medical News Today:

"70,000 Women Die Annually From Unsafe Abortions, Guttmacher Study Finds"

Increased contraception use has contributed to a decline in global abortion rates, but unsafe abortions continue to kill 70,000 women and girls annually, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, Reuters reports. The number of abortions decreased from about 45.5 million in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003, a period during which many countries relaxed restrictions on the procedure, the report said (Kelland, Reuters, 10/13). The global abortion rate declined from 35 abortions for every 1,000 women of reproductive age -- ages 15 to 44 -- in 1995 to 29 per 1,000 women of reproductive age in 2003, according to the report (Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor, 10/13). In addition to the thousands of deaths from unsafe abortions, five million women experience complications from unsafe procedures each year, including about three million who go untreated (Guttmacher Institute release, 10/13).

According to the report, 40% of women live in nations with highly restrictive abortion laws (Reuters, 10/13). The report found that 19 countries have "significantly reduced restrictions in their abortion laws" since 1997, and three countries have "substantially increased legal restrictions," the Christian Science Monitor reports. Ninety-two percent of women in Africa live under highly restrictive abortion laws, while the figure is 97% in Latin America, the Monitor reports (Christian Science Monitor, 10/13).

Aborting Women's Rights

From Carolyn Cooper @ Jamaica Gleaner:

"If men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrament." This famous feminist prick (as in sharp point) goes straight to the heart of the current debate about parliamentary reform of Jamaica's backward laws on abortion. The reproductive health and rights of women are not taken seriously in much of the talk on this inflammatory subject.

Instead, male authority figures (and their female surrogates) pontificate on a pregnant matter about which they simply cannot speak authoritatively. Who feels it knows it, intimately. It is true that there are enlightened men who try to understand this contentious issue from the woman's perspective. But they are relatively few.

Data from the Ministry of Health confirm that approximately 1,200 women are treated each year for complications arising from unsafe abortions. And those are just the official figures. In the 21st century, women in Jamaica are still risking their lives in order to claim reproductive rights that women in other countries simply take for granted.