The facts regarding unintended pregnancy

Guttmacher Institute has released a Fact Sheet on unintended pregnancies in the United States. Here's what I learned:

Most American families want two children. About half (49%) of the 6.7 million pregnancies in the United States each year (3.2 million) are unintended. By age 45, more than half of all American women will have experienced an unintended pregnancy, and three in 10 will have had an abortion. Unintended pregnancy rates are highest among poor and low-income women, women aged 18–24, cohabiting women and minority women. In 2006, black women had the highest unintended pregnancy rate of any racial or ethnic groups. In 2006, 43% of unintended pregnancies ended in abortion and 48% ended in birth. Compared with higher-income women, poor and low-income women are less likely to end an unintended pregnancy by abortion. In 2006, two-thirds (64%) of the 1.6 million births resulting from unintended pregnancies were paid for by public insurance programs, primarily Medicaid. Total public expenditures for births resulting from unintended pregnancies nationwide were estimated to be $11.1 billion in 2006. Two-thirds of U.S. women at risk for unintended pregnancy use contraception consistently and correctly throughout the course of any given year; these women account for only 5% of all unintended pregnancies. In contrast, the 19% of women at risk who use contraception inconsistently or incorrectly account for 43% of all unintended pregnancies. The 16% of women at risk who do not practice contraception at all for a month or more during the year account for 52% of all unintended pregnancies. Without publicly funded family planning services, the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions occurring in the United States would be nearly two-thirds higher among women overall and among teens; the number of unintended pregnancies among poor women would nearly double.

Continue ReadingThe facts regarding unintended pregnancy

Stepping Up Finally

I’ve been hesitant to write anything about the Susan G. Komen fiasco. Not for fear of invoking controversy, but because things started unraveling so fast it was difficult to know when it would play out. Here is a handy overview of the series of events. The position taken by the Komen charity group shifted, mutated, and reeled in the sudden upwelling of negative response, that on any given day whatever I might have said would be irrelevant the next morning. One aspect, however, strikes me as significant. That response. It came swiftly and it came from all quarters and it came with cash. I cannot recall a similar response happening so swiftly and so decisively in this ongoing struggle over abortion rights. One of the most annoying things about being progressive and/or liberal is the tepidity with which we meet challenges. It would appear that all of us who espouse a progressive view, when it gets down to the nitty gritty of political position-taking and infighting, have feet not even of clay but of silly putty. It is actually heartening to see an abrupt and united response that is categorically decisive for once. [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingStepping Up Finally

Attempt to scientifically document vaginal orgasms

Dr. Lissa Rankin, who writes at "Owning Pink," discusses scientific attempts to scientifically document vaginal orgasms. Back in medical school, she was taught that there is nothing in the vagina that could account for vaginal orgasms (as contrasted with clitoral orgasms). Does the "G-spot" really exist. That's where her story begins. Here's some information from Lissa Rankin's About Page:

I am an OB/GYN physician, author of two (soon to be three) books, a professional artist, a blogger, an online entrepreneur, and a mother, but I am more than what I do- and so are you. I started this website in April, 2009 because I was frustrated with the limited way most people, especially doctors, define health. After leaving my traditional medical practice in 2007 because I was disillusioned by the broken, outdated patriarchal model of medicine, I realized that you can quit your job, but you can't quit your calling, and I felt truly called to help people heal, connect, and thrive.
Rankin focuses on far more than the body itself in her quest to promote health. For example, in this post, she offers the lesson she has learned regarding "How Do You Find Love?" Rankin recently appeared at TED, suggesting that the body is "a mirror of how we live our lives."

Continue ReadingAttempt to scientifically document vaginal orgasms

Santorum In Defense of the Family

This is an unscientific response to a ridiculous claim.  Rick Santorum, who wishes to be the next Bishop In Charge of America (or whatever prelate his church might recognize) recently made the claim that Gay couples are going to destabilize the family in America in order to accommodate their lifestyle. We’ve all been hearing this claim now for, oh, since gays stopped sitting by and letting cops beat them up on Saturday nights without fighting back.  Ever since Gay Pride.  Even on my own FaceBook page I had someone telling me I was blinded by the “Gay Agenda” and that the country was doomed—that because of the Gay Agenda little children were being taught how to use condoms in school and this—this—would bring us all to ruin. So….okay.  How? If we collectively allow homosexuals to marry each other, how does that do anything to American families that’s not already being done by a hundred other factors? I’ll tell you what destablilizes families.  And I’m not genius here with a brilliant insight, this is just what anyone can see if they look around and think a little bit. Families are destabilized over money.  [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingSantorum In Defense of the Family