To sign a petition on the House action to defund Planned Parenthood, visit https://secure.ppaction.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=pp_ppol_ws_I_Stand_with_PP&s_src=istandwithppfeb2011ppole1

Washington, Feb. 19 – As the Republican majority in the House of Representatives defunded or greatly slashed domestic and international family planning for women in the United States and around the world, they passed an amendment approving the funding of birth control — for horses.

In what House Minority Leader Democrat Nancy Pelosi called, “the most comprehensive and radical assault on women’s health in our lifetime,” the Republican House continuing resolution (CR) passed in a 235 to 189 vote eliminating the domestic Title X program, the only source of federal monies dedicated exclusively to family planning and reproductive health. President Obama’s FY 2012 budget allocates $327 million for Title X family planning programs.
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Thanks to Fred Meyerson for this New York Times article.
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The Obama administration is examining whether the new health care law can be used to require insurance plans to offer contraceptives and other family planning services to women free of charge.

Such a requirement could remove cost as a barrier to birth control, a longtime goal of advocates for women’s rights and experts on women’s health. But it is likely to reignite debate over the federal role in health care, especially reproductive health, at a time when Republicans in Congress have vowed to repeal the law or dismantle it piece by piece. It is also raising objections from the Roman Catholic Church and is expected to generate a robust debate about privacy.

For full article, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/health/policy/03health.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

As reproductive health advocates brace for a wave of state-level abortion restrictions, they also see a glimmer of hope in a little-noticed health reform provision: increased Medicaid access to family planning and contraceptives.

The expansion of birth control coverage under health reform could offer a rare space for common ground on reproductive health issues. As Republicans revive the debate over abortion in Congress, most recently with legislation that would codify the Hyde Amendment, conservative states have actually begun warming to the new family planning provision.

For full article, visit:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48101.html

Dozens crowded into the National Academies building in a snow-blanketed Washington last Wednesday morning to attend a meeting of the committee charged with making recommendations as to whether birth control and other women’s health services will be considered preventive healthcare-and thus available without a co-pay to enrollees in health insurance plans, including those offered through the Affordable Care Act. Among committee members-respected physicians and public health experts appointed by the Institute of Medicine-there seems to be little doubt about the preventive benefits of contraception, which is used by more than 38 million American women to avert countless unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

For full article, visit:
http://www.thenation.com/article/157828/does-contraception-count-prevention

Thanks to Eric Rimmer for this item carried by the Optimum Population Trust News Watch.
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A British charity is using a unique tool to discourage teenagers from having unprotected sex: Toddlers. The organization, Teens and Toddlers, has teenage girls mentor young kids so that the young women can experience the responsibility of parenting firsthand. According to a new government report, the approach works far better than having teen mothers speak in schools about their experiences because teens actively react against being told what to do. In limited use, the program has proven effective, and now officials are calling for its expansion. Here, a brief guide:

How does Teens and Toddlers work?
The charity gives teenage girls the opportunity to babysit a tyke for 20 hours a week. The teens also take classes in parenting, child development, and sex and relationships. The approach actively brings home the enormity of the responsibility of bringing up a child, fosters emotional development and has been shown to change young peoples’ behavior, reads the government report.

For full article, visit:
http://theweek.com/article/index/210863/babysitting-an-effective-birth-control-method

Thanks to Chuck Knutson for this article.
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The U.S. teen birth rate in 2009 fell to its lowest point in almost 70 years of record-keeping – a decline that stunned experts who believe it’s partly due to the recession.

The birth rate for teenagers fell to 39 births per 1,000 girls, ages 15 through 19, according to a government report released Tuesday. It was a 6 percent decline from the previous year, and the lowest since health officials started tracking the rate in 1940.

Experts say the recent recession – from December 2007 to June 2009 – was a major factor driving down births overall, and there’s good reason to think it affected would-be teen mothers.

For full article, visit:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/general/view/20101221us_teen_birth_rate_at_all-time_low_economy_cited/

Thanks to Leta Finch for this article from The Economist.
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Family planning and birth control is one of many areas where America has gotten itself wrapped up in a decades-long hysterical moralistic argument over issues whose solutions ought to be obvious to any mature adult. It’s rather silly that we’re still arguing over problems that were really settled by about 1977, but there you are. Anyway, Andrew Sullivan argued the other day that since abortion has dramatically curtailed the number of adoptions, If the pro-life movement dedicated its every moment not to criminalizing abortion but to expanding adoption opportunities, it would win many more converts.

Megan McArdle sensibly responds that this doesn’t really make any sense. Demand for adoptible American babies vastly exceeds supply precisely because abortion has cut down the supply; there’s no shortage of opportunities for pregnant mothers who want to give up their babies. However, she then sweeps birth control into her argument in a fashion that’s very far wide of the mark.

For full article, visit:
http://www.economist.com/node/21014370

What’s the matter with kids today? A great deal more than you might realize.

One-third are overweight or obese. Nearly a third drop out or can’t finish high school in four years. All told, 75% are in such a poor state that they are ineligible for military service for reasons ranging from health to drugs to criminal records to lack of education.

Last month came bad news about the rest: 23% of those who try to enlist fail the basic entrance exam.

Dismayed military leaders and education reformers are quick to blame failing schools, and they’re right. But there’s a deeper issue in play as well – one that gets far too little attention.

For full article, visit:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2011-01-25-editorial25_ST_N.htm

In a world struggling with global hunger, severe poverty, species extinction, and climate change, the case for expanding voluntary family planning services is stronger than ever. But policymakers in Washington and elsewhere are not getting the message. Believe it or not, the United States House of Representatives is debating a proposed amendment that would actually wipe out U.S. support for international family planning assistance.

We can’t let that happen. That’s why the Population Institute is launching, in partnership with other family planning advocates, a new global petition campaign aimed at boosting donor nation support for family planning. It’s called the “Million for a Billion” campaign and it has two parts. U.S. petition signers (www.millionforabillion.us) will be asking Congress to appropriate $1 billion for family planning and reproductive health. Non-U.S. petition signers (www.millionforabillion.com) will be asking world leaders to boost the total level of international support by at least $1 billion.
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Thanks to Heather Eves for alerting me to the following exchange between Andrew Revkin and the editor of Spiked, Brendan O’Neill. You can find the Revkin piece at http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/deconstructing-a-bestiary-of-malthusian-miserabilists/. The Spiked blog, “The Definitive Guide to Modern-day Malthusians” follows below.

As I said in an email to Heather, I disagree with the implied belief of the editor of Spiked that there are no limits to natural resources. Evidence abounds that humanity is taxing nature and causing massive loss of other species. I also think O’Neill failed to accurately capture the motivations of many who are concerned about population issues. I thought his depictions of psycho Malthusians and feminist Malthusians were not based on anyone I have met in 40 years in the field of population. His claim that “women in poor Africa have lots of children not necessarily because their husbands force them to or because the pope denies them condoms” but because they want them as a hedge against high infant mortality ignores the findings of many Demographic and Health Surveys. Continue Reading »