Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt attempted to ease concerns Thursday that the Bush administration is planning to issue new rules that would limit women’s access to birth control.

Under federal law, institutions may not discriminate against individuals who refuse to perform abortions or provide a referral for one. The Health and Human Services Department is considering requiring health care providers and organizations to certify their compliance with the law, but in doing so, lawmakers and several interest groups worried that the administration was attempting to lump contraceptives into its definition of abortion.

For full article, visit:
http://ap.google.com/article

From Christina Page’s Blog. See http://birthcontrolwatch.org/blog/. You can also go to http://www.allexperts.com/el/1445-9/Birth-Control/ for “advice” from Diane Cheryl on birth control.
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For anyone seeking advice about an important decision, a google search is often the gateway to frustration and confusion. That’s why allexperts.com would seem like a great idea. Allexperts.com was founded on the idea that mixing good intentions and expertise could help many. The site welcomes people who have real knowledge in an area to become “allexperts” and these “experts” agree to help those looking for answers for free. As the “about us” section of allexperts.com explains, “Our experts are all volunteers, people with knowledge in their area of expertise who are willing to share their knowledge with others. We can’t guarantee they can answer every question, but we can guarantee that most try to help.”
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Family planning groups and at least one member of Congress objected on Tuesday to a Bush administration memo that defines several widely used contraception methods as abortion and protects the right of medical providers to refuse to offer them.

The proposal would cut off federal funds to hospitals and states that attempt to compel medical providers to offer legal abortion and contraception services to women.

For full article, visit:
http://www.reuters.com

Reproductive rights advocates issued a collective condemnation Tuesday of a draft proposal by the Bush administration to set new restrictions on domestic family planning programs.

Under the draft proposal, federally funded hospitals and clinics that provide family planning services would be required to promise in writing that they will turn a blind eye to health care providers’ views on abortion and certain kinds of birth control, such as emergency contraception.

For full article, visit:
http://www.womensenews.org/article

In a spectacular act of complicity with the religious right, the Department of Health and Human Services Monday released a proposal that allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman’s access to contraception. In order to do this, the Department is attempting to redefine many forms of contraception, the birth control 40% of Americans use, as abortion. Doing so protects extremists under the Weldon and Church amendments. Those laws prohibit federal grant recipients from requiring employees to help provide or refer for abortion services. The “Definitions” section of the HHS proposal states…

For full article, visit:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008

The worldwide demand for family planning services is growing because of two trends: the burgeoning numbers of young people entering childbearing age and the increasing adoption of contraceptive use. “Either trend would lead to greater demand,” said Toshiko Kaneda, co-author of the Population Reference Bureau’s new data sheet, Family Planning Worldwide 2008, “but the two acting together mean there are likely to be huge increases in the future.” This PRB data sheet presents information about women, fertility rates, and contraceptive methods used in more than 150 countries. It was prepared by Donna Clifton, Toshiko Kaneda, and Lori Ashford.

The growth will be especially strong in some countries. The new data sheet shows that the number of women ages 15 to 49, the primary audience for family planning services, will jump 30 percent, from 8.9 million to 11.6 million, between 2005 and 2015 in Tanzania, for example. However, the number women using modern contraception will grow more, by 90 percent. In Peru, where use is already high and not projected to increase as much, the number of modern contraceptive users will grow from 3.7 million to 4.5 million, primarily because of population growth.

For full article, visit:
http://www.prb.org

Thanks to Dan Sherr for this article.
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Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty, Contraceptives, Rejected by Government, Are Unaffordable for Many in Majority-Catholic Nation

Maria Susana Espinoza wanted only two children. But it was not until after the birth of her fourth child in six years that she learned any details about birth control.

“I knew it existed, but I didn’t know how it works,” said Espinoza, who lives with her husband and children in a squatter’s hut in a vast, stinking garbage dump by Manila Bay.

For full article, visit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com

There are over 200 videos available on-line on the following subjects: Reproductive Health, Fistula, Population and Development, Gender Equality, Humanitarian Response, Human Rights, Adolescents & Youth, Safe Motherhood, Culturally Sensitive Approaches, HIV/AIDS, Advocacy, Reproductive Health Commodities, International Conference on Population and Development.

For full article, visit:

http://video.unfpa.org/

MANILA - Twenty Manila women and men filed a case today in a Philippine high court against the mayor of Manila, arguing that the city’s eight-year ban on contraception has severely and irreparably damaged their lives and health and the majority of women in Manila City.

“This ban is yet another abhorrent example of a larger global trend lead by religiously motivated policymakers who adopt policies based on ideology instead of the health and well-being of the very people they are elected to serve,” said Melissa Upreti, senior legal advisor for Asia at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “If elected officials fail to do their duty and meet their human rights obligations, we will ask the courts to do it for them.”

For full article, visit:

http://www.reproductiverights.org/pr_08_0130FilipinoSueManila.html

Thursday, August 09, 2007 Sun Star (Philippines)
By Edmund B. Sestoso

The Population Commission (Popcom) has shifted its population campaign from scientific ways to natural family planning after the United States government stopped the supply of contraceptives, including pills and condoms.

Popcom Central Visayas Regional Director Leo de la Rama said, several years back, their office supported by several non-government organizations had massively campaigned for scientific approaches to family planning like vasectomy and tubal ligation and encouraging the use of condoms and pills.

“These contraceptives for several years were given to us by the USAid and that the same will also be given to the couples for free, but now this will be purchased by the users unless the National Government and the local government units will shoulder the cost it entails,” de la Rama said.

For full article, visit:

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dum/2007/08/09/news/popcom.shifts.campaign.to.natural.family.planning.html