week 6 – health and reproductive rights

Women’s health care is a huge subject. The textbook does a great job giving an overview in the chapter introduction – read it carefully. The articles the editors chose for this chapter were not the most fascinating and didn’t cover what I find to be the most important aspects of women’s health – the ways in which we are not respected by the medical community and the involvement of politics. The provided article about the lack of women in medical research explains a lot of reasoning behind this. There is a WOST course dealing with women’s health care – if you are interested in these topics, you will enjoy this class.

Politics too often interfere with decisions that affect women’s health. Two of the latest examples were the FDA approval process of emergency contraception and the debate surrounding the HPV vaccine, which is aimed at young teenage girls. The politics of abortion are always a hot button issue. The two articles from this chapter I have assigned deal with abortion before it was legalized. Many of us have grown up when legal abortion has always been an option for women. But making the choice is never easy. Feminists have always been staunch supporters of a woman’s right to choose. There are exceptions to this, however — pro-life feminists do exist. I know this is a controversial topic – you are not required to agree with the pro-choice stance, but you do need to understand it.

Chapter 6 readings

Textbook readings:

• Chapter 6 introduction, 3rd ed.: p.301-331; 4th ed.: p.296-325
• Reading 50/49 “My Fight for Birth Control”, Sanger, 3rd ed.: p.352-354; 4th ed.: p.358-360
• Reading 52/51 “The Way It Was”, Cooney, 3rd ed.: p.363-370; 4th ed.: p.369-376

Supplemental readings:

• “Medical research lacks female participants” Medical Ethics Advisor. August 2004 v20 i8 p91(5). (Text provided on Blackboard.)
• Yes, It’s True: Med Students Perform Pelvic Exams on Anesthetized Women The Unnecesarean. January 29, 2010. http://www.theunnecesarean.com/blog/2010/1/29/yes-its-true-med-students-perform-pelvic-exams-on-anesthetiz.html
• Women of Color and the Anti-Choice Focus on Eugenics Racialicious February 26, 2010 http://www.racialicious.com/2010/02/26/women-of-color-and-the-anti-choice-focus-on-eugenics/
• “Will the Politics of Teen Sex Stop a Cancer Vaccine?” Advocates for Youth media brief. http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=379&Itemid=336
• Embryo Nation March 25, 2009 http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/03/25/personhood_laws/
• A Pro-Life Death Sentence American Prospect February 25, 2010 http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_pro_life_death_sentence
• BBC News: Wal-Mart sued over contraception 2 February 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4673036.stm
• Libertyville Abortion Demonstration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk6t_tdOkwo “If you believe abortion should be illegal, what should happen to women who have illegal abortions?”  (See article below… )
• How Much Jail Time for Women Who Have Abortions? Quindlen. Newsweek. August 6, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20010696/site/newsweek/  (See Libertyville video above…)
• The Last Abortion Clinic PBS, Frontline. Check the information on the site, and/or watch the full program online.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/clinic/
• Women’s Health Groups Launch Campaign For Copay-Free Birth Control.  Julie Rovner.  NPR.  October 12, 2010.  http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/12/130514866/women-s-health-groups-launch-birth-control-campaign
• Six Pregnancy Tests in One Week.  Cienna Madrid.  The Stranger.  February 16, 2011.  http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/a-six-pregnancy-tests-in-one-week/Content?oid=6782526
• Crisis Pregnancy Centers: A Special Report
• Browse Our Bodies Ourselves book companion Web site