Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

New York Times Looks Back at "Citizen Ruth"

New York Times: Critics' Picks: 'Citizen Ruth', by A.O. Scott:

A. O. Scott looks back at Alexander Payne's 1996 film with Laura Dern as a pregnant glue-sniffer who becomes a pawn in the abortion debate.

Browne C. Lewis on Afterdeath Children

Browne C. Lewis (Cleveland State University - Cleveland-Marshall College of Law) has posted Dead Men Reproducing: Responding to the Existence of Afterdeath Children on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Medical advances currently available permit dead men to reproduce. Sperm can be successfully stored for at least ten years. Therefore, a man's heirs may be created years after his death. Recently, this event has gone from a possibility to a reality. More and more women are choosing to conceive children using the sperm of their dead husbands or boy friends.
 
Widows of soldiers killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have conceived children through artificial insemination using their dead husbands' sperm. The process of creating afterdeath children can occur in two contexts. Scenario One - Prior to going to war, the man has his sperm extracted and placed in a sperm bank. If the man does not return from the war, his wife or girl friend uses his stored sperm to create his child. Scenario Two - The man is killed in the war. His wife or girl friend has the doctor harvest sperm from his dead body. Then, she uses that sperm to conceive his child. Either scenario results in the existence of an afterdeath child that needs financial support.

The law has not kept pace with the reproductive technology. Hence, when the mothers of the posthumously conceived children file social security surviving children claims on behalf of their children, the claims are often rejected. The children are denied benefits because the agency is not equipped to deal with "survivors" who did not exist at the time that the insured worker died. The resolution of these Social Security cases often turns on the manner in which the children are classified under the states' intestacy systems. If the child is eligible to inherit under the intestacy system, the child is entitled to social security survivor's benefits.

The legal issue examined in this article is: whether a posthumously conceived child should have the opportunity to inherit from his or her father. The resolution of that issue is important because the existence of posthumously conceived children has the potential to impact the distribution of a man's estate. If the man dies with a validly executed will leaving his estate to his children, the question becomes whether or not posthumously conceived children should be included in the definition of "children". In the event that a man dies without a will, the question to be resolved is whether or not posthumously conceived children should be considered heirs under the intestacy system.

As long as the possibility exists for dead men to reproduce, the courts and the legislatures must take steps to deal with the rights of the resulting children. Any system put in place must balance the interests of the state, the existing heirs, the decedent, and the posthumously conceived child. To guarantee a fair balance, state legislatures must give posthumously conceived children the opportunity to inherit from their deceased fathers. Nonetheless, the opportunity to inherit should not be a right to inherit. Consequently, the legislatures should only give posthumously conceived children the chance to inherit if they satisfy certain conditions.

NY Times Magazine Photo Essay Examines the Young Women of Yearning for Zion Ranch, The Texas Polygamous Religious Sect

NY Times: Children of God, by Sarah Corbett:

On a humid Wednesday in late June, as she waited to be summoned by a grand jury, 16-year-old Teresa Jeffs hitched up her navy blue prairie dress and hoisted herself into the crooked arms of a live oak tree that sits in front of the Schleicher County Courthouse in Eldorado, Tex. For a few minutes, she was not — as has been speculated about many of the young women of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or F.L.D.S. — a possible child bride, or a sexual-abuse victim, or a member of an out-of-touch, polygamous religious sect. She was just a kid in a tree, perched serenely above the heads of all the lawyers, reporters and sheriff’s deputies — a moon-faced girl with an auburn coxcomb of hair and a mischievous grin.

We understand so little about the view from that tree, about what the world known simply as “outside” looks like to someone like Teresa Jeffs, who was among more than 400 minors forcibly removed from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, which belongs to the F.L.D.S., in early April.

Iranian Woman Sentenced to Death for Forced Prostitution

Via Equality Now:

Women's Action 29.2: Iran: Kobra Najjar Faces Imminent Execution by Stoning for Prostitution

Equality Now is urgently concerned about Kobra Najjar, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery who lost her final appeal for amnesty. Iranian women’s rights activists working on her case report that Kobra has exhausted all domestic legal remedies and that her execution by stoning could happen any time.

Kobra is a victim of domestic violence who was forced into prostitution by her abusive husband in order to support his heroine addiction. He was murdered by one of Kobra’s “clients” who sympathized with her plight. Kobra has already served 8 years in prison as an accessory to her husband’s murder. The man who murdered her husband also served 8 years in prison and is now free after paying blood money and undergoing 100 lashes, while Kobra faces imminent stoning to death for adultery - the prostitution her husband forced upon her.

Click here to take action.

Ruthann Robson Reviews Nancy Polikoff's New Book on Marriage

Wellesley Center for Women: Families of Affinity, by Ruthann Robson (CUNY Law School) (reviewing Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families Under The Law, by Nancy Polikoff):

The same-sex marriage debate is actually two debates. The more well-known version is the contest between those who seek to “defend” the heterosexual institution of marriage and those who argue that same-sex couples should have equal access to the legal status of marriage. Less publicized is the dispute within LGBT communities themselves, between those who believe marriage is a civil right necessary to the achievement of equality and those who insist that it’s a hopelessly heterosexual and patriarchal institution that should be abolished rather than assimilated into.

Nancy Polikoff, a professor of law at American University College of Law and long-time legal activist on behalf of lesbian mothers, enters this fray seeking to resolve and reframe both debates.

Swedish Study Shows Improvement in Seniors' Sex Lives

NY Times: More Sex for Today’s Seniors, by Tara Parker-Pope:

The sex lives of senior citizens have improved markedly in the past three decades, according to a new study.

The data, published in The British Medical Journal, have been collected since the 1970s from 1,500 Swedish adults, all of whom were 70 years old at the time of the interview. Although the report is from Sweden, it mirrors recent research in the United States that shows many people continue to have active sex lives well into old age.

But the Swedish data are notable in that they illuminate how people’s sex lives and attitudes have changed over time. Today’s seniors report that they are having sex far more often and have more positive feelings associated with sex than their counterparts just 30 years ago.

Recent Pop-Culture Obsession with Teen Pregnancy Fails to Show the "Before or After"

Newsweek: Teen Pregnancy, Hollywood Style, by Sarah Kliff:

Once taboo, pregnant teenagers are popping up more frequently on TV, in movies and on magazine covers. The problem? This latest pop-culture coverage doesn't show what comes before or after.

It could have been Immaculate Conception. In the premiere episode of the new drama "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," 15-year-old Amy comes home from band practice and is shocked--the pregnancy test is positive! That two-second tryst at band camp, as she describes it to her friends, "was definitely not like what you see in the movies." They share the same confusion: how did a good girl end up in this situation? The obvious answer (Amy had unprotected sex) never quite surfaces; it's brushed off in a whirlwind of mystification. By the end of the episode, band-camp guy has taken a backseat to Amy's new love interest. As the plot pushes forward, it never once looks back at whether Amy considered contraceptives or talked to her parents about condoms. Amy is pregnant, and that is where this story starts.

New York Times Magazine Examines 30 Years of IVF

New York Times: In Vitro We Trust, by Peggy Orenstein:

Louise Brown turns 30 on Friday. These days, her name elicits little more than a mystified head shake. Who was she again? Let me refresh your memory: Little Louise was the world’s first “test-tube baby,” what we now refer to as an I.V.F. kid, or simply “the twins down the block.”

Brown’s life today is as unremarkable as the circumstances of her conception have become: she’s worked as an administrative assistant in Bristol, England, and is married with a naturally conceived toddler of her own. It’s hard to imagine that she begat one of the major revolutions of the 20th century: since her debut, more than three million babies have been born worldwide using I.V.F. or other reproductive technologies.

OK! Mag. Discusses Whether Its Cover Story on Jamie Lynn Spears Glamorizes Teen Pregnancy

Newsweek: TEEN PREGNANCY: Baby 101, by Sarah Kliff:

When OK! Magazine announced 16-year-old Nickelodeon star Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy in December 2007, it was the best-selling issue since the magazine's American debut in 2005. "We knew it was a very big story, but it took us a little bit by surprise just how big the story became," says Rob Shuter, OK!'s executive editor. "The nightly news was talking about it."      

But the story wasn't exactly a publicist's dream. Jamie Lynn was after all, barely old enough to get her driver's license, and she was a tween icon thanks to her sitcom, "Zoey 101." Jamie Lynn, had in October of 2007 told NEWSWEEK, that she didn't have a boyfriend. Ooops! More than a few adolescent health experts cringed at the headlines. "The media doesn't show the downside to teenagers getting pregnant," says Warren Seigel, a pediatrician who founded the Adolescent Medicine Program at Coney Island Hospital.

Penelope Andrews on Recognition of Polygamous Marriages in South Africa

Penelope Andrews (CUNY/Valparaiso) has posted 'Big Love?' The Recognition of Customary Marriages in South Africa on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

This Comment contextualizes the issue of polygamous marriages within the South African constitutional paradigm, one committed unequivocally to the principle of equality. This Comment analyzes how South African law, European in origin, had to incorporate the laws and institutions of indigenous communities within the national legal framework, as part of the overall transformative legal project underway in the country since 1994. By focusing on the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, this Comment examines such incorporation, while questioning its effect on the overall project of constitutionalism, human rights, and equality.

How Not to Get Teens to Take Pregnancy Seriously

ABC Family seems to have come up with a very lame response to recent concerns about teenage pregnancy.  And, as in every American movie of late to confront unintended pregnancy, abortion continues to be the big shameful "a-word" that must not be uttered....  (from the review: "[The pregnant teen's] friends tell her she has options, but abortion is apparently not one of them; that choice is dismissed right away in horrified tones.") (more on that topic here).

NY Times: A Teenage Pregnancy, Packaged as a Prime-Time Cautionary Tale, by Alessandra Stanley:

No one seems to know for sure whether all those high school girls in Gloucester, Mass., had a secret pregnancy pact. But “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” must surely be the collective effort of an anti-pregnancy cabal....

At a time when hit movies like “Juno” and “Knocked Up” celebrate the lighter side of unprotected sex and the celebrity press has recently been filled with belly shots of Jamie Lynn Spears, it’s not surprising that purveyors of pop culture feel compelled to send a corrective message to young viewers. NBC is doing its part with a reality show, “Baby Borrowers,” that assigns teenage couples babies to raise by themselves full time to discover what parenthood is really like. ABC Family chose a more traditional drama format and then promptly forgot who its audience is.

Yemen: Young Girls Defy Child Marriage

NY Times: Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage in Yemen, by Robert F. Worth:

One morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked out of her husband’s house here and ran to a local hospital, where she complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight months.

That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.

Within days, Arwa — a tiny, delicate-featured girl — had become a celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark legal case.

Alabania: Fading Custom of "Sworn Virgins" Allowed Women to Live as Men

NY Times: Albanian Custom Fades: Woman as Family Man, by Dan Bilefsky:

KRUJE, Albania — Pashe Keqi recalled the day nearly 60 years ago when she decided to become a man. She chopped off her long black curls, traded in her dress for her father’s baggy trousers, armed herself with a hunting rifle and vowed to forsake marriage, children and sex.

For centuries, in the closed-off and conservative society of rural northern Albania, swapping genders was considered a practical solution for a family with a shortage of men. Her father was killed in a blood feud, and there was no male heir. By custom, Ms. Keqi, now 78, took a vow of lifetime virginity. She lived as a man, the new patriarch, with all the swagger and trappings of male authority — including the obligation to avenge her father’s death.

Experts Concerned By Recent Spate of Teen Pregnancies

Baltimore Sun: Babies As Something Fun, by Susan Reimer:

The head of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy is outraged that for many teens,'having a baby is ... about the same as getting a tattoo'

June 22, 2008

Teen pregnancy news has gone from the mundane to the sensational.

Recent data show that the declines in teen sex and improvements in contraceptive use have leveled off and that the teen birth rate is on the rise for the first time in 15 years.

Unfortunately, that news generated not much more than yawns.

See also this statement by the National Campaign on Jamie Lynn Spears' becoming a teenage mother. 

MTV Newsroom also has a recent article on teen pregnancies: Jamie Lynn Spears Birth, Teen Pregnancy Increase Concern Experts: ‘Babies Need And Deserve Adult Parents’

Michele Alexandre on the Possibility of Feminist Polygamy

Michele Alexandre (Univ. of Memphis School of Law) has posted Big Love: Is Feminist Polygamy an Oxymoron or a True Possibility? on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

For the past few decades, Islamic reformists have attempted to reverse patriarchal set-ups in Islamic practices. In light of these efforts, the time is ripe to consider what role women's agency will play in the implementation of such reforms. The way we account for agency in advocating for women's rights is an issue with which feminist legal scholars struggle. It has been explored particularly when analyzing women's rights in the area of pornography and prostitution. As the reform movements in Islamic law become concrete, similar explorations will have to take place. Agency driven explorations in the area of Islamic law will have to be tailored to issues of particular relevance to Islamic women. In addition, Feminist legal scholars will have to take care not to project western-based analysis into unique Islamic settings. Borrowing from transformative arguments advocated by feminist legal scholars like Martha A. Fineman, the author attempts to explore the implications of recognizing the possibility for agency in Islamic polygamous structures. The central idea is to analyze the possibility for a feminist based form of polygamy for women who decide to live in a polygamous structure. This exploration in no way assumes that Muslim women are solely defined by their religion. On the contrary, it recognizes that women's identities are so diverse that, even when given options, a number of them might opt for polygamy rather than monogamy. In this context, an assessment of the value of monogamy compared to polygamy is irrelevant. What comes to matter, instead, is the fact that women who choose polygamy, like those who make any other legitimate choice, must be protected.

The rising number of pro-polygamous movements indicates that it is imperative that we investigate the possibilities for a women centric polygamy. Islamic women have diverse views regarding polygamy and do not all seem to view it as detrimental. There exist some Muslim women who are unequivocally against Polygamy, but want to remain faithful to their Islamic faith, while there are others who are not against polygamy but would like to reform the practice to fit their needs. The common denominator in these two camps, however, is that women in both camps yearn for more choice and control over the decisions that affect their family life. The desire to enter or remain in a polygamous union does not necessarily equate in their eyes with a diminishment of their rights and privileges. This article intends to show that equal rights for women and Islamic faith are not necessarily mutually exclusive if the allocation of rights is based on the spirit of Islam. Furthermore, the article will demonstrate that Islam's inherent concern with justice and equality for women necessitates that women's desires and wishes serve as foundation for any system of polygamy.

Increasing Numbers of Muslim Women in Europe Seek Surgical Restoration of Hymen

NY Times: In Europe, Debate Over Islam and Virginity, by Elaine Sciolino and Souad Mekhennet:

PARIS — The operation in the private clinic off the Champs-Élysées involved one semicircular cut, 10 dissolving stitches and a discounted fee of $2,900.

But for the patient, a 23-year-old French student of Moroccan descent from Montpellier, the 30-minute procedure represented the key to a new life: the illusion of virginity.

Like an increasing number of Muslim women in Europe, she had a hymenoplasty, a restoration of her hymen, the vaginal membrane that normally breaks in the first act of intercourse.

“In my culture, not to be a virgin is to be dirt,” said the student, perched on a hospital bed as she awaited surgery on Thursday. “Right now, virginity is more important to me than life.”

The Future of the Abortion Debate?

TheAtlantic.com: The future of the abortion debate, by Conor Friedersdorf:

An orthodox Catholic I know cares more about abortion than any other political issue. He votes for candidates based largely on his expectations about the kinds of judges they'll appoint or confirm, behavior I completely understand given the certainty he feels that every abortion is a murder. At the other extreme are pro-choice voters whose number one issue is protecting Roe vs. Wade from being overturned, preventing any restrictions on abortion, etc.

These are by their nature long term political struggles, or so you might think: the composition of the Supreme Court is always going to change, legislatures can be influenced to hue closer to one side or the other, etc.

But I predict that what we now think of as the abortion debate is going to radically change within our lifetime in a way that makes many of the strategic gambits employed by both sides irrelevant, or at least beside the point.

Here's a brief response from Andrew Sullivan:

The legitimate property interest that every woman has in her own body, and her right to be free of the state's interference in that respect, makes me a reluctant pro-choicer in the first trimester (for want of any better time limit). But if fetuses can live outside their mother's body, the debate shifts a notch. Not definitively, but intuitively.

TX Court of Appeals Rules Against State in Polygamy Case

NY Times: Appeals Court Rules Against Texas in Polygamy Case, by Anahad O'Connor and Kirk Johnson:

A Texas state court of appeals ruled Thursday afternoon that the state of Texas had no right to seize more than 400 children from a polygamist ranch in Eldorado, in the western part of the state, because there was not sufficient proof that they were in immediate danger.

The ruling asserted that the state’s child protection agency acted hastily in removing the children from the Yearning for Zion ranch in April and did not make a reasonable effort “to ascertain if some measure short of removal and/or separation from parents would have eliminated the risk” of abuse toward the children of 48 mothers who filed the suit. The district court was ordered to remove its restraining order giving the state custody of those children, but it was not immediately clear how the hundreds of other children, now in foster care, would be affected....

The agency raided the ranch and the sect’s temple on April 3 after someone had called an abuse hot line and said that she was a 16-year-old child bride being abused by her older husband in the church’s compound. The caller has still not been found.

"What If Your Mother Had Aborted You?"

Frances Kissling responds, on RH Reality Check, to the question anti-choice advocates love to ask:

"What if your mother had aborted you?" It's almost always a question some frustrated anti-choicer asks after a presentation; I've probably been asked that question a hundred times. In the beginning, my answer was fairly abstract, philosophical. I'd note that the "I" who stands before them is not the "I" that was once a fetus. The I of today is the result of a mother who continued a pregnancy and the process of becoming that made me who I am today. But over time, I felt a need to give a more personal and direct answer, something about me, my mother and the relationship between children and their mothers.

I feel a need to turn that question around and to ask instead: What if your mother's life would have been significantly happier and healthier if she had not had you? If you as a fetus had the capacity to make decisions, would you have given your life for your mother's life, health and happiness?

Other Mother's Day posts on RH Reality Check: From Inside Prisons, Mothers Long for Their Children, by Christy Hall; The Politics of Motherhood, the Capacity for Choice, by Caroline Austria.

New Study Examines Depression in Women, Including Effects of Abortion and Partner Violence

Via Our Bodies Our Blog:

A new study in BMJ Public Health examines depression in women and the relationship of past abortions to the condition. This new report is particularly interesting because it attempts to control for the effects of sociodemographic factors and considers the women's experiences of intimate partner violence, recognizing that multiple factors may impact a woman's mental health.

Although the study focuses on Australian women, it may be of interest to readers in other countries as well due to recent attempts by anti-choice groups to promote the existence of a so-called "post-abortion syndrome," or causal link between abortion and depression, which has thus far been unsupported by the medical evidence. Similar to unsupported and debunked claims of an abortion/breast cancer link, this tactic frames the pro-choice position as anti-women's health, despite the lack of evidence to support that framing. (For background reading, try this commentary in Ms. Magazine and a lengthy discussion of the issue in the New York Times.)

90% of Czech Women Approve of Contraception

The Prague Post: Survey: 90 percent feel birth control is OK:

Czech Republic has one of most liberal attitudes

More than 90 percent of Czech women see birth control as a natural part of sexual life, according to a study reported on the Aktualne.cz online news server.

More than 1,000 women from 15 to 50 took part in the study.

Only 1 percent of Czech women are against using any type of birth control. The Czech Republic is, together with Holland, among the countries with the most liberal attitudes toward birth control. About 40 percent of Czech women consider the Pill the best method.

Flags courtesy of ITA's Flags of All Countries used with permission.

Surrogacy Sees Increased Media Coverage

Wall Street Journal: Outsourcing Childbirth, by Cheryl Miller:

"Katie is coming out of the mommy closet," Caroline (Maura Tierney) teases her sister Kate (Tina Fey) in the film "Baby Mama," out in theaters today. Kate, a hard-charging executive at a Whole Foods-like grocery chain, seems to have the perfect life -- except, oops, she forgot to have a baby. Cursed with a misshapen uterus, she turns to a surrogate agency, which assigns a wacky South Philadelphia girl, Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler), to carry her baby.

Surrogacy itself seems to have come out of the mommy closet, to judge from recent media coverage. The New York Times and the Boston Globe have both reported on the practice of outsourcing wombs to poor Indian women. On a recent cover of Newsweek, the abdomen of a pregnant woman appeared with the words "Womb for Rent" emblazoned upon it. The issue's lead story, "The Curious Lives of Surrogates," ignited a small media frenzy with its sensationalistic revelations about military wives cashing in as surrogates -- in part by bilking their government-provided health plans.

Yale Refuses to Install Student's Art Project Without Disclaimer

Associated Press: Yale: 'Abortion' art won't be displayed without disclaimer, by John Christofferson:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Yale University said Monday it will not install an art project by a student who claims to have filmed herself inducing repeated abortions unless she includes a disclaimer saying it is a work of fiction.

Yale also said an instructor and an adviser made "serious errors of judgment" in letting the project go forward.

Aliza Shvarts' work was described last Thursday in a story in the Yale Daily News. She told the newspaper she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while taking herbal drugs to induce miscarriages.

Yale Claims Student's Art Project Is Fiction

In a statement yesterday by Yale University spokewoman Helaine Klasky, Yale asserted that the controversial art project described in the Yale Daily News (see yesterday's post) was a work of "creative fiction":

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art.  Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages.  The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.         

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.            

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

According to the Yale Daily News, however, Shvarts is disputing this claim.   Yale Daily News: University calls art project a fiction; Shvarts '08 disputes Yale's claim, by Zachary Abrahamson, Thomas Kaplan and Martine Powers:

According to a statement released by the University today, Aliza Shvarts ’08 was never impregnated. She never miscarried. The sweeping outrage on blogs across the country was apparently for naught....

But Shvarts stood by her project, calling the University’s statement “ultimately inaccurate.”

...Shvarts reiterated Thursday that she repeatedly use a needleless syringe to insert semen into herself. At the end of her menstrual cycle, she took abortifacient herbs to induce bleeding, she said. She said she does not know whether or not she was ever pregnant.

“No one can say with 100-percent certainty that anything in the piece did or did not happen,” Shvarts said, “because the nature of the piece is that it did not consist of certainties.”

Thanks to Reva Siegel for these updates. 

See also this comment on another blog, injecting some much-needed sanity regarding the likely medical realities of a project like this, even assuming the project was for real.

Yale Senior's Art Project Stirs Controversy

Yale Daily News: For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse, by Martine Powers:

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts' project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock — saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.

Internet Sexuality Information Services (ISIS) Exposes Ideas for Preventing HIV and other STDs with Underwear Design Contest

Via press release from Internet Sexuality Information Services, Inc. (ISIS) and Brickfish:

SAN DIEGO, CA (April 5, 2008) Internet Sexuality Information Services, Inc. (ISIS), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting sexual health, and Brickfish, a social media advertising platform, are inviting people to design intimate apparel to help get the word out about preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and developing lifelong healthy relationships. The In Brief campaign, located at (www.undiescontest.com), invites entrants to develop their own art and slogans for boxer shorts, womens underwear, or t-shirts containing a message about sexual communication, including preventing HIV and other STDs. The Grand Prize winner will receive a $1,000 scholarship or cash equivalent, and twelve pairs of underwear.

With recent statistics published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 1 in 4 female adolescents in the U.S. have a sexually transmitted disease, this timely contest tackles a critical public health issue head-on. Talking about HIV and STDs is uncomfortable, especially in the heat of the moment, so we are excited at this opportunity to create a forum for bringing prevention to the forefront, said Deb Levine, Executive Director of ISIS. The In Brief' campaign is designed to help sexually active people (and those thinking about having sex) communicate about the risks before they take their clothes off. We are confident the awareness raised by this campaign will encourage people to talk about their sexual health before they are in a risky situation.

In addition to the Grand Prize winner, an ISIS expert panel of judges will award a $250 scholarship (or cash equivalent) for their favorite entry chosen from the top 100 generating the most buzz across the Internet. And, all people who enter or vote in the contest will be eligible to win another $250 scholarship or cash equivalent awarded at the end of the contest.

The Brickfish marketing platform provides a forum to raise awareness of social issues through User-Generated Content (UGC). Brands, agencies and non-profit organizations use Brickfishs patent-pending platform to launch online advertising and marketing campaigns that spark the creation of brand-focused UGC, such as blogs, images, video and audio. Brickfishs content sharing tools enable anyone to view and review submissions, vote on their favorites, and share them with friends and peers through email, Instant Message and by posting on social networking sites, creating a powerful viral conversation that spans the Internet.

The most important step to initiate positive change with societal issues is to get people talking and sharing, said Shahi Ghanem, CEO of Brickfish. The In Brief campaign will help enlighten people about the risks and introduce steps they can take to protect their sexual health. Thanks to todays elevated use of social media sites to promote thoughts and views, we are confident this campaign will be a vital way to increase awareness about HIV and other STDs and help people develop healthy relationships.

The In Brief campaign ends May 15th. For campaign rules and regulations, visit www.undiescontest.com. For more information about Brickfish, visit www.Brickfish.com, and for information about ISIS, visit www.isis-inc.org.

Visit the contest website.

Clementine Rossier on Abortion Secrecy in Burkina Faso

Clementine Rossier has posted Abortion: An Open Secret? Abortion and Social Network Involvement in Burkina Faso, Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 15, No. 30, pp. 230-238, November 2007, on SSRN.  Here is the abstract: 

Abortion in Burkina Faso is a subject that neither abortion providers nor women want to talk about. Abortion providers fear criminal prosecution; women's silence is dictated more by the wish to avoid the stigma of a shameful pregnancy....What prompts women and providers to reveal something they want to be kept totally secret, and how do women keep their abortion secret while nevertheless talking to others about it? The study found that young women in Burkina Faso are impelled to talk to their boyfriends, friends and in fewer cases women relatives about their unplanned pregnancy, first to decide to have an abortion and then to get help in finding a clandestine provider.

David Garrow Reviews Dr. Susan Wicklund's "This Common Secret"

David Garrow  reviews Susan Wicklund's book, "This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor," in today's Christian Science Monitor:

Abortion is the subject of many books, but it's highly unusual when a volume that looks like yet another partisan salvo actually contradicts the expected "party line" in important and revealing ways.

Such is the case in Susan Wicklund's  This Common Secret. Wicklund enlisted as a front-line soldier in America's abortion wars in 1989, when the conflict was most intense. Extreme right-to-life groups like Operation Rescue physically besieged abortion clinics, and many abortion providers feared for their personal safety.

See also these reviews: Wash. Post, Head vs. Heart in the Abortion Debate , by Emily Bazelon; NY Times, Telling the Stories Behind the Abortions, by Cornelia Dean.

"Era of Twins" May Be Changing

N.Y. Times: For an Era of Twins, the End May Be Near, by Susan Dominus:

Walk around the Upper West Side with a double stroller, as I do from time to time, and it’s amazing how long it can take to make it to Fairway. An older gentleman wants to know whether there were twins in the family. A middle-aged woman needs to stop and list every pair of twins she’s come to know in a five-block radius. There are many, many, many young twins in that five-block radius. The listing of them takes a long time. There are twins on 72nd Street and two sets in her building alone and girl twins on the corner and boy twins she always sees at the Starbucks ... Is it something in the water?...

If all goes as expected, however, the twins glut we’re experiencing now will not be a permanent facet of life in the city. Instead, there will most likely be a 10- or 15-year window that will be known as the twins years. A 37-year-old-man named Max will mention at some dinner party in 2039 that he’s actually a twin, and the host will say, oh yes, that makes sense, you’re the right age, aren’t you — fraternal, of course?

DOCUMENTARY FILM, "SILENT CHOICES," ADDRESSES ABORTION AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS

DOCUMENTARY FILM SILENT CHOICES BREAKS THE SILENCE ABOUT
ABORTION AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS

WINNER – Best Documentary, 2007 Roxbury Film Festival

Wednesday, February 20 – 7 p.m.
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue
New York, NY
Tickets: $5
Presented by the Black Documentary Collective

Wednesday, February 27 – 6 p.m.
University of Arizona
The Center for Creative Photography
1030 North Olive Road
Tucson, AZ
FREE ADMISSION
Sponsored by the ASUA Women's Resource Center

Chicago-born filmmaker Faith Pennick was sent on a mission after a friend made a simple,
straightforward comment. During an argument about the future of the Roe v. Wade Supreme
Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973, her friend declared to Pennick, “Abortion is a
white woman’s issue, and black women have more important things to worry about.”
“I was floored by her comment,” said Pennick, “but I understood where that statement came
from. Anytime you see media reports about abortion, it’s the same handful of middle-class,
middle-aged white women running pro-choice organizations that are interviewed. How do you
relate to an issue if you don’t see yourself in it?”

Pennick’s response to her friend is the groundbreaking documentary, Silent Choices. The 60-
minute film examines the controversial issue of abortion and how it impacts the lives of African
American women. Depicting the juxtaposition of racial and reproductive politics, the film takes a
viewer on a journey from the early 20th century to the present day and depicts how African
Americans contributed to and were affected by abortion and family planning. From African
Americans’ cautious involvement with Margaret Sanger during the early birth control movement
to black nationalists and civil rights activists who staunchly opposed abortion and birth control--
or stayed silent on the issue--Silent Choices unmasks the complexities of this extremely
emotional issue among African Americans.

Notable experts interviewed for the film include National Black Women’s Health Imperative
founder Byllye Avery, Northwestern University School of Law professor Dorothy Roberts,
former Black Panthers chairman Elaine Brown and Rev. Carlton Veazey, President & CEO of
the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The film also follows the stories of three
African American women who had abortions:

• Lori had two abortions while in college. She attended 1994’s March for Women’s Lives to make
her pro-choice voice heard.
• Qrescent – a high-achieving student who terminated her pregnancy during her senior year of high
school and holds no regrets.
• Angela describes the fear and shame she felt during and after an illegal abortion.

In addition, Pennick interviewed African Americans who are pro-life, including Annette, the
friend who told her “abortion is a white woman’s issue.”

Silent Choices is available for purchase as an educational video from New Day Films
(www.newday.com).

Silent Choices is directed, produced and edited by Faith Pennick (60 min., color, shot on digital
video). It is her first feature-length film. For more information, visit www.silentchoices.com.

"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days' Is Coming to the U.S.

Mainstream American filmmakers flee from the "A" word, but Cristian Mungiu of Romania takes an unflinching look.  Via NPR: '4 Months' Raises the Iron Curtain on Abortion, by Howie Movshovitz:

The word "abortion" puts many people on edge, but director Cristian Mungiu wanted viewers to experience what it was like to try to get one in a country where it was illegal. The result is 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a film that follows two Romanian college women in 1987.

For more on the film and its awards, see also this post.

NYT Photo Essay on Female Genital Cutting

The New York Times (Sunday Magazine 1/20), A Cutting Tradition, by Sara Corbett:

When a girl is taken — usually by her mother — to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals. Sponsored by the Assalaam Foundation, an Islamic educational and social-services organization, circumcisions take place in a prayer center or an emptied-out elementary-school classroom where desks are pushed together and covered with sheets and a pillow to serve as makeshift beds. The procedure takes several minutes. There is little blood involved. Afterward, the girl’s genital area is swabbed with the antiseptic Betadine. She is then helped back into her underwear and returned to a waiting area, where she’s given a small, celebratory gift — some fruit or a donated piece of clothing — and offered a cup of milk for refreshment. She has now joined a quiet majority in Indonesia, where, according to a 2003 study by the Population Council, an international research group, 96 percent of families surveyed reported that their daughters had undergone some form of circumcision by the time they reached 14.

These photos were taken in April 2006, at the foundation’s annual mass circumcision, which is free and open to the public and held during the lunar month marking the birth of the prophet Muhammad. The Assalaam Foundation runs several schools and a mosque in Bandung, Indonesia’s third-largest city and the capital of West Java. The photographer Stephanie Sinclair was taken to the circumcision event by a reproductive-health observer from Jakarta and allowed to spend several hours there. Over the course of that Sunday morning, more than 200 girls were circumcised, many of them appearing to be under the age of 5. Meanwhile, in a nearby building, more than 100 boys underwent a traditional circumcision as well.

View the slide show.  (The photographs are powerful but not graphic.)