Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

Pregnancy Motivates Many Women to Quit Smoking

USA Today: Pregnancy can motivate smokers to kick habit, by Liz Szabo:

Ashley Adams had no trouble quitting smoking during her pregnancy.

Morning sickness and dry heaves made her too nauseated to crave cigarettes. And seeing pictures of low-birth-weight babies at a health clinic made her determined to protect her child.

"Those pictures just broke my heart," says Adams, 22, of Shawnee, Okla., whose first child was born in 2006. "I said, 'I'm not going to put my kid through that.' "

Adams quit cold turkey, becoming part of the 45% of pregnant smokers who give up cigarettes.

New York Times Reports on Risks of Obesity & Pregnancy

New York Times: Too Fat and Pregnant, by Annie Murphy Paul:

After decades in which the obesity epidemic spread to every demographic group in the nation, it has also ended up here: the maternity ward. One in five women who give birth in the U.S. is obese, according to Susan Chu, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And doctors are seeing more pregnant women who are morbidly obese, weighing 400, 500, even 600 pounds. Excess weight makes pregnancy riskier: obese women are more likely to develop hypertension and diabetes, and to deliver prematurely. The need to manage their conditions, and to meet their logistical needs, is giving rise to a new medical subspecialty, what some are calling “bariatric obstetrics.” Chames, who already sees at least a dozen morbidly obese pregnant women each month, will direct his hospital’s new Center for Bariatric Obstetric Care when it opens later this summer.

In Countries Where Abortion Is Illegal, Desperate Women Turn to Internet

The Press Association: Fear Over Abortion Pills Website:

Women living in countries where abortion is restricted - including Northern Ireland - are using the internet to buy medication enabling them to perform an abortion at home, it emerged.

A medical study found more than one in 10 customers on one of the most well-known websites needed a surgical procedure after taking the medication.

Women in more than 70 countries, including Northern Ireland, have used the internet site Women on Web to purchase the drugs for £55 a time. Anti-abortion campaigners have labelled the development "worrying".

A Possible Explanation for Deaths Linked to Early Abortion Pill

ScienceDaily: Abortion Drug's Off-label Use May Have Led To Deaths:

Preliminary U-M studies indicate that oral use of RU-486's companion drug misoprostol is safe, but vaginal use may undermine body's immune responses

The off-label use of a drug given with RU-486 to terminate a pregnancy may be responsible for a handful of rare, fatal infections seen in women taking the drugs since 2000, a study by University of Michigan scientists suggests.

The drug misoprostol is FDA-approved to be taken by mouth along with RU-486 to end a pregnancy. But many women have received the drug vaginally as part of the two-drug combination, a method of delivery not evaluated by the FDA.

In animal and cell culture studies, the U-M researchers found that misoprostol, when given directly in the reproductive tract, suppresses key immune responses and can allow a normally non-threatening bacterium, Clostridium sordellii, to gain the upper hand and cause deadly infection. When absorbed through the stomach, however, the drug did not compromise immune defenses or cause illness....

The results provide evidence why doctors should avoid giving misoprostol vaginally and underscore the wisdom of giving it by mouth instead, says Aronoff, an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the U-M Medical School. "The findings should help make a safe procedure even safer."

Reducing Women and Girls' Risk to Violence and HIV/AIDS

PRESS RELEASE (from Women Won't Wait):

WOMEN ARE STILL WAITING FOR GOVERNMENTS TO REDUCE WOMEN'S AND GIRLS' RISK TO VIOLENCE AND HIV&AIDS!

International coalition urges governments and donors to keep their promise to women and girls

NEW YORK, 9 JUNE 2008 - Government officials and AIDS activists from around the world will convene at the United Nations in New York from 10-12 June to review the global HIV/AIDS response.  At the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) in 2001, governments committed to promote and protect women's human rights and reduce women's vulnerability to HIV&AIDS by eliminating all forms of discrimination including violence against women.

Seven years on, women are still waiting!

Research in 16 countries[1] shows governments have failed to keep their commitments to promote gender equality and women's sexual and reproductive health and rights and end violence against women. This failure also shows governments are not putting women's risk at the center of their AIDS responses.

The research found that "while countries have regulatory instruments in place to counter gender-based violence in all its various forms, the implementation of actions is still highly deficient," said Alessandra Nilo from GESTOS in Brazil, who coordinated the research.  This research is part of a concerted effort by civil society to monitor and make visible the hidden gaps in policy implementation.

Despite continued calls by human rights and women's rights groups, most countries do not have HIV prevention programmes designed specifically for women, much less commitment to promoting and protecting women's human rights.  In fact, in some countries there is evidence of HIV prevention related campaigns reinforcing gender stereotypes rather than challenging them.

In Argentina for example, "There remains much to be done especially in developing a protocol and creating specialized care services for women survivors of violence and coordinating the work of different services including health, the criminal justice system etc. Also governments must launch multi-pronged, sustained campaigns that promote women's rights." said Mabel Bianco, Director of Fundacion para Estudio e Investigacion de la Mujer (FEIM), Argentina who participated in the research.

Many countries have legal and policy frameworks to protect women and girls from violence; however, all countries report poor or no implementation of these policies. 

Most worrying is that the research "points to the lack of political will and ability to prevent and redress violence," said Cynthia Rothschild from the Centre for Women's Global Leadership in the United States. This lack of will results in insufficient resources given to programmes to protect women from violence, a lack of specialised medical-legal services for survivors of violence, safe houses for women, etc. In addition, the governments do not even have systematic sex-disaggregated data gathering on the extent and impact of violence against women, said Rothschild.

"As we did in 2001, we need to continue putting pressure on government and donors to track and measure commitments to women's rights and to demand accountability of those in charge of the global AIDS response," said Neelanjana Mukhia, the International Policy and Campaign Coordinator at ActionAid, a member of the Women Won't Wait campaign and its international secretariat.

While decision-makers make empty promises again, it is women like Rhodea from Namibia who continue to bear the brunt. "I was sterilized after giving my birth to my baby.  I did not find out about this until I returned for contraceptive counseling after I had my baby.  All I was told was that it was better this way.  Because I am HIV positive." This experience is confirmed by many of the women across the countries studied who report severe discrimination and rights violations in health systems. These range from forced sterilisation and abortions, to HIV positive women being denied access to information on safe sex practices and prevention products.

"There has to be greater urgency, to really turn the tide for women" says Nilo.  "The most effective way is to significantly increase resources for gender-sensitive and human rights based prevention, treatment, care and support - for both epidemics - violence against women and HIV&AIDS." In particular, there is a need to a shift in focus from targeted interventions to interventions with vulnerable populations. This means that funds and interventions are needed for persons vulnerable to the virus because of their race, class, ethnicity, language and geographic location. "Governments and donors have to act with urgency to fulfil their responsibilities to the world's women" Bianco said.

Resources are not the only answer, though.  We must ensure that all AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support interventions integrate community education on zero tolerance of violence.  In addition, the promotion of laws and law enforcement that prevent and protect women from violence, training for health care personnel and legal infrastructures, and the availability of post-exposure prophylaxis, emergency contraception, female condoms and other female-controlled prevention ALL need to form part of a comprehensive approach to HIV&AIDS.

As governments meet to monitor progress on the UN Declaration of Commitment, we urge them to keep their promises to women and girls.

Women Won't Wait!

The Women Won't Wait campaign is an international coalition of organizations and networks working to promote women's health and human rights in the struggle to address HIV and AIDS and end all forms of violence against women and girls. 
For more information on the Women Won't Wait campaign:
www.womenwontwait.org

Women Won't Wait is an international coalition of organizations and networks from the global South and North working to promote women's health and human rights in the struggle to comprehensively address HIV and AIDS and end all forms of violence against women and girls. The coalition members are: Action Aid; African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET); Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID); Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL); Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE); Fundacion para Estudio e Investigacion de la Mujer (FEIM); GESTOS-Soropositividade, Comunicacao & Genero; International Community of Women Living with HIV&AIDS Southern Africa (ICW-Southern Africa); International Women's AIDS Caucus; International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC); Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network; Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA); Program on International Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; SANGRAM; VAMP; and Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA). National coalitions of the campaign are also operational in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

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[1] Monitoring Ungass´s Goals for The Sexual and Reproductive Health of Women, Villela, W.; Nilo, A. Gestos- Brazil, 2008. Countries: Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, Thailand, South Africa, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela. Access at: ungassforum.wordpress.com

FDA Proposes Drug Label Changes Related to Pregnancy

Wash. Post/HealthDay News: FDA Proposes New Drug Labels for Pregnant Women, by Steven Reinberg:

WEDNESDAY, May 28 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health officials proposed Wednesday changes to the labels on prescription drugs that would detail potential health effects for pregnant and breast-feeding women, their fetuses or their newborns.

If enacted, the new system, proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, would provide doctors and pharmacists with more comprehensive information to guide them in their prescribing practices....

The proposed system would replace the current system that relies on letter designations to describe the risks of a drug when taken during pregnancy or breast-feeding. This system was deemed confusing and incomplete.

Conservative Groups Urge Reinstatement of Reagan-Era Title X Funding Restrictions

Wall St. Journal: Antiabortion Groups Push Bush on Clinics' Subsidies, by Stephanie Simon:

With time running out on the Bush administration, conservative activists are renewing a drive for regulations that would deny federal subsidies to clinics that provide abortions or counsel women about the option.

In a final push, the activists are preparing a public campaign to pressure President Bush to use his executive authority to order the change. They say they soon will present the White House with a petition signed by tens of thousands of voters and a letter endorsed by at least 70 conservative organizations, including the Family Research Council, the Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America....

The federal government distributes about $280 million a year among thousands of clinics to subsidize the cost of birth control, cancer screening, HIV testing and other reproductive care for low-income patients. Known as Title X, the program serves five million men and women a year. By law, the money can't be used for abortion procedures.

Inventor Who Helped Make Abortions Safer Dies

L.A. Times: Harvey Karman, 84; invented device for safer, easier abortions, by Elaine Woo:

Harvey Karman, a flamboyant psychologist whose invention made a key contribution to women's reproductive health, particularly by making abortions simpler, cheaper and less painful, died May 6 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara. He was 84.

The cause was a stroke, said his son Kenneth, of Los Angeles.

Activist, inventor, educator and rogue, Karman was drawn to the plight of women facing unwanted pregnancy in the 1950s, when abortion was illegal. While training in psychology at UCLA, he started an underground abortion referral service and eventually performed abortions himself, for which he was convicted and sent to state prison for 2 1/2 years.

In the early 1970s he developed a soft, flexible tube, or cannula, for a device that was widely adopted in the United States and developing countries to perform early abortions. He freely demonstrated its use for doctors and other medical professionals and in 1972 was part of a humanitarian mission to terminate the pregnancies of 1,500 Bangladesh women and girls who had been raped by Pakistani soldiers. His cannula is still widely used today.

Stress During Pregnancy May Increase Babies' Risk of Asthma, Allergy

Wash. Post/HealthDay: Mom's Stress in Pregnancy May Up Baby's Asthma and Allergy Risk, by Serena Gordon:

If an expectant mother is exposed to high levels of stress, her baby may be more likely to develop asthma or allergies later in life, new research suggests.

Babies born to mothers experiencing high levels of stress had more IgE in their blood at birth than did babies born to less-stressed moms. IgE is an antibody involved in allergic and asthmatic reactions.

"Moms who had elevated levels of stress had children who seemed to be more reactive to allergens, even when exposed to low levels of allergens," said study co-author Dr. Rosalind Wright, an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Gene Linked to Preeclampsia

ScienceDaily: Clues Into How Preeclampsia May Surface In Some Pregnancies:

The COMT gene -- known already for its role in schizophrenia -- has been found to play a role in preeclampsia, according to a report in today's advance on-line issue of Nature.

Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the study further suggests that a steroid molecule, 2-ME, may serve as both a diagnostic marker and therapeutic supplement for the treatment of this dangerous pregnancy disorder.

Characterized by hypertension, proteinuria, and edema, preeclampsia affects approximately 5 percent of all pregnancies worldwide, and is a leading cause of maternal and neonatal morbidity. Knowing that placental hypoxia, or oxygen shortage, associated with vascular dysfunction, is a hallmark of the condition, senior author Raghu Kalluri, PhD and his colleagues began by screening for genes that regulate hypoxia.