Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

Calif. Supreme Court Rules Doctors Cannot Deny Fertility Treatments Due to Patient's Sexual Orientation

Via Law.com:

Three months after approving same-sex marriage, the California Supreme Court gave gay rights another boost Monday by unanimously ruling that doctors can't invoke religion to refuse treating homosexual patients (pdf)....

Monday's case began in 2001 when Oceanside, Calif., lesbian Guadalupe Benitez sued Drs. Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton, who claimed their Christian faith prevented them from providing intrauterine insemination in some circumstances. The doctors, who worked at the North Coast Women's Care Medical Group in Vista, Calif., argued that they couldn't provide fertility treatments to Benitez because she wasn't married, but Benitez said they refused because of her sexual orientation.

H/T: Amy Leipziger

Understanding Female Sexuality: Sue Katz Reviews Gina Ogden's "Return of Desire"

AlterNet: "Return of Desire": Fighting Myths About Female Sexuality, by Sue Katz:

The Return of Desire is the second of three books that Dr. Gina Ogden -- sex therapist, author and (disclosure) my admired colleague -- bases on her large survey of what women (and some men) really feel about sex. Following the highly respected The Heart and Soul of Sex, this time she fearlessly confronts head-on the profit-driven medicalization of women's sexuality, employing her unique holistic, positive approach to better understand the rich complexity of desire and sex.

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.

Many Gay Men Do Not Disclose Sexuality to Their Doctors

NY Times: Many Gays Don’t Tell Doctors Their Sexuality, Study Finds, by Sewell Chan:

A survey of 452 New York City men who had had sex with other men within the past year found that 39 percent had not disclosed their sexual orientation to their doctors, a problem particularly acute among black, Hispanic and Asian men, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced on Wednesday.

Health officials said the survey results had troubling implications for H.I.V. prevention. The survey found, for example, that men who disclosed their sexual activity with other men were twice as likely as men who did not to have been tested for H.I.V. (63 percent versus 36 percent).

Welcome to the Blogosphere, Nan Hunter!

Nan Hunter (Georgetown Law) has launched a brand new blog, Hunter of Justice.  It will offer a generally legal take on sexuality and gender issues.  Here's an excerpt from one of her first entries:

The politics of counting, or, Numbers never lie ... except when they do

Press reports have been building all week about the Census Bureau’s announcement that it will not count same-sex couples legally married in California or Massachusetts (or in other countries) as “married.” The San Jose Mercury News broke the story, which was picked up by the Washington Post, and the AP story ran in the Times and who knows where else. Now People for the American Way has started a petition campaign calling on the Bureau to change its policy. It's fascinating to me what legs this story has -- the issue isn't new (see below), but it's newly visible because it's being driven as a spin-off of the California drama.

Officials justify the decision as required by the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA), which limits recognition of “marriage” to different-sex couples for purposes of all federal laws and agency actions. See the Bureau’s analysis, originally posted regarding the 2000 census: http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/samesex.html

Ruthann Robson on Sexual Democracy

Ruthann Robson (CUNY Law School) has posted Sexual Democracy on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Conceptualizing the relationship between sexuality and democracy requires not only an interrogation of both terms, but also an exploration of the ways in which democracy seeks to accommodate and appropriate the sexual. Recent litigation and legislation regarding same-sex relationships in South Africa casts a spotlight on the interaction between sexuality and democracy, but the illumination is partial. It is necessary to explore sexuality in a broader context, including discomfiting sexual practices, as a matter of the democratic constitutional norms of equality and dignity. Otherwise, a sentimentalized version of sexuality, with certain lesbians and gay men installed as a model minority, threaten to become the democratic standard.

Decline in Sexual Activity Among Teens Levels Off

Wash. Post: Decline in Teen Sex Levels Off, Survey Shows, by Rob Stein:

The nation's campaign to get more teenagers to delay sex and to use condoms is faltering, threatening to undermine the highly successful effort to reduce teen pregnancy and protect young people from sexually transmitted diseases, federal officials reported yesterday.

New data from a large government survey show that by every measure, a decade-long decline in sexual activity among high school students leveled off between 2001 and 2007, and that the rise in condom use by teens flattened out in 2003.

Moreover, the survey found disturbing hints that teen sexual activity may have begun creeping up and that condom use among high school students might be edging downward, though those trend lines have not yet reached a point where statisticians can be sure, officials said.

Report: Teens Don't Engage in Oral Sex to "Preserve Virginity"

Wash. Post: A Debunking on Teenagers and 'Technical Virginity': Researchers Find That Oral Sex Isn't Commonplace Among Young People Who Avoid Intercourse, by Rob Stein:

Contrary to widespread belief, teenagers do not appear to commonly engage in oral sex as a way to preserve their virginity, according to the first study to examine the question nationally.

The analysis of a federal survey of more than 2,200 males and females aged 15 to 19, released yesterday, found that more than half reported having had oral sex. But those who described themselves as virgins were far less likely to say they had tried it than those who had had intercourse.

"There's a popular perception that teens are engaging in serial oral sex as a strategy to avoid vaginal intercourse," said Rachel Jones of the Guttmacher Institute, a private, nonprofit research organization based in New York, who helped do the study. "Our research suggests that's a misperception."

Instead, the study found that teens tend to become sexually active in many ways at about the same time. For example, although only one in four teenage virgins had engaged in oral sex, within six months after their first intercourse more than four out of five adolescents reported having oral sex.

The full report from the Guttmacher Institute is available here.

Carlos Ball on Privacy and Public Sex

Carlos A. Ball (Penn State) has posted Privacy, Property and Public Sex on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This Article argues that the constitutional right to sexual liberty should include the right to engage in public sex under certain circumstances. In doing so, the Article contends that the right to sexual liberty should not, as the Supreme Court has held, be site-dependent, that is, its scope should not be limited to sexual conduct that takes place in the home and other private places. The Article reviews the sociological literature on public sex to explain how sexual actors frequently and effectively privatize public sex sites. By analogizing to the privacy protection afforded by the Fourth Amendment, the Article argues that what should ultimately matter in determining the scope of the right to sexual liberty under the Due Process Clause is not where the sex takes place but whether the sexual actors' expectations of privacy are reasonable. In the end, the Article seeks to problematize the seemingly intuitive notion that, in matters of sex and sexuality, the concept of privacy is inextricably linked to geographic sites that are private.

Washington D.C. Bd. of Education Approves Sex Ed Guidelines That Cover Contraception and Sexual Orientation

The Washington Times reports:

The D.C. State Board of Education last night unanimously approved guidelines for sex-education classes that call for teaching students about sexual orientation and trends in contraception...

The standards were developed in part by using input from focus groups that included parents and educators and from highly touted health standards elsewhere in the country.

They have received support from civic leaders and health professionals, who have said the guidelines will help develop a much-needed defense against the District's HIV/AIDS epidemic.