PUSH JOURNAL MEDIA SUMMARY

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS

Brazil and Vatican Fight over Morning-After Pill: On February 1, Women’s Enews reported that tensions are high between the Vatican and Recife, Brazil, over the city’s plan to hand out free morning-after pills to Carnival-goers to prevent pregnancy and abortion. Recife's archbishop, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, is threatening excommunication to pill users and is attempting to block the government move. Read: Women’s Enews

Aboriginal Agency Rejects STD Treatment Program: On February 5, The Australian reported that Dr. John Boffa of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress had rejected a government-proposed plan to combat rising rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis in remote areas of Australia with a mass antibiotic treatment. Dr. Joffa said the plan was “a magic bullet approach” and that a multi-layered approach would be more effective. He suggested disease surveillance, screening of community members and education for both the community and health workers, combined with a monitoring program to feed information back to health services. Read: The Australian

Kansas Court Rejects Access to Abortion Records: On February 4, the Associated Press reported that the Kansas Supreme Court had temporarily blocked an investigative panel from obtaining patient records from Dr. George Tiller, who is accused of performing late-term abortions against Kansas law. Abortion opponents forced Sedgwick County to convene a grand jury probe by submitting petitions to subpoena the records of over 2,000 women who visited Tiller’s clinic from July 2003 through January 2007. Read: Associated Press

Jamaica Considers Legalizing Abortion: On February 8, the Nation News (Jamaica) and the Jamaica Observer reported that Jamaica is considering legalizing abortion. The biggest concern for pro-choice advocates is the alarmingly high number of “back alley” unsafe abortions that leave many women in the hospital where medical personnel and resources are already scarce. Advocates say these resources would be better used to provide safe, legal abortions. Health Minister Rudyard Spencer denied that the government was fast-tracking legislation to legalize abortion. Read: Nation News, Jamaica Observer

Condom Price to Drop In Ireland: On February 1, the Irish Independent and the PA Newswire: Ireland  reported that following pressure from safe-sex and pregnancy-prevention advocates, the Irish government has decided to cut the VAT rate on condoms. The move will drop the price of a packet of 12 condoms from 13.20 Euros to 12.40 Euros, and a packet of three condoms from 4.20 Euros to 3.94 Euros. "I now hope that they keep this promise, and work with the government on delivering a positive health benefit to people who find that the cost of contraception stops them from using it consistently." said Crisis Pregnancy Agency director Caroline Spillane. Read: Irish Independent, PA Newswire: Ireland

 

HIV & AIDS

Debate Continues Over PEPFAR: On February 1 and 2, Congressional Quarterly Today and Associated Press reported that President Bush and Democrats in Congress were sparring over funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). President Bush wants to double funding and Democrats want to triple it while slashing the amount for abstinence-only sex education. U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Mark Dybul said "HIV/AIDS does not exist in a vacuum" but is “inextricably tied to other threats to public health, and it has ramifications for a wide range of development-related issues." Read: Congressional Quarterly Today, Associated Press

On February 8, The Associated Press reported that Republican leader John Boehner and other Republicans opposed removing a requirement in the foreign aid budget that groups receiving money must pledge opposition to prostitution and sex trafficking, on grounds the provision reduces abortions. Democrats and anti-AIDS advocates said the pledge is counter-productive and hurts local programs unnecessarily. Read: The Associated Press

Swiss May Change Message on Safe Sex: On February 1, the Associated Press Online reported that a new proposal by the Swiss National AIDS Commission would tell HIV-positive patients who can satisfy strict conditions – including successful antiretroviral treatment and having no other sexually transmitted diseases – that they can safely have unprotected sex without passing the virus to their partners. The proposal stunned European and American scientists who have long recommended safe sex as the only way to prevent the spread of HIV. "Not only is [the Swiss proposal] dangerous, it's misleading and it is not considering the implications of the biological facts involved with HIV transmission," said Jay Levy, director of the Laboratory for Tumor and AIDS Virus Research at the University of California in San Francisco. Read: Associated Press Online

A Breakthrough Anti-HIV Gel: On February 4 and 6, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland OH) and the Daily News (South Africa) reported on an apparent major breakthrough for women in the battle against preventing HIV. A new colorless gel, Carraguard, to be inserted into the vagina before intercourse, can evidently prevent HIV infection. It contains PSC-Rantes, a manufactured molecule modeled after a naturally occurring protein that blocks the molecular receptors that HIV needs to get inside cells. If it fails to penetrate the host cell, the virus dies. "We always felt we had something very promising here," said Dr. Michael Lederman, one of the key collaborators on the project and the director of the Case Center for AIDS Research based at University Hospitals. Read: The Plain Dealer, Daily News

Male Circumcision Offers Women No Protection: On February 4, The New York Times reported that a new study has found no HIV prevention benefit to women who engage in sex with circumcised men who are HIV-positive. The study was conducted by the same team of researchers from Johns Hopkins and Uganda who showed in earlier studies that circumcision can reduce HIV infection rates in men by up to 60 percent. The new findings did reinforce the benefit of circumcision in lowering herpes and other genital ulcers in men. Read: The New York Times

New HIV Receptor Found: On February 11, The New York Times reported on a new study in Nature Immunology that has found a new human receptor for HIV. The receptor helps guide the virus to the gut after it gains entry to the body, where it begins its relentless attack on the immune system. “They [the findings] begin to shed light on the mysterious process on why the virus preferentially grows in the gut,” said Dr. Warner C. Greene, an AIDS expert and the director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology. Read: The New York Times

 

SAVING WOMEN’S LIVES

Rape is Weapon in Kenyan Violence: On February 13, the Associated Press reported that rape is being used as a weapon in Kenya’s post-election violence that has killed more than 1,000 people. The Gender Violence Recovery Center at Nairobi Women's Hospital treated 135 sexually assaulted women and children, one just two years old, in the three weeks after the Dec. 27 election that critics accuse the president of stealing. "During the days immediately after the election I was treating up to 45 rape victims a day," said Dr. Joseph Osoo, who runs a clinic in Nairobi's Mathare slum. Read: Associated Press

U.S. Policies Affected Women Worldwide: In the Winter 2008 issue of Ms. Magazine, several authors examined U.S. policies that affect women worldwide and asked the question, are U.S. policies killing women? Authors cited the global gag rule, which bans counseling or referrals for abortions at U.S.-funded clinics in developing nations; and the lack of U.S. funding to fight maternal mortality, without which women die needlessly from pregnancy complications, inadequate care and unsafe abortions. “Even as we commemorate the landmark 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade this year, U.S. reproductive-health policies are having an inordinately negative effect outside of our borders,” wrote Michelle Kort. “They’re causing women to die or be maimed. Harsh words, but true.” Read: Ms. Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Ms. Magazine

Women and Children Refugees at Risk in Chad: On February 6, UN News Centre reported that 50,000 refugees from violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) who are living in Chad will be uprooted from their camps and subject to violence once again as conflict and turmoil spread in Chad. Meanwhile some 6,000 new CAR refugees are headed for Chad and another 30,000 to neighboring Cameroon. The UNFPA warns that women and children are most at risk during a refugee crisis like this. "We know that in any refugee crisis, one in five women of child-bearing age may be pregnant," said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director. Read: UN News Centre

New Mexico Will Make Human Trafficking A Crime: On February 7, the Associated Press reported that the New Mexico Senate had approved a bill to make human trafficking a crime. The measure now goes to the state House where passage is expected. "What human trafficking is, is really modern-day slavery,'' said Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia (D-Dona Ana), the bill's sponsor. The law would make human trafficking a felony with penalties depending on the age of the person trafficked. New Mexico had been the only U.S. border state where trafficking was not a crime. Read: Associated Press

Celebrities, Advocates Gather to Fight Human Trafficking: On February 13, the Associated Press and Agence France Presse reported that celebrities, advocates and government officials gathered in New York for a three-day conference on human trafficking. British actress Emma Thompson, Latino pop star Ricky Martin and Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak were speakers at the first-ever forum to raise awareness of the 2.5 million people forced into labor by human trafficking each year. "Government statements, expert discussions, along with music, speeches, videos, films and art to inspire us all. I hope, by the end of the forum, a roadmap will be developed to guide us forward," said the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa. Read: Associated Press, Agence France Presse

 

POPULATION

U.S. Elderly to Outnumber Working Adults: On February 11, Associated Press Worldstream reported on a study finding that by the year 2050, those over age 65 will outnumber working adults in the U.S. population. According to the report by the Pew Hispanic Center, the number of seniors will more than double, to 81 million, largely due to retirement of people in the baby boom generation. Meanwhile, the number of working-age adults 18 to 64 will rise from 186 million three years ago to 255 million in 2050. Although immigration will account for 82 percent of overall population growth until 2050, it will not be enough to replenish the workforce. Read: Associated Press Worldstream

 

EDITORIALS and COLUMNS: On February 11, Salon.com reported that a group of Manila couples are suing the Philippine government for switching their family planning program from contraception to natural methods, saying this violates their constitutional right to legitimately plan their families. “The lawyers representing the petitioners say the city's stance has caused many families to have more kids than planned and choose between putting food on the table (for the kids they already have) and a pack of birth control pills (to prevent having more mouths to feed); it has also reportedly contributed to marital violence, as women try to abstain from sex when at their most fertile. To top things off, abortion is illegal.” Read: Salon.com

On February 4, The Independent (UK) published a column about an increasing number of young British Muslim girls being kidnapped and forced into child marriage. “Kidnapping schoolchildren and forcing them into marriage is utterly unacceptable and indeed criminal. Under the law, no British citizen can be coerced into marriage against his or her will. Like so-called ‘honour killings’ and female genital mutilation, no arguments about ‘cultural traditions’ or ‘different values’ can justify it.” Read: The Independent

On February 6, the Accra Mail (Ghana) published a piece by Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, calling for an end to female genital cutting. She said some 140 million women and girls worldwide have undergone the procedure and three million more are at risk each year. “Today, UNFPA pledges to increase support for efforts to end female genital mutilation/cutting,” she wrote. “We call on governments and other partners to contribute to the UNFPA/UNICEF joint programme and trust fund to end the harmful practice in one generation in 17 high-prevalence countries.” Read: Accra Mail

On February 11, The Boston Globe published an opinion piece by James Carroll on the reauthorization of PEPFAR, saying funds, programs and services in the fight against AIDS need to be revamped and replenished. “AIDS captured the attention of the world, for good reason. It, more than any other single factor, has generated a global political conversion, drawing a first serious commitment by the well-off to help the most desperate. AIDS has been our call to action. But a second, more nuanced call to action is needed now.” Read: The Boston Globe

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