We’re working on pulling together images and stories from this past weekend’s incredible 40th anniversary symposium. Our global partners from Turkey to Tanzania go to great lengths to ensure women in their countries have access to resources and information that enable them to make decisions about their health and the health of their families. Stories from these women affected everyone who watched and listened (see E.J. Graff’s great post over at The American Prospect).

Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs voted Wednesday to approve a bill (H.R. 2059) that would prohibit the U.S. government from providing funding to the United Nations Population Fund.

The International Women’s Health Coalition, in an alert sent out Wednesday morning on the assault on funding for services that help the world’s poorest women, noted that the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC), “may not understand how essential and cost effective UNFPA’s work to promote the health and rights of women and girls really is.”

Here’s what UNFPA does for the world’s poorest citizens (feel free to call Rep. Ellmer’s office, 202-225-4531, to share this information):

• Access to contraception and family planning services
• Midwifery and emergency obstetric care
• Prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections
• Prevent and treat obstetric fistula
• Work to end female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices such as child marriage
• Essential reproductive health services in post-conflict and disaster situations

We’ve heard the stories first-hand of how funding and access to services can save lives, yet right-wing politicians continue to malign the UNFPA out of ignorance and bias.

Reality check: The UNFPA “supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.”

Read more about the international development agency’s programs, along with this FAQ, and please spread the word.

Sierra Leone has one of the worst lifetime maternal mortality rates in the world, at 1 in 8 – compared with 1 in 4,800 in the United States. A government program implemented last year is meant to help address this situation, which Amnesty International calls a “human rights emergency,” by providing free healthcare to pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well as to children under age 5.

Amnesty International has released a report describing serious challenges that still exist for women and girls trying to access this care. They report problems such as a lack of needed drugs; women being asked to pay for drugs and “consumables” such as needles that should be free; poor record-keeping that affects the delivery of care; corruption; and lack of sufficient monitoring and oversight. Women who are denied care that is supposed to be freely provided have no effective means of complaint, as one interviewee describes:

My baby was crying a lot, and had fever. Hospital had no drugs for him. Need to pay money. They chased me away. I don’t know how to complain.

Amnesty International’s report provides several recommendations for improving the health care system and more effectively delivering required care to Sierra Leone’s women, and asserts that it is necessary to address underlying problems beyond access:

It is crucial that authorities are able to respond to lack of facilities, nonavailability of drugs, systematic bad practices, corruption and other challenges. The government must ensure that women are informed of their right to redress and available complaint mechanisms and are able to participate in the monitoring and accountability processes. Monitoring and accountability bodies must have a strong mandate, be adequately resourced and be accessible, independent, and transparent and able to recommend remedies to improve delivery of health services…. [Accountability] requires transforming the underlying, untenable situation that gives rise to widespread maternal mortality, not just restoring a prior equilibrium.

The organization is asking supporters to send a message to Sierra Leone’s Minister of Health calling for actions to ensure that emergency obstetric services are properly provided, health systems and providers are aware of their responsibilities for the free care program, and systematic attention to problems of out-of-stock and diverted drugs.

Further reading: this Washington Post piece from 2008 explores maternal mortality in Sierra Leone.

Registration is now open for the Southern Black Midwives and Healers Summit, themed “Reducing Maternal and Infant Mortality by Building Community Leadership.”

From the program description:

This is an action and solution-oriented leadership development event designed to reduce health disparities, improve breastfeeding rates and build capacity in the Southeast region of the United States. Our goal is to increase the number of midwives, doulas and healers so they can empower families…Midwives, doulas, birth workers, community members and all those committed to reducing health inequities in the SE region will have the opportunity to collaborate with ideas and skills to create leaders and advocates in their communities to ensure improved birth outcomes.

The International Center for Traditional Childbearing organizes the summit, to be held in D’Iberville, MS on October 14-16 this year.

Relatedly, ICTM has a page up on the history of Black midwives, including a video series, “The Legacy of the Black Midwife.”

On July 21, the National Women’s Law Center is hosting a “Birth Control: We’ve Got You Covered” blog carnival to talk about the importance of access to birth control and to encourage the U.S. government to include birth control in a list of services that will be available without a co-pay.

The Affordable Care Act requires coverage – without a co-pay – for preventive services. Decisions about which services will be included are expected sometime this summer. Advocates, including the NWLC, have been working to encourage the Institute of Medicine and Department of Health and Human Services to include birth control as one of the preventive services to be covered.

If you’re unfamiliar with the “blog carnival” concept, it’s when lots of people post on the same topic or theme, and links to the posts are usually collected somewhere online – in this case by the NWLC. If you plan to participate with your own blog post on why birth control should be included as a key preventive care services for women, sign up online.

An upcoming webinar may be of interest to readers:

Patients Before Profits: What You Should Know About the FDA, Big Pharma, and Breast Cancer
June 21, 2011 10:00AM – 11:00 AM Pacific (1:00 pm – 2:00 PM Eastern)

Featuring Miriam Hidalgo, BCAction Volunteer Program Coordinator and Jane Zones, Medical Sociologist and Former BCAction Board Member

We will focus on how the competing interests of pharmaceutical companies and regulatory governmental bodies can fail to deliver safe and effective drugs that patients need. If you sign up, you will learn about power players at the FDA, the origins of the accelerated approval process, and more.

You will need to register online for this webinar and then will receive an email with instructions on how to join in on the 21st.

You’ve probably heard of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund who has been indicted on attempted rape and other charges in connection with the sexual assault of a hotel worker at a Manhattan hotel.

Joan Ditzion, an OBOS co-founder, alerted us to a petition on change.org “to unite people in support of the alleged rape victim.”

Available in English, Spanish, and French, the petition, which so far has more than 2,200 signatures, is a statement of international support for “a wake-up call to renew action against sexual violence, not only in the US where his arrest occurred and in France, where media and many public figures are portraying him as the victim, but around the world.”

Started by a group of international feminists, the statement reads:

We join French feminists in saying that just as Strauss-Kahn is innocent until proven guilty, his accuser must also be respected and believed to be credible unless proven false. We commend her employer, Sofitel, and the action of the NYC Police for taking her complaint seriously. We call for feminists around the world to join with her union (New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council Local 6) in collecting funds for legal and daily expenses, as her work is now curbed and life circumstances vastly altered. Contributions can be sent to Judson Memorial Church (attention Women’s Fund) 55 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012-1018.

We also share French feminist indignation at the deliberate and opportunistic confusion of seduction and sexual violence, from Strauss-Kahn’s declaration that he “loves women,” to the journalists and politicians who rally behind this “Great Seducer.” It is outrageous that the allegation of attempted rape during the course of a housekeeper’s work day raises issues about any woman’s life story and sexual history. And portraying powerful Strauss-Kahn as “too civilized” to commit a violent crime plays upon colonial and racist stereotypes vis-à-vis an African immigrant woman.

We adamantly oppose all harassment, sexual violence and rape, and we know that when there is a large discrepancy between the power, the wealth and racial hierarchy of the parties involved, justice is even harder to come by. All rapists and harassers believe they are entitled, and often when they are part of the power elite they assume that influence will outweigh the legal protection and freedom from coercion all women should enjoy. Feminists around the world demand that justice be done.

The topic will be discussed Wednesday, June 1, on the radio show “Joy of Resistance” on WBAI (9-10 p.m. EST). The show will focus on the critical aspects of the attempted rape case against Strauss–Kahn, and the issues surrounding it — including the international petition, the underpinnings of widespread rape, and the fact that sexual assault of women at work is an everyday occurrence.

You can listen live at 99.5 FM in New York tri-state area, or stream it live at wbai.org. It can also be heard for 90 days at archive.wbai.org.

Plus: For more good reading on this subject, see Kate Harding’s post, “The Media’s Groping Problem.”

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the IHA health literacy conference, where many experts spoke about ways to make health information more understandable to more people.

Health literacy is a complex topic that I’m still learning about, but it encompasses more than just reading skills. According to a common definition, health literacy is “The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.” Encompassed in that definition are basic reading skills, but also more complex skills such as those required to read a prescription bottle and figure out how and when to take a drug, number skills, listening skills, and other abilities needed to navigate the healthcare system.

In 2003, it was estimated that more than one in three U.S. adults had limited health literacy skills.

Beyond those basic statistics, though, are the stories of real patients who are not able to be full participants in their health care because the information they need is not explained in an accessible way. The video below features many of those stories, and is a powerful introduction to the barriers faced by patients with low health literacy.

It includes Toni Cordell-Seiple’s recollection of being told by a gynecologist that a “simple repair” was needed for the problems she was experiencing. Toni didn’t understand what the doctor told her or the forms she was required to sign at the hospital, and was naturally reluctant to reveal her lack of understanding. It was only in her follow-up visit when a nurse asked how she was feeling since her hysterectomy that Toni understood what had been done.

In addition to this introductory video, several resources were suggested by conference speakers that are good starting points for readers who want to learn more:

• The book, Teaching Patients with Low Literacy Skills, by Cecilia and Leonard Doak
• The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• The Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Healthcare providers are likely familiar with “universal precautions” to avoid contact with any patient’s bodily fluids; in this case the universal precautions approach is meant to encourage providers to assume that any/all patients may have limited health literacy. As we were frequently reminded at the conference, nobody ever comes back and asks for materials that are harder to understand!
• Ask Me 3, which encourages patients to ask their healthcare providers three simple questions.
• AMA’s health literacy information and resources
• The free online course, Unified Health Communication (UHC): Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency, from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Continuing education credits are available for several healthcare professions.

I’d also love to hear from any of you about what you’re doing to make sure patients get the information they need in a way they can use.

Motherhood and Justice: This special series, published at RH Reality Check in partnership with Strong Families, examines various issues at the intersection of justice and motherhood.

Recent stories include: “The Up and Down Journey of Motherhood: Let’s Lift As They Climb,” by Marlene Sanchez; “Supporting Her Journey: A Full-Spectrum Doula’s Look at the Politics of Motherhood,” by Lauren Guy-McAlpin; and “Mother’s Day 2011: Why Reproductive Justice Is a Black Thing,” by Walidah Imarisha.

Strong Families, a project of Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, is a national initiative to change the way people think, feel and act in support of families. Read more accounts of motherhood at the ACRJ blog, and view some of the amazing stories Strong Families has collected, along with this video:

Beyond Flowers for Mom: Want a new way to honor mothers? How about doing something that saves the lives of women around the world?

Nicholas Kristof writes about the work of Edna Adan, who runs a maternity hospital in Somaliland. The hospital is supported in part by the Friends of Edna Maternity Hospital, who were prompted to get involved by this 1999 article about Adan’s work. From Kristof’s recent column:

On a continent where hospitals are often dilapidated and depressing, Edna’s is modern, sterile and hums with efficiency. She lives in an apartment above the hospital so that she is available 24/7, and she accepts no salary. She also donates her U.N. pension each month to help pay hospital expenses.

So far, the hospital says it has delivered about 10,000 babies, some of them after the woman was rushed to the hospital gate in a wheelbarrow. Edna has also used her hospital to train Somali midwives to serve in remote areas. Training a midwife at Edna’s hospital costs $215 a month for 18 months — and then that midwife will save mothers and babies for many years.

If there’s ever a time when the needless deaths of women in childbirth — one every 90 seconds or so somewhere in the world, according to the United Nations — should be on our radar screen, it’s at Mother’s Day. And we know how to save those lives.

Continue reading for more information about organizations doing great work, such as CARE, Save the Children (see its new report, “State of the World’s Mothers“), the Fistula Foundation and Mothers’ Day Movement — which was was founded by six women who were shocked to learn that $14 billion was spent in the United States in 2010 on Mother’s Day celebrations. They’d like to see a portion of that money donated to spending on programs and services for those in need.

Update to Amnesty Report on Maternal Health Crisis: Amnesty International has released an update to its 2010 report, “Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA“ (both are pdf’s) that highlights important new studies and legislative developments.

Visit Amnesty’s section on maternal health is a human right for more information and links, including info about the Maternal Health Accountability Act of 2011.

Over at Human Rights Now, AI’s blog, be sure to read “Why Midwives And Maternal Health Need To Go Hand-In-Hand,” by Jennie Joseph, a midwife in Winter Garden, Fla. Joseph is clinical director of The Birth Place, a full-service midwifery clinic and birth center, and developer of the JJ Way, a midwifery curriculum geared toward eliminating disparities.

She is featured in Christy Turlington Burns’ documentary film “No Woman, No Cry,” which tells the stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world. “No Woman, No Cry” makes its debut this weekend on the OWN network (as in Oprah’s). One more clip:

Plus: Finally, on a lighter note — what six words describe your mom? The New York Times is hosting a contest. View all submissions and read the rules here. Amid the many joyful descriptions, some are heartbreakingly painful. Here’s one I could really identify with: Clenched teeth: “Deborah Ann, what now?”

The International Confederation of Midwives is asking member associations, midwives and their supporters to take to the streets on May 5 — International Day of the Midwife — to raise the profile of maternal mortality and access to midwifery care before, during and after childbirth.

From the ICM: “Over 340,000 women die each year, with millions more suffering infection and disability as a result of preventable maternal causes. The ICM, alongside UN agencies, WHO and a range of other international partners, is committed to addressing maternal mortality and morbidity through greater access to essential midwifery care worldwide, particularly in developing countries where 90% of maternal deaths occur.”

The walk is the first stage of the Road to Durban, where midwives from around the world will gather at the ICM Triennial Congress in South Africa (June 19-23). A new publication, “The State of the World Midwifery Report,” will be released during the gathering. It will provide new information and data gathered from 60 countries in all regions of the world, to:

• examine the number and distribution of health professionals involved in the delivery of midwifery services;
• explore emerging issues related to education, regulation, professional associations, policies and external aid;
• analyse global issues regarding health personnel with midwifery skills, most of whom are women, and the constraints and challenges that they face in their lives and work;
• call for accelerating investments for scaling up midwifery services, as well as “skilling up” the respective providers.

Close to OBOS headquarters, the Massachusetts affiliate of the American College of Nurse-Midwives is sponsoring a 5K walk in Cambridge (pdf). The walk will begin between 6 and 6:30 p.m. at the Cambridge Boat Club at 2 Gerrys Landing Road. The event is free, but onsite registration is required.

Other walks from West Virginia to Montana are listed here. If you’re involved in a walk in your community, feel free to leave a comment with the details.

For information on maternal health in the United States, see Amnesty International’s 2010 report “Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA.” A one-year update was released earlier this spring (both are pdf’s). Amnesty has more information available online.

Walk for Choice events will be held in cities all across the United States this Saturday to show support for abortion rights in response to recent anti-choice legislation — especially HR 3, The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.

The walks are expected to take place from 12-3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 26, and are currently planned for more than 50 U.S. cities, plus Melbourne, Toronto and still-to-be-determined cities in Pakistan and the United Kingdom. More information is available at walkforchoice.tumblr.com. There is also a Twitter profile and hashtag (#walk4choice) for the event.

Chicago area activist Raven Geary said in a statement that HR3 was the catalyst for Walk for Choice.

“While most Americans are demanding jobs, the GOP seems to have made overturning Roe v. Wade its top priority. The recent events in Congress surrounding H.R. 3  struck a nerve with activists here in Illinois,” Geary said. “We are now harnessing the power of social networking to organize demonstrations across the globe.”

Officially, the event is not a “march” — which would require parade permits and such. Organizers have encouraged planners to select routes that people can walk around and drop in and out of at any time, rather than a walk with a set start and end point.

Routes are not being released until noon on Friday, so it is not yet possible to tell whether organizers in a given city have selected accessible routes. Organizers were instructed to select routes that included safe places for individuals to sit or stand, but accessibility for individuals using scooters/wheelchairs/other aids is not detailed. Many of the participating cities have set up Facebook pages and/or Twitter profiles, so it might be possible to contact local  organizers directly if you have questions about your city.

If you’re interested in organizing a Walk for Choice protest in your area, email walkforchoice AT gmail.com.

Escrito por Christine; traducido por Ema Rosero del orginial en inglés Jan 19, 2011.

La mayoría de adolescentes y adultos sexualmente activos en los Estados Unidos utilizan métodos anticonceptivos y favorecen que la mujer haga por sí misma decisiones sobre su salud reproductiva. A pesar de este apoyo, los que se oponen a la planificación familiar y a los derechos de las mujeres han intentando presentarse como la verdadera voz de moralidad y han logrado avances políticos que amenazan la salud de la mujer.

Este año se celebró el 38vo aniversario de Roe vs. Wade el día 22 de enero. El grupo “Defensores para la salud de la mujer y la Campaña Cinta de Plata para que la mujer asuma sus derechos de reproducción y de justicia” (Silver Ribbon Campaign to Trust Women for Reproductive Rights and Justice) ha demostrado nuestra fortaleza y se ha reivindicado con respecto a los derechos que tiene la mujer para obtener servicios de salud.

La Campaña Cinta de Plata es el esfuerzo de docenas de organizaciones incluyendo Nuestros Cuerpos Nuestras Vidas, para darle prioridad a la ciencia sobre la ideología, ofrecerle a la mujer el apoyo debido sobre métodos para salud reproductiva, el acceso gratuito a anticonceptivos y el acceso al aborto legal.

Usted puede participar compartiendo la información a través de Twitter y el Facebook y llevando la cinta de plata “Confíe en la Mujer” a partir del 22 de enero hasta el 22 de febrero. Haga su propia cinta o puede hacer una donación a las organizaciones participantes para recibir una cinta.

Puede ir a la página de internet: OurSilverRibbon.org, para compartir su historia y mantenerse al día sobre los puntos de acción sometidas por organizaciones colaboradoras incluyendo un esfuerzo por agencias afiliadas a Planned Parenthood de California que ofrece la pastilla anticonceptiva disponible sin costo.  El grupo Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health (Médicos a favor de la elección reproductiva y de salud) están presentando la Declaración de Derechos del Proveedor de Abortos (Abortion Provider’s Declaration of Rights), que usted puede firmar si desea apoyar a los miles de profesionales de salud que realizan abortos.

Ellen Shaffer, codirectora del Centro de Análisis de Políticas (Center for Policy Analysis) y la Dra. Sophia Yen, pediatra y especialista en medicina de adolescentes escribió un artículo para el Huffington Post en el que establece la manera como se ha politizado el derecho a la salud reproductiva y las formas diferentes en que la actual administración y los oponentes al aborto han restringido su acceso.

La mayoría de los adultos utilizan o han utilizado métodos anticonceptivos. Sin embargo, hasta el mejor método falla una vez en cien. La mitad de los embarazos no son planificados. Por lo menos una tercera parte de mujeres estadounidenses han tenido un aborto en sus vidas. La mayoría creen que los seguros médicos deberían cubrir abortos como bajo servicios de salud reproductiva. Ochenta y seis por ciento de aseguradores proveídos por empleadores cubren el aborto. En estos tiempos de dificultad económico es crucial que las familias tengan la opción de traer o no a un niño(a) al mundo.

Sin embargo, el aborto ha sido estigmatizado por un movimiento minoritario bien organizado y bien financiado, incluyendo grupos extremistas que promueven actos violentos. Nuestra salud reproductiva entonces se utiliza como una cuña, y la oposición se aprovecha de la ansiedad entre votantes causada por la economía y otros asuntos sociales para reclamar el apoyo a su ideología regresiva, anti-mujer y anti-auto determinación.

Vimos un presidente a favor del aborto quien firmó leyes restringiendo acceso al aborto en al menos tres maneras: en la ley de  reforma de salud, con una orden ejecutiva, y con un reglamento sobre los planes de salud del estado. A pesar del hecho de que la contracepción cabe bajo el área de salud preventivo la Administración se sintió obligada a convocar un grupo especial para determinar si los anticonceptivos podían hacerse disponibles bajo métodos de salud preventivo.

En la actualidad 87% de los condados carecen de proveedores de aborto. La carga recae duramente sobre los más vulnerables.

En su conclusión, indican que que estamos en mayoría los que confiamos en la mujer para elegir la mejor alternativa anticonceptiva para ella y que nos toca exigir nuestros derechos al respecto.

“Confíen en las mujeres” fue el lema adoptado por el Dr. George Tiller, proveedor de abortos quien fue  asesinado por el activista en contra del aborto Scott Roeder, el 31 de mayo de  2009. El serio compromiso de Tiller sobre la capacidad de la mujer tomar sus propias decisiones de salud reproductiva al consultar con su médico y familiares es un legado poderoso y duradero. Unirse a la campaña Cinta de Plata es un paso hacia adelante para garantizar que no demos pasos hacia atrás.

The majority of sexually active adolescents and adults in the United States use birth control and are in favor of women being able to make their own reproductive health decisions. Despite this support, opponents of family planning and women’s rights have tried to assert themselves as the true moral voice — and have made political gains that severely threaten women’s health.

This year, as women’s health advocates celebrate the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Jan. 22, the Silver Ribbon Campaign to Trust Women for Reproductive Rights and Justice has emerged as an opportunity to show our strength and claim our rights to the legal healthcare to which we are entitled.

The Silver Ribbon Campaign is the effort of dozens of organizations — including Our Bodies Ourselves — committed to prioritizing science over ideology and offering full support for reproductive healthcare; free access to birth control; and keeping abortion legal and accessible.

You can take part by spreading the word through Twitter and Facebook and by wearing a Trust Women Silver Ribbon from Jan. 22 – Feb. 22. Make your own or make a donation to one of the participating organizations to receive a ribbon.

At OurSilverRibbon.org, you can also share your story and stay up to date on action items submitted by partner organizations, including an effort by Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California to make prescription birth control available without a co-pay. Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health is featuring an Abortion Provider’s Declaration of Rights that you can sign to show your support for the thousands of medical professionals who perform abortions.

Ellen Shaffer, co-director of the Center for Policy Analysis, and Dr. Sophia Yen, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist, wrote a piece this week at the Huffington Post that lays out how politicized the right to reproductive healthcare has become and the various ways in which both the current administration and abortion opponents have restricted access.

Most adults use or have used birth control. However, even the best birth control fails one time in a hundred. Half of all pregnancies are unplanned. At least a third of U.S. women have an abortion during their lives. Most adults believe that abortion care, a legal procedure. should be covered by health insurance as part of reproductive health services. 86% of employer-based health plans currently cover abortion. In these hard economic times, it is crucial that families have the choice whether to bring a child into the world.

But abortion has been stigmatized by a well-organized, well-funded minority movement, including extremists who provoke violent acts. Our reproductive health is used as a wedge issue, seizing on voters’ anxieties about the economy and social issues to claim support for the regressive, anti-woman, anti-self-determination ideology of the right.

We saw a pro-choice president sign laws restricting access to abortion in at least three different ways: In the health care reform law, an executive order, and a regulation on state health plans. Despite the obvious fact that contraception is prevention, the Administration felt compelled to convene a panel to determine if contraceptives count as preventive care.

87% of counties now have no abortion providers. The burden falls hardest on the most vulnerable.

In their conclusion, they note that those of us who trust women are the majority, and it’s up to us to demand our rights.

“Trust women” was a motto adopted by Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider who was murdered on May 31, 2009 by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder. Tiller’s strong commitment to the ability of women to make their own decisions in consult with their doctors and families is a powerful and lasting legacy. Joining the Silver Ribbon is one step toward ensuring we don’t take any more steps back.

If you have ever wished you had a little black book that answered your questions about sexual health and insurance, your wish has come true.

My Little Black Book for Sexual Health — LittleBlackBookHealth.org – is available online to help you navigate the maze. This resource offers information on various topics, including how to obtain low cost insurance and rules that might govern whether birth control is covered by your insurance.

Described as “a guide for getting the health insurance you need to prevent pregnancy until you’re ready,” My Little Black Book is aimed at young people between the ages of 18 and 26; this group is most likely to be uninsured and faces a high rate of unintended pregnancy.

The interactive website is easy to use (or download the PDF version). You can flip through the virtual pages, blow the text up for easy reading, follow the tabs, or click through the table of contents. I found all sorts of helpful information — who is eligible for a school’s student health plan, how to get prescription drug coverage, and what kinds of sexual and reproductive services are covered. It is very user friendly and easy to understand.

My Little Black Book for Sexual Health was developed as part of the Reproductive Empowerment and Decision Making for Young Adults (REaDY) Initiative, a unique statewide public-private partnership led by NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts and Ibis Reproductive Health, to prevent unplanned pregnancy and promote sexual health for young adults in the wake of Massachusetts health care reform. A Spanish language version will be available soon.

Nekose Wills is the OBOS program assistant.

Last month, I posted that public comment was being solicited for an upcoming review of nitrous oxide for relief of labor pain. As a reminder, comments are being accepted until Dec 8, so submit yours here if you have any thoughts on the proposed questions to be examined in the review.

The public comment period has just opened on a second upcoming review that may be of interest to readers: Comparative Effectiveness of Interventions to Reduce Cesarean Births. If you have suggestions on the proposed questions that the review will try to answer or things the review team should be aware of, please submit your comment by December 29.

I’ll be involved to some extent with both of these topics at work; we appreciate your input!

by Nekose Wills | OBOS program assistant

The challenges girls face today are unlike the challenges many of us faced growing up. I’m 32, and I remember not caring about my Oscar the Grouch eyebrows, who designed my clothes, or how sexy I looked in them. Girls growing up today don’t have such freedom — they’re sexualized everywhere they look.

The SPARK Summit, held Oct. 21 at Hunter College in New York City, was an alarm, waking us up to the role we can play in bucking the status quo and giving us the tools to take on this fight. SPARK stands for Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge.

The day started with opening remarks from Hunter College President Jennifer Raaband and MTV’s Amber Madison, summit host and author of “Hooking Up: A Girl’s All-Out Guide to Sex And Sexuality,” a book aimed at young women about sexual health, sexuality and relationships.

Feminist media critic Jean Kilbourne, creator of the groundbreaking “Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women” film series, also spoke, followed by a keynote address from the actor Geena Davis. Perhaps best known for her role in the film “Thelma and Louise, ” Davis has long advocated for increasing and diversifying the presence of female characters in media aimed at children. Her presence was a welcomed reminder that not everyone in Hollywood accepts business as usual.

The SPARK Summit encouraged young women to find their voices. There were a number of workshops specifically geared toward self-expression, such as Street Theater, FlipCam Journalism, and Blogs Rock. Throughout the day, it was clear that girls are very cognizant about being sold images of who they should be, but they lack resources to actively combat those images.

Media literacy is the first step. Melissa Campbell who works on media literacy in San Francisco and founded the Manfattan Project (“real fashion, large bodies”), led the Hard-Core Media Literacy workshop. In other workshops, girls created radio spots, photography and art, and shared personal stories. They discussed topics such as street harassment and legislation that would fund media literacy and youth empowerment programs (H.R. 4925).

My favorite part of the day was the Numbers Don’t Lie panel, during which researchers presented findings on how media images and messages influence girls. Among them:

• Even in video games where women are strong, central characters, their sexualized appearance negates the effect of the character’s power — “Video Game Vixens: The Sexualization of Women and Girls in Video Games,” Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz (University of Missouri-Columbia)

• Black women are the most sexualized group in music videos. — “Sexualization in Popular Female Artists’ Music Videos: An Analysis of Race and Genre,” Jennifer Stevens Aubrey (University of Missouri-Columbia)

• Black youth consume more media than their white peers, but they are less affected by the body image ideals perpetuated — “A Woman’s Worth: How Media Use Shapes Black and White Teens’ Views of the Feminine Ideal,” L. Monique Ward (University of Michigan)

• When the media sexualizes female athletes, it negatively affects girls’ perceptions of themselves and of female athletes — “‘You Can Score With Me’: What Girls Think of Sexed-Up Media Images of Female Athletes,” Elizabeth Daniels (University of Oregon)

• Low grades can spur girls to participate more in their own sexualization — “High Heels, Low Grades? The Costs Associated With Sexualization,” Rebecca Bigler & Sarah McKenney (University of Texas, Austin)

• The attire of women and girls in G-rated movies is no different than portrayals in higher-rated movies — “General Audience or G-Porn? A Look at the Prevalence and Sexualization of Females in Film and Children’s Television programming,” Stacy Smith (University of Southern California)

I also learned that Barbie is still evil. One study — “‘I can be … Anything?’: Playing with Barbie Reduces Girls’ Career Aspirations,” by Aurora Sherman and Eileen Zurbriggen (Oregon State University and University of California, Santa Cruz) — found that playing with Barbie lessened girls’ perceptions of attainable occupations. It didn’t matter if girls played with Doctor Barbie — they still thought they could not achieve as much as when they played with Mrs. Potato Head.

The panel made me realize the extent to which girls are encouraged to see themselves as sexual objects — even girls as young as 3 can still be the toddler in a tiara.

We are told that if we just buy enough products, go on enough diets, and work hard to emulate airbrushed and Photoshopped images of girls and women, we might achieve perfection — and there’s something inherently wrong with us if we don’t dedicate ourselves to this quest. It’s time to take our sexy back.

There is nothing wrong with sexy as long as it is not forced on girls and as long as women get to define it on their own terms, not through the lens of a voyeuristic, paternalistic society.

My favorite quotes from the conference were “I am whole, not a ho!” “I am a quirky black girl and proud of it!” and, finally, “Freedom is never really won, you have to earn it in every generation.” We are trying to earn freedom for the well-being of today’s girls.

Years ago, I learned to disconnect from the constant onslaught of negative media images by consuming less. When I stopped watching music videos, especially the ones on BET, and stopped buying women’s magazines, I was much happier. There were less false images for me to compare myself with.

Those images were replaced by the women I saw on the train and on the street, who were in my life as three-dimensional people, with non-airbrushed photos and presences, with blemishes on their faces and extra fat rolls on their sides; real women, beautiful as the reality of an honest life.

The SPARK Summit was the reminder I needed that we can be who we are, with no apologies. We can replace the constant drumbeat of fake “perfection” with action, resistance and knowledge. And, most importantly, we need to have this dialogue on a continuing basis.

From the moment we put girls in front of a television, turn on the radio, drive past a billboard, or let them look at a magazine, we need to reinforce what it means to be beautiful, media literate, and critical of the world around us. I have a few young ladies I need to call.