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.

In January 2011, the DePaul University Master of Public Health Program will host the “The Health Disparities and Social Justice Conference,” with a special focus on women’s health. The conference itself will be free of charge and will be held in Chicago, IL.

Limited information about the program is available at this time; the save-the-date announcement indicates:

Presentations will take the form of skills-building workshops. Sessions will be focused on some aspect of the intersection of health disparities and women’s health among diverse populations, such as: immigrants, communities of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, low-income families, seniors/elders, and/or youth. In addition to the workshops and keynote speaker, a community lunch-hour session will include opportunities for networking and discussion.

Our Bodies Ourselves recently received a wonderful picture of pre-teen girls watching one of their moms get a pelvic exam, complete with mirror and flashlight, along with a note about how the nurse-practitioner conducting the exam explained everything that was being done in simple, straightforward language.

As a way to underscore how much young women across the country are able to learn about their bodies through such critically important show-and-tell learning, we are inviting women to share with us (anonymously is fine) stories of how nurse-practitioners and other ob-gyn clinicians (including nurse-midwives, family physicians and obstetrician-gynecologists) have taken the time to teach them more about their bodies through use of speculums (some with flashlights built in!) and mirrors, participation in the “whiff” tests, and other approaches that directly engage women in the learning process.

In an era where the “yuck” factor is used to inappropriately encourage risky douching practices and use of scent-filled vaginal products that may be harmful to overall vaginal health, it is important to remember how valuable this kind of education during a clinical pelvic exam can be.

Moreover, clinicians who incorporate these recommended educational practices are helping to offset a conservative trend toward restricting information about women’s reproductive and sexual health. Access to books like “Our Bodies, Ourselves” is denied in some schools and libraries; self-knowledge is considered shameful or even dangerous.

Please share with us your stories as clinicians who provide such exams or as women who may have benefited from them. You can either add your story in the comments below, or email office@bwhbc.org. And feel free to share and re-post this call

We plan to post these anonymously on the Our Bodies Ourselves website so that young women will be encouraged to respond with a “Yes” the next time their ob-gyn clinician might offer them the option of seeing their own cervix or learning more about their vaginal secretions.

We would also welcome emails and letters from ob-gyn clinicians who might be able to cite articles in the medical literature that point to the benefits of this kind of education. Our mailing address is available here.

Thank you for taking part in this discussion!

We’ve written multiple times about pink ribbon-type breast cancer awareness campaigns — with good reason.

Concerns abound over whether the explosion of pink products for purchase promotes a false sense of doing something about breast cancer; whether the dollars collected by these pink campaigns are directed effectively; the gender stereotypes perpetuated by both the color focus and many of the product campaigns; and whether some of those pinked-out products may actually be harmful to women’s health.

Noted author Barbara Ehrenreich explores the issue more thoroughly in this still incredibly relevant 2001 Harper’s piece, and discussions of “pinkwashing” can be readily found online.

NPR dove into the debate recently with two interviews: one with Barbara Brenner of Breast Cancer Action, which has raised the concerns above for some time, and the other with Katrina McGee of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which signs off on the majority of those pink ribbon product campaigns.

Brenner argues:

“Awareness we have, the question is, what are we doing about it? And when companies can just slap a pink ribbon on any product, then we’re in trouble, because many of those products don’t do anything for breast cancer. And many of them are actually harmful to our health.”

The stand-out line: “If shopping could cure breast cancer, it would be cured by now.”

KFC’s “Buckets for the Cure” campaign, says Brenner, sends the wrong message: “You can’t sell pink bucketed chicken that’s bad for your health to raise money to help breast cancer.” BCA has more info on its website concerning the implications.

McGee, in a separate interview, seems to argue that branding unhealthy products (such as fried chicken from KFC) with pink ribbons is OK, because the organization believes “in reaching people where they live, work and play.” She continues:

“KFC helps us do that in very small communities where they may be the only fast food restaurant in town, and in many large communities where the franchisees, and those are really the people who made the contribution, sent their commitment to breast cancer to race for the cure. They did education in their restaurants and a host of other things to support the partnership.”

When asked whether there is a certain amount of pink ribbon fatigue, and whether people are somewhat jaded about these campaigns, McGee answered:

No, I really don’t. I mean, first of all, you know, nearly 40,000 women die of breast cancer each year. And until we get to the point where less women are dying, we will never have enough pink. And as long as there are still myths and misperceptions in the market, we need Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We hear all kinds of things from underwire bras cause breast cancer, to promiscuous sex causes breast cancer, to, you know, if I use a hair relaxer, it will cause breast cancer. [...] It’s the reminder, the repetitive messaging that gets women to act.

Critics of the campaign would probably ask how much of those purchase-related donations actually contributes to education about such issues.

For further guidance on evaluating pink ribbon campaigns, see Breast Cancer Action’s list of questions for consumers to ask in order to “Think Before You Pink.”

Former Democratic Representative Patricia Schroeder gave one of the plenary speeches at the recent Cochrane/Campbell meeting I attended. Her speech addressed the question, “Can Democracy survive?”

Schroeder spoke about the growth of angry rhetoric and of corporate funding in campaign advertising, as well as of some people’s apparent lack of belief in facts and science. She encouraged everyone to get MAD. But she’s not interested in inciting more shouting: Schroeder asked instead that we all work hard to Make a Difference.

That said, tomorrow’s election day. Get out there and vote. It’s the easiest starting point for engaging with democracy and making a difference!

While in Colorado, I heard a lot about the fetal personhood amendment on the ballot in that state. Amendment 62 defines a person as a person “from the beginning of the biological development of that human being” (a specific meaning for which has not been established).

A coalition of organizations has grouped together to oppose the amendment, which could possibly lead to restrictions not only on abortion, but also on common forms of birth control. A recent piece at Slate talks about the disturbing parallels to slavery being made by proponents of the amendment; continuing the problematic anti-abortion arguments targeting women of color that we’ve heard about elsewhere this year.

The abortion gang blog has links to a number of other ballot initiatives affecting women’s reproductive rights and access to healthcare.

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare Advocacy Summit, followed by the joint colloquium of the Cochrane and Campbell Collaborations. Each of these organizations is focused on promoting evidence-based healthcare, through consumer advocacy organizations (CUE),  systematic reviews and meta-analyses on healthcare (Cochrane) and social, education, and justice work (Campbell).

Over the course of the conference, I attended a lot of great sessions, met plenty of interesting people, and learned about many resources of interest. Here are a few from that last category:

• The Campbell Library: freely available systematic reviews on crime and justice, education, and other social welfare topics
• The Cochrane Library: systematic reviews on a variety of medical/healthcare topics, including many beyond the pregnancy and childbirth topics for which they are well known. Requires a subscription unless you are in certain countries or Wyoming; podcasts and some abstracts/plain language summaries are freely available.
• “Sex, Lies, and Pharmaceuticals: How Drug Companies Plan to Profit from Female Sexual Dysfunction,” a new book from health journalist Ray Moynihan. I haven’t read it yet, so I don’t know how/whether it balances the tendency of pharmaceutical companies to classify almost every woman as wanting sex too much or not enough against the needs of women with serious pain or other issues, but I’m adding it to my to-read list.
• Searchable databases of clinical trials: ClinicalTrials.gov (U.S. focus); WHO search portal (international); metaRegister (searches across multiple databases).
• Justice Health Libraries: from the Lloyd Society, searchable database of health-related research in criminal justice settings, with geographical mapping
• Evidence Aid: Cochrane resources for disaster settings, including the Pakistan floods and Haiti earthquake
• Emergency Access Initiative from the National Library of Medicine: provides temporary free access to full text materials for disaster response, currently for Pakistan floods and cholera outbreak in Haiti
• HealthNewsReviews: expert critiques of health journalism
• Dollars for Docs database from ProPublica: searchable database of payments made by pharmaceutical companies to doctors for promoting their drugs
• Bob Wachter’s blog, Wachter’s World: On hospitals, healthcare quality and safety; Dr. Wachter was also a plenary speaker
• Army of Women, and the Army of Women Health of Women Study: Susan Love gave a plenary talk on mobilizing consumers to engage with research, including the HoW study, an online cohort study looking at the health of women over time
• Open mHealth: a bit of a techy thing, this website describes some ongoing research/projects to embed mobile technology in personal health care. Ida Sim of the project gave one of the plenary speeches.
• Partners in Health: This organization is currently responding to cholera in Haiti; Joia Mukherjee of PiH gave one of the plenary addresses, on their approach to providing care after the earthquake in that country, especially with an HIV focus.
• Additional plenary videos are online here (I haven’t found transcripts), and include former House member Pat Schroeder talking about the upcoming elections and encouraging people to make a difference.

Beyond these resources, I met or saw speak lots of interesting folks working in various forms of healthcare and consumer advocacy, from groups such as the National Women’s Health Network, Black Women’s Health Alliance, National Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Health, National Partnership for Women and Families, National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition, Childbirth Connection, the Children with Diabetes Foundation, and more. If you were there, say hi to us in the comments!

Tweets from the meeting, full of links, quotes, and other commentary, are archived at What the Hashtag using the tag #ccckeystone; here’s a transcript. Mine are listed under @rachel_w.

I would like to express my thanks to the personnel of the U.S. Cochrane Center who arranged a scholarship and provided support for the meeting. It was a great, useful experience.

It’s October, so the explosion of pink products at the grocery and other stores shouldn’t surprise us: it’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the time of the year when we’re asked to eradicate breast cancer by buying pink-ribboned  products.

Over the years, many women’s health activists have criticized the pink ribbon campaigns, protesting that these efforts do little to fund prevention, are less useful than direct donations, and promote a false sense of doing something to cure breast cancer. The New York Times Well Blog yesterday included a piece on “Pink Ribbon Fatigue,” which nicely summarizes some of the objections to the overwhelming pinkification of October and breast cancer campaigns.

Breast Cancer Action, of course, has run a “Think Before You Pink” campaign for several years, encouraging consumers to ask how much their pink purchases actually contribute and whether any of those products may actually contribute to cancer risk.

New to the conversation is a recently published book by Gayle Sulik, Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women’s Health. I haven’t read it yet, but Sulik is interviewed in the Times piece linked above, where she talks about the kind of forced optimism associated with these campaigns, the associated gender roles and expectations, and potential financial conflicts “that keep the war on breast cancer profitable.” Sulik also  blogs on the issue.

If you’re a Facebook user, you may have seen recent “I like it on…” posts and wondered what they’re about. It turns out they’re an even less useful version of the earlier bra color meme, ostensibly intended to raise awareness about breast cancer through status posts. I think it’s clear enough that while social media tools may be useful for organizing and awareness-raising, mysterious status updates with faux titillation and no actual mention of breast cancer do little to promote real action on women’s health. As the blogger at Voxygen responded, “I like it without pinkwashing.”

From Amnesty International:

Beginning September 20 at 9 a.m. EST, the start of the Millennium Development Goals Summit, the Maternal Death Clock began to tick – keeping track of the total number of maternal deaths in the world.

September 20-22 world leaders are gathering in New York to chart a course forward on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the framework that will guide the fight against global poverty through 2015.

The one goal aimed at decreasing maternal deaths has fallen far short of where it needs to be to meet the MDG target of cutting maternal deaths by 75% by the target date.

Hundreds of thousands of women and girls continue to die in pregnancy and childbirth each year. Most of them live in developing countries and low-income communities. In fact, one woman dies in childbirth every 90 seconds.

Join Amnesty International in making sure that human rights are at the heart of the MDGs!

If you go to the site, there’s a petition, more information, and code for embedding the death clock widget.