So much in the news this week — here’s an early round-up:

Afghanistan’s Efforts to Boost Women Falter: Ministry created to right wrongs has upped awareness, but achieved little else, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Spanish Minister Cancels Speech at Saudi University Because of Ban on Women Reporters. How much do we admire Prime Minister José Luis Rodríquez Zapatero? Let us continue to count the ways … (p.s. Feministing readers suggest sending flowers.)

War Zone Midwives Deliver: More on Iraqi maternal and infant health: “As gunmen increasingly target hospitals and clinics in Iraq’s deepening civil war, expectant mothers rely on the country’s 2,000 midwives, or qabilas, and 3,000 lower-skilled rural ‘birth attendants’ — all of whom the state no longer licenses or trains, in an effort to steer women to government clinics,” writes Molly Hennessy-Fiske at the Los Angeles Times. Midwives now deliver half the country’s babies, though Iraq’s Health Ministry stopped licensing midwives and training birth assistants in 2003.

51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse: “For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results,” writes Sam Roberts. “Coupled with the fact that in 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.”

How We Talk About Women: “There’s a term for the way the media deals with women in powerful positions: ‘skirtiny,’ a severe scrutiny harsher than what men experience — one that focuses on hair, hemlines, and husbands and lies in wait for mistakes,” writes Betty Spence, founder and president of Equal Voice. Here’s her assessment of Chris Matthew’s comments regarding Sen. Hillary Rodam Clinton not yet announcing whether she’ll run for her party’s presidential nomination:

Cut back to Matthews, who asked, “When is a politician like Hillary Clinton or anyone else going to admit they have the ‘A’ word, ambition, and stop with this coy thing … and just like a strip tease … saying she’s flattered by all the attention?”

Strip tease?

This is how people talk about women. With lightning speed, Matthews had sexualized the conversation via an out-of-context image. Why? It doesn’t take an analyst to figure it out: a woman in the world’s most powerful position — now that’s scary; but a stripper, well, we can handle that.

Pap Test, a Mainstay Against Cervical Cancer, May Be Fading: “It will not disappear for many more years, if ever,” writes Andrew Pollack. “But a newer genetic test that detects human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer, is starting to play a bigger role in screening. And other genetic tests are being developed. At the least, some experts say, women will no longer need Pap smears as often.”

On Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 2 p.m. ET, Kaiser Network is hosting an Ask the Experts webcast concerning implementation of the new vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV). Send questions in advance to ask@kaisernetwork.org.

The live webcast will focus on questions such as: What are the guidelines for who should get the vaccine and at what age? Who will pay for it? What is the best way to ensure access to the vaccine? Kaisernetwork.org Managing Editor Jill Braden Balderas, M.P.H., will moderate the discussion. The panel of experts includes:

- Anne Schuchat, M.D., director, National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Renee Jenkins, M.D., professor and chair, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Howard University College of Medicine
- Alina Salganicoff, Ph.D., vice president and director, Women’s Health Policy, Kaiser Family Foundation

The 2007 immunization schedule for U.S. children and adolescents issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics now includes the HPV vaccine for girls between 11 and 12 years old, reports Reuters Health. Other changes to the immunization schedule are also noted.

Meanwhile, doctors are seeing high demand for the vaccine. And the Kentucky legislature is considering legislation that calls for girls in public and private middle schools to get the vaccine, according to the Courier-Journal.

“It’s time for the young women of Kentucky to take advantage of our first vaccine against cancer,” said Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, who introduced the bill. “The idea that it encourages sexual activity — that’s a bunch of hogwash.”

A national, bipartisan group of female legislators, Women in Government, is encouraging similar bills across the nation, such as in Michigan, the Courier-Journal reports. More on the Women in Government Challenge Campaign to Eliminate Cervical Cancer is available here.

Over at NPR, host Michel Martin discusses recent on-air coverage of HPV. January, by the way, is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month.

The Society for Women’s Health Research has selected the top five women’s health stories of 2006.

The list covers “advances in research of particular interest to women and new sex-specific treatments” and includes FDA approval of a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer; over-the-counter approval of emergency contraception; dangers of smoking, beyond just the effect on the respiratory system; knee-replacement devices designed specifically for women; and research about health disparities and the need for individualized care.

What would you suggest as a top health story for 2006?

How Suite It Isn’t: A Dearth of Female Bosses (New York Times)

Church Must Show it Believes Women are Equal, Speakers Say in Rome (Catholic News Service, more from Vatican Radio)

Single Moms Often 30 and Older (Chicago Tribune)

AIDS at 25 (Boston Globe, a multi-story special report)

“Molecular Condom” May One Day Offer High-Tech Protection (ABC News)

Breast Cancer News Brings a Range of Reactions (New York Times)

Diet’s Impact on Cancer May Be Major for Some Patients (Washington Post)

Seeing Red About Thinking Pink (In These Times)

“The L Word” Spins Off Its Chart (New York Times)

Breast Cancer Drop Linked to HRT: Rates of the most common form of breast cancer dropped15 percent from August 2002 to December 2003, while rates for all breast cancer dropped by 7 percent, according to researchers. “The reason, they believe, may be because during that time, millions of women abandoned hormone treatment for the symptoms of menopause after a large national study concluded that the hormones slightly increased breast cancer risk,” reports The New York Times.

See also: the National Cancer Institute website about menopausal hormone use and the Women’s Health Initiative study, which included nearly 17,000 women. It was halted prematurely when slight increases in breast cancer, heart attacks, blood clots and strokes were discovered.

Replacing One Male-Dominated Culture With Another: “The United States military has long prided itself on molding raw recruits into hardened soldiers. Perhaps none have undergone a transformation quite like that of Ms. Hamdan,” writes Andrea Elliott in The New York Times. Fadwa Hamdan’s story is nothing short of remarkable:

Forbidden by her husband to work, she raised five children behind the drawn curtains of their home in Saudi Arabia. She was not allowed to drive. On the rare occasions when she set foot outside, she wore a full-face veil.

Then her world unraveled. Separated from her husband, who had taken a second wife, and torn from her children, she moved to Queens to start over. Struggling to survive on her own, she answered a recruiting advertisement for the Army and enlisted in May.

Ms. Hamdan’s passage through the military is a remarkable act of reinvention. It required courage and sacrifice. She had to remove her hijab, a sacred symbol of the faith she holds deeply. She had to embrace, at the age of 39, an arduous and unfamiliar life.

Continue reading the story here.

Military Opens Women’s Health Clinic: The U.S. military has opened a new women’s health clinic on a military site in Germany, and it’s the first of its kind, reports Stars & Stripes.

“Although women’s health clinics are fairly common at civilian hospitals, the concept is relatively new in the military,” writes Scott Schonauer. “The new building will have nine exam rooms decorated with the type of color and style not often seen at most drab hospital wards. Exam tables will an extra feature: They’ll be heated. The center also will include a sex-assault suite that will offer 24-hour care for victims. The room will be stocked with testing kits and provide a more comfortable alternative to going to the emergency room.”

Still, U.S. law prohibits military facilities from performing abortions, even when privately funded to avoid using taxpayer funds. Such regulations put the health of women serving overseas at risk every day.

Hospitals in Violation: “Some Massachusetts facilities violate the year-old state law requiring hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims by imposing “serious restrictions” on the treatment, according to a survey by NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts,” reports the Boston Globe. According to the survey, “officials at 7 percent of the hospitals with emergency rooms contend the provision for emergency contraception may be left to the doctor’s discretion. Another 7 percent indicated that such provisions were contingent upon the woman undergoing a rape exam.”

Male Circumcision Cuts HIV Transmission: News that men who are circumcised are about 50 percent less likely to contract HIV, based on studies in Uganda and Kenya, sparked this response from Broadsheet’s Tracy Clark-Flory, who looks at arguments for and against circumcision. See also Carol Lloyd’s post on female infanticide in India.

The Skinny on Thin: Jessica Clark of In These Times on “Thin,” a documentary by Lauren Greenfield about patients at a residential center for eating disorders. “[The recovery] process can be circuitous and frustrating, with many false starts,” writes Clark. “Anorexia is the most deadly mental disorder; up to 20 percent of sufferers die from related complications. Some even court it: ‘I just want to be thin,’ says Alisa ‘If it takes dying to get there, so be it.’”

Suspected Prostitutes Paraded Through City Streets in China: “For people who saw the event on television earlier this month, the scene was like a chilling blast from a past that is 30 years distant: social outcasts and supposed criminals — in this case 100 or so prostitutes and a few pimps — paraded in front of a jeering crowd, their names revealed, and then driven away to jail without trial,” reports The New York Times. But the public effect wasn’t what officials hoped for, and an “angry nationwide backlash” has ensued.

Healthiest Places for Women: What do Honolulu, Portland, Maine; Nassau-Suffolk counties in New York; Orange County, Calif.; and Burlington, Vt. have in common? They’re the healthiest cities for women, according to Self magazine. Honolulu came in at no. 1. (Having lived in Burlington, I’m up for a site-test challenge.)

Today we’ll look at some recently released health updates, but first some disturbing news concerning a study for the drug valacyclovir that some women’s health advocates claim put indigent pregnant women needlessly at risk. Andrew Bridges of the Associated Press explains the controversy:

In the study, researchers at Parkland Hospital in Dallas gave 170 pregnant women the drug valacyclovir to see if the drug would reduce herpes outbreaks at birth. The virus can be fatal to newborns if infected during delivery. An additional 168 women from the largely indigent population the hospital serves were given dummy pills. More of those women went on to have Caesarean sections than did those given valacyclovir, which the body breaks down to form the herpes drug acyclovir.

Since the researchers had published a study midway through the clinical trial that concluded giving women acyclovir could reduce the C-section rate, critics allege they needlessly put half the women at risk by not giving them the drug instead of dummy pills.

“We have long contended that if researchers and drug companies could get away with administering placebos under questionable conditions in developing countries, they would do the same to poor people in the United States,” Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, said in a statement. “Now they have.”

The statement also includes remarks from Dr. Adam Urato, an obstetrician at the University of South Florida: “At the very same time these researchers were publishing their conclusion that acyclovir could reduce Cesareans, they weren’t offering this drug to these indigent patients. They were knowingly placing their patients at higher risk. Did the patients understand that the researchers themselves had concluded that acyclovir reduced the risk of Cesarean?”

The journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, which published the results of the study in the July 2006 issue, printed a letter in its December issue from Urie, Urato and Dr. Aaron Caughey, an obstetrician at the University of California, San Francisco. In the letter, the authors “called upon the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, which authorized the study, to issue a formal apology to the pregnant women enrolled and to perform a full investigation as to what went wrong to allow such a trial to take place. They also called for compensation for the women involved in the trial who were not properly treated and underwent Cesarean sections,” according to Public Interest.

The letter also urges the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the journal’s editors to look into how the study was handled by the journal.

Let’s Hear it for New Hampshire: This week, New Hampshire became the first state in the country to announce plans to provide the newly approved vaccine against cervical cancer to all girls between the ages of 11 and 18. The vaccine will be made available through the state’s universal children’s vaccine program, which offers free immunizations. Australia’s stepping up, too.

She’s Making a List …: Katha Pollitt writes: “We all know the reason boys don’t read is that female teachers assign books about girls, and girls have cooties; and the reason half of all marriages end in divorce is that women have outrageous expectations, like that their husbands should talk to them; and the reason the Democrats lose elections is that they pander to female voters instead of being manly and tough. Oh, wait a minute, the Democrats won the last election. Women aren’t just evil, they’re powerful.” Read what else women are responsible for …

Business of Beauty: “[O]bstetricians, family practitioners and emergency room physicians are gravitating to the beauty business, lured by lucrative cosmetic treatments that require same-day payments because they are not covered by insurance and by a medical practice without bothersome midnight emergency calls,” reports The New York Times.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence: From Amnesty International to Take Back the Tech, which encourages users to take action using information and communication technologies (cell phones, instant messengers, blogs, digital cameras, etc.), organizations around the world are mobilizing around the issue of violence against women. The 16 Days of Activism began Nov. 25 and runs through Dec. 10.

In South Africa, Bishop Israel Malele plans to simply give a sermon on Sunday in support of women. “I want our people to know that God never said women are inferior or that they should be abused. [...] I will confront the situation seriously on Sunday, because, deny it or not, some believers don’t see anything wrong with domestic violence,” Malele said.

Here’s more from the United Nations Population Fund, which is highlighting five under-reported stories relating to gender-based violence for 2006: the rise of bridenapping in Central Asia; breast-ironing, which is practiced in some West African countries and is just as bad as it sounds — it involves flattening the breasts of young girls to deter male attention; the epidemic of traumatic fistula in Africa; the ongoing femicide of women in Guatemala; and girls forced into marriage.

Plus: Be sure to read The New York Times front-page story on sexual abuse against girls in Sub-Saharan Africa. “In much of the continent, child advocates say, perpetrators are shielded by the traditionally low status of girls, a lingering view that sexual abuse should be dealt with privately, and justice systems that constitute obstacle courses for victims,” writes Shannon LaFraniere.

Some Good News: Young African women are reporting an increase in condom use. Voice of America reports on a recently published study in Lancet, the British medical journal: “The Lancet study surveyed the sexual behavior of 130,000 young single women from 18 African countries between 1993 and 2001. Abstinence and fidelity rates among this population aged 15-24 remained relatively unchanged, while the percentage of respondents who said their male partners used condoms more than tripled from 5.3 to 18.8 percent.”

Before Rep. Nancy Pelosi was the Voice of the Majority, she was the Pride of Baltimore.

College-Age Women Should Get the HPV Vaccine: Apparently there’s been some confusion over who is eligible for the HPV vaccine Gardasil, which vaccinates against the cervical cancer-causing strains of human papillomavirus responsible for 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases. The vaccine is encouraged for women between the ages of 18 and 26, despite early promotion about it being best for girls under the age of 12.

“One source of the confusion about vaccinating women is that vaccines are usually only administered before exposure and some women at the older age of the recommended age bracket are already sexually active and have been exposed to the virus. However, HPV has dozens of strains, so the vaccine may be effective against strains that have not yet infected the women,” Hannah Seligson writes in Women’s eNews. “Part of the confusion also stems from the vaccine’s primary population target, those who qualify for childhood vaccination programs.”

Now women just have to figure out how to afford it. The vaccine costs about $360 and few insurers are picking up the tab.

Listen Up: Planned Parenthood’s blog posted an audio interview with Eve Gartner, PP’s senior staff attorney who argued Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood before the Supreme Court Wednesday. The interview was recorded just after oral arguments were heard.

Choosing One’s Gender: Via The New York Times, “Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, New York City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex-change surgery.”

Women We’ll Miss: Jane Bundy, 83, wrote groundbreaking book on rape; Ellen Willis, 64, journalism professor and cultural critic who founded the feminist group Redstockings and co-founded No More Nice Girls; Helen Dewar, 70, Washington Post Senate reporter.

Quote of the Week: “Losing a campaign is no fun, but it’s not like losing a limb. That’s a lot more no fun.” — Iraq war veteran and Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth, who lost a close House race Tuesday to Republican Peter Roskam. Duckworth’s legs and her right arm were destroyed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter she was co-piloting.

The New Yorker on “Bella v. Betty”: “In a year of all-too-public reconciliations (ranging from Tom and Brooke to Paris and Nicole), word of a rapprochement between the followers of the late Betty Friedan and those of the late Bella Abzug has been relatively slow to spread. It all started, inauspiciously enough, with Friedan’s death, in February,” writes Kate Julian.

Shop and Support: Girls for Gender Equity is celebrating it’s fifth anniversary by holding an Online Charity Auction through Nov. 12. Get a start on your holiday shopping and by visiting eBay.

General Information: The Center for American Progress has a good section on women’s health and rights. Here’s a recently published five-part series on the 30-year-old Hyde Amendment, which denies federal Medicaid money for abortions (except in the case of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life). * Don’t forget the Hyde — 30 Years is Enough! Campaign.

Kudos to Michigan legislators. According to the Detroit News, a bill introduced Tuesday in the Michigan Senate by Sen. Beverly Hammerstrom, R-Temperance, would require all girls entering the sixth grade to be vaccinated against cervical cancer.

“Recent studies have shown that cervical cancer may be one of the few cancers that is actually preventable,” Hammerstrom said. “This vaccine will serve as our most effective tool in the fight against cervical cancer.”

The Detroit News does its readers a disservice, however, with the headline: “Mich. may force girls to get vaccine” — since the proposed bill would simply add the cervical cancer vaccine to a list of other required vaccinations, including diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; polio; measles, mumps and rubella; Hepatitis B; and chickenpox. Moreover, parents could opt out for medical, religious or philosophical reasons.

Some of the parents quoted aren’t thrilled about government intervening in personal medical decisions. And conservative religious groups have raised objections (previously mentioned here) about the appropriateness of the vaccine for pre-teens.

Which just goes to show why it’s important for Michigan to take this step. As the Detroit News notes:

The vaccine is recommended by the Federal Advisory Commission on Immunization Practices for girls who are 11 and 12, and as appropriate for other age groups.

The American Cancer Society estimates that about 9,700 girls and women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in the United States this year and that 3,700 will die from it. The vaccine, called Gardasil, protects against strains of the human papillomavirus that cause most cervical cancer cases. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection.

“The wonderful thing about this (vaccine) is that, in trials, it was 100 percent effective against HPV16 and HPV18, and those two account for 70 percent of the cases of cervical cancer,” Hammerstrom said.

Proving prevention isn’t partisan, all of Michigan’s 11 female state senators support the bill.

Having read and watched so many news stories earlier this summer on the “debate” over whether a newly developed vaccine that prevents cervical cancer should be made available to pre-teen girls (a debate that exists mainly among right-wing conservatives who mistakenly think protection from sexually transmitted diseases encourages sexual promiscuity), I wasn’t necessarily looking for more coverage.

But this story in The New York Times Science section got my attention – and I’m glad it did. "How a Vaccine Search Ended in Triumph" is a fascinating look at the long, bumpy road that led to the vaccine in the first place. Donald G. McNeil writes:

Nuns and Jews, cow warts and rabbit horns.

The common link: they were all crucial elements in the search for the world’s newest vaccine.

There are fascinating stories behind every advance in medicine, be it hand washing or brain surgery. But the 70-year history behind the creation of a vaccine against human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer, is more fraught than most with blind alleys, delicate moments, humor and triumph.

Read the rest here.

Plus: The vaccine is back in the news again this week — but this time it’s because it’s difficult to find and not yet covered by many insurance companies. One Chicago pediatrician told the AP that patients and parents “have been asking about this like no other vaccine that I can recall.” Now that sounds promising.