Reproductive Health News and Research

RSS

Viewpoints: Political furor on contraceptive policy; Confusing estimates of Medicare's costs

The political furor over President Obama's birth-control mandate continues to grow, even among those for whom contraception poses no moral qualms, and one needn't be a theologian to understand why. The country is being exposed to the raw political control that is the core of the Obama health-care plan, and Americans are seeing clearly for the first time how this will violate pluralism and liberty.

9 Feb 2012

Komen Foundation works to regain balance in the wake of Planned Parenthood funding flap

News outlets parse different angles of this story -- which broke last week -- including how the Web and social media affected it and how Komen is working to rebuild its donor list.

7 Feb 2012

Scientists search gene alterations in three-parent kids

Researchers from Australia want to find out if using the DNA of three parents will prevent children inheriting life-threatening diseases. They add that if the technique proves successful in preventing the transfer of mitochondrial DNA mutations from mothers to babies, then laws on the use of embryos will need to be changed to allow the procedure.

6 Feb 2012

Republican win in 2012 election could spell end of international family planning programs

"If a Republican becomes president, ... say goodbye to international programs providing birth control to women in desperately poor countries such as Liberia," senior contributing writer Michelle Goldberg writes in this Daily Beast opinion piece.

4 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: Censoring flu research; Assailing Komen's move to cut Planned Parenthood funding

In December, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity made an unprecedented request: it asked the editors of the journals Nature and Science not to publish certain details in two papers describing experiments in which scientists created a highly transmissible form of the deadly H5N1 influenza virus. ... Such caution, though well intentioned, is misplaced.

3 Feb 2012

New research gains increased respect for contraceptive method

Imagine a contraceptive that could, with one or two painless 15-minute non-surgical treatments, provide months of protection from pregnancy. And imagine that the equipment needed were already in physical therapists' offices around the world.

31 Jan 2012

Comprehensive policy package based on research needed to stem abortion figures

"The astounding thing about the global abortion debate is not that some people have deeply held views about what a pregnancy is and when a human existence begins" but that "policymakers continue to ignore carefully amassed information about the actual outcome of programs and laws related to sexuality and reproduction," Marianne Møllmann, senior policy adviser with Amnesty International's International Secretariat, writes in this Guardian opinion piece.

25 Jan 2012

Virtual network of experts to work together to prevent preterm birth

The March of Dimes, along with its partners, are giving experts in the field of preterm birth prevention an opportunity to learn from each other and to work together to bring the nation's preterm birth rate under 10 percent and give more babies a healthy start.

24 Jan 2012

Research roundup: 'No individual mandate' scenarios; Breaking down health care expenditures

This paper expands 2011 research examining whether the health law's controversial individual mandate – which requires most people to have health insurance -- will be effective.

21 Jan 2012

HRT and breast cancer – the link questioned as study flaws are reported

There is a renewed doubt over the link between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer after researchers cast aspersions over its justification.

18 Jan 2012

Viewpoints: GOP moving away from compassionate conservatism; Competing strategies for fighting obesity

Romney asserts that President Obama wants to "fundamentally transform America," turning the country "into a European-style entitlement society." In fact, (Mitt) Romney and his Republican presidential rivals have a far more radical transformation in mind. They envision a dramatically shrunken federal government and a dangerously unraveled social safety net.

13 Jan 2012

GC-Rise presents at J.P. Morgan's 30th annual Healthcare Conference

GC-Rise Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, in which European healthcare venture capital firm INVENTAGES holds a majority stake, has debuted at J.P. Morgan's 30th annual Healthcare Conference in the United States.

13 Jan 2012

Ethiopia's PMTCT plan needs men to participate in order to reach goal, experts say

"Ethiopia's new plan to eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmission by 2015 cannot be attained unless men are more meaningfully involved in reproductive health, experts say," PlusNews reports.

5 Jan 2012

Viewpoints: Sebelius on 'essential benefits'; WSJ columnist on Democrats' 'Mediscare' argument - is it a lie?

Insurance needs and health systems vary state to state, and experience tells us that the best way forward is not to mandate a one-size-fits-all answer. Instead, our approach gives states the flexibility to take their own paths, while ensuring they all end up in the best place possible: with an Affordable Insurance Exchange that offers access to comprehensive, quality, affordable health insurance to small business owners and individuals who currently have few good choices in an expensive and broken market.

5 Jan 2012

President Obama honors mentoring program for minority girls in science and health

Teresa Woodruff, the Thomas J. Watkins Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, received the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring at the White House from President Barack Obama Monday, Dec. 12.

17 Dec 2011

Study: Many prescription drugs use phthalates as inactive ingredients

Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC), in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health, have found numerous prescription and over-the-counter drugs and supplements use certain chemicals called phthalates as inactive ingredients in their products.

15 Dec 2011

Pulitzer Center announces launch of collaborative reproductive health reporting project

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting "launched its collaborative reproductive health reporting project last week at the International Family Planning Conference (IFPC) in Dakar, Senegal," according to a post on the Center's website.

13 Dec 2011

Study highlights need for greater recognition of sexual and reproductive healthcare needs of teen boys

Two newly published reports by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center highlight the need for greater recognition of the sexual and reproductive healthcare needs of teen boys and enumerate the essential services this traditionally overlooked group should receive at least once a year.

9 Dec 2011

Reuters examines role of family planning at Durban climate change talks

"[W]ith studies suggesting that 215 million women around the world want -- but cannot get -- effective contraception, making sure birth control methods are available to those who want them could be one of the cheapest, fastest and most effective ways of addressing climate change, experts said at the U.N. climate conference in Durban" this week, AlertNet reports.

7 Dec 2011

Obesity maybe passed down from fathers to kids: Study

Australian researchers have found that the sperm of overweight fathers appears to carry a molecular signal that causes their offspring to inherit obesity. This may be more severe in female children and males they add.

5 Dec 2011