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Planned Parenthood funding sparks passionate debate on House floor

Almost unnoticed in the wars over the federal budget has been a pitched battle over money for Planned Parenthood, which provides contraception, medical services and abortions at 800 clinics around the country. ... At stake is more than $75 million that Planned Parenthood receives to provide family planning assistance to low-income women, money that its opponents say only frees up funds for abortions (Eckholm, 2/17).

19 Feb 2011

Daily Report Global Health Conversations: Global health funding and the FY11, FY12 budgets

As Congress considers both the FY11 and FY12 budgets, the Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report's Jaclyn Schiff spoke to Adam Wexler, a senior policy analyst for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, about the potential implications for global health funding.

18 Feb 2011

GOP continues attack on Planned Parenthood, abortion funding

Abortion-rights advocates and abortion-rights opponents don't see eye to eye on much, but they do agree on this: Nobody hates Planned Parenthood quite as much as Mike Pence. The Indiana Republican is on a one-man crusade to deny all federal funding to the group — not just the money it gets for reproductive health and family planning services, but every penny it gets for anything (Kliff, 2/16).

17 Feb 2011

Girls Decide: Putting girls' sexual and reproductive health at the heart of development

There is a growing global consensus that girls are central to global development. Yet issues relating to girls’ sexuality and their sexual and reproductive rights continue to be largely neglected. Girls Decide, a new initiative from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), highlights the importance of girls’ and young women’s sexual and reproductive lives for both individual and global development, and aims to ensure governments around the world to adopt policies that work for girls.

15 Feb 2011

Recent releases in Global Health

"Africa should be one of the leading regions in shaping global food security policies and feeding the future instead of others shaping it for Africa. Developing practical, integrative and more small-scale solutions for agricultural inputs and outputs, farming, and for managing both land and water resources, will help Africa provide for future generations on the Continent and elsewhere," Robin Renee Sanders, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, writes in a Huffington Post blog post.

5 Feb 2011

Elsevier announces publication of two position statements from EMAS in Maturitas journal

Elsevier announced today the publication of two further important position statements from the European Menopause and Andropause Society in the journal Maturitas on common management problems in the post-reproductive health of women.

1 Feb 2011

Opinions: GAVI; Haitian women; Clinton's foreign policy

"Vaccines are among the greatest scientific contributions to human welfare. They are also some of the largest humanitarian contributions of developed nations to the rest of the world. So it is unfortunate that a decade of vaccine controversy has overshadowed a decade of vaccine miracles," Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson writes in an opinion piece reflecting on the contributions of the GAVI Alliance over the past decade.

21 Jan 2011

Many couples misjudge partners' risk behaviors

While monogamy is often touted as a way to protect against disease, young couples who say they have discussed monogamy can't seem to agree on what they decided. And a significant percentage of those couples who at least agreed that they would be monogamous weren't.

21 Jan 2011

PMT treatment with essential oils: Study

New research has shown that capsules containing a mixture of fatty acids can help relieve symptoms of PMT or Pre-Menstrual Tension - also known as Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS). Women taking the two gram capsules over six months reported their emotional and physical symptoms becoming far milder than they were before.

18 Jan 2011

Women's Health Congress to explore mammography controversy

The ongoing controversy about the appropriate age, frequency, and patient benefit of mammography will be explored at the upcoming 19th Annual Congress on Women's Health, April 1-3, 2011 in Washington DC.

18 Jan 2011

Capsules with essential oils reduce symptoms of premenstrual syndrome: Study

A pill containing a mix of essential oils has been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Reproductive Health tested the tablets by carrying out a randomised, controlled trial in 120 women.

16 Jan 2011

Lifetime tool for families created through sperm donation

Starting a family the "old-fashioned way" is becoming less common. Only 25% of American households are made up of a husband, wife, and a child. The fertility field is continually growing with advances in scientific technology, and infertile patients have more options for conceiving -- including the use of donor sperm. Along with the medical advances comes the continual need for emotional support for both the parent and children.

14 Jan 2011

Banned chemicals found in pregnant women

The bodies of virtually all U.S. pregnant women carry multiple chemicals, including some banned since the 1970s and others used in common products such as non-stick cookware, processed foods and personal care products, according to a new study from UCSF. The study marks the first time that the number of chemicals to which pregnant women are exposed has been counted.

14 Jan 2011

Lancet series examines health challenges in India

"Indians are growing richer, but they are also adopting unhealthy lifestyles that could take years off their lives and threaten economic growth," according to an article published in Lancet Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reports (1/11). The article is one of seven published in the Lancet as part of a series that also includes a set of commentary pieces on health issues facing the country (1/11).

12 Jan 2011

Study compares treatment cost of PID hospitalizations, ER care for teen girls

Hospitalizing teen girls with pelvic inflammatory disease costs six times as much as treating them in the emergency room, and up to 12 times more than treating them in an outpatient clinic, according to a small study conducted at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

6 Jan 2011

New women’s health policy inadequate

The Gillard government is being criticized for issuing a women’s health policy without announcing more funding for struggling women’s services. This is the first national women’s health policy in 21 years that claims to ensure women “have access to the right healthcare at the right time”.

30 Dec 2010

Life expectancy, other health indicators improve in Asia-Pacific, OECD report says

A report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released on Tuesday, found that "Asia-Pacific countries have seen steady gains in key health indicators since 1970, but developing nations there are still far behind standards in the industrialised world," Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports. OECD looked at "[h]ealth systems for 27 Asia-Pacific economies," according to the news service (12/21).

22 Dec 2010

BPA exposure reduces quality of womens' eggs retrieved for IVF

A small-scale University of California, San Francisco-led study has identified the first evidence in humans that exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) may compromise the quality of a woman's eggs retrieved for in vitro fertilization (IVF). As blood levels of BPA in the women studied doubled, the percentage of eggs that fertilized normally declined by 50 percent, according to the research team.

16 Dec 2010

Conference examining family planning integration with national health strategies in Asia-Pacific countries begins

Representatives from 24 countries in Asia and the Pacific came together in Bangkok, Thailand, on Wednesday for the start of a three-day conference about population and family planning, Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports (12/8).

9 Dec 2010

Experts reach consensus on beneficial effects of Soy

According to the December 2010 Journal of Nutrition Supplement titled, "Soy Summit: Exploration of the Nutrition and Health Effects of Whole Soy," consensus has been reached among leading soy science experts surrounding three main areas of debate: soy and women's health, soy and heart health, and soy and overall nutrient adequacy. Leading soy experts agree that including soyfoods in a balanced diet will have beneficial effects and improve nutrient intake among the U.S. population.

3 Dec 2010