Contraception News and Research

Latest Contraception News and Research

Biological filter to remove estrogens from waste water and drinking water

A biological filter to remove estrogens from waste water and drinking water. The 15 Bielefeld students submitting this project to the 'international Genetically Engineered Machine competition' (iGEM) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA are setting their sights high.

26 Jun 2012

Nanoparticles that can slip through mucus barriers shown to protect against herpes infections

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have demonstrated, for the first time in animals, that nanoparticles can slip through mucus to deliver drugs directly to tissue surfaces in need of protection. The researchers used these mucus-penetrating particles (MPPs) to protect against vaginal herpes infections in mice and the goal is to create similar MPPs to deliver drugs that protect humans against sexually transmitted diseases or even treat cancer.

26 Jun 2012

Increase in number of women with access to modern contraception has stalled, report says

"Progress in ensuring that women in poor countries have access to modern methods of contraception has stalled," according to a new report by the United Nations Population Fund and the Guttmacher Institute, BMJ reports.

26 Jun 2012

Examining the 'domino effect' of family planning

In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Megan Averill and Tricia Petruney, senior technical officers with FHI 360's Global Health, Population and Nutrition Group, and Ward Cates, president emeritus at FHI 360, discuss the "domino effect" of family planning.

22 Jun 2012

London family planning summit 'must be about enabling women to choose'

"As the London family planning summit looms closer, the debate begins over how much money is needed, what it should pay for and whether the fundamentally important issues of women's reproductive rights will be addressed," Sarah Boseley, health editor of the Guardian, writes in her "Global Health Blog."

22 Jun 2012

Ads take issue with health law

News outlets report on various ad campaigns designed to criticize the Democrats' health law.

22 Jun 2012

Birth control mandate remains divisive health coverage issue

The head of the Catholic Hospital Association explains her group's split with the Obama administration on the question of contraception coverage. Meanwhile, another Catholic organization is launching a nationwide ad campaign against this policy.

21 Jun 2012

Viewpoints: Catholic group dismisses compromise on contraceptives; Funding entitlements

President Obama's support for his signature health care act took a fresh hit Friday. The Catholic Health Association, the nation's largest private health care provider, has rebuffed the latest White House moves to make its contraception coverage mandate more acceptable to Catholics and conservative evangelicals, according to Religion News Service.

19 Jun 2012

Abortion, contraception controversies create political divisions

In some states, even some Republican legislators are not endorsing anti-abortion rules as a group of Catholic hospitals, which had supported the Obama administration's contraception compromise, revoked that approval.

18 Jun 2012

First Edition: June 18, 2012

Today's headlines include reports on the upcoming Supreme Court health law decision and the politics of health policy.

18 Jun 2012

In reversal, Catholic hospitals reject support for contraception compromise

In an unexpected blow to the Obama administration and a major boon for America's Catholic bishops, the influential Catholic Health Association on Friday rejected White House proposals aimed at easing faith-based objections to the contraception mandate. ... The mandate requires that all employee health insurance plans must provide no-cost birth control coverage to employees, and it grants what many consider an unacceptably narrow exemption for religious groups.

18 Jun 2012

Large-scale trial of vaginal ring that releases anti-HIV drug announced at health summit in London

"This week, at the Pacific Health Summit in London, the final large-scale trial was officially launched of a vaginal ring which women can wear and forget about -- at least for a month at a time -- while it releases an HIV virus-killing drug called dapivirine," the Guardian reports.

16 Jun 2012

Mich. House approves abortion restrictions bill; AFL-CIO asks Mo. Gov. to veto abortion coverage bill

The Michigan bill would tighten regulation of abortion clinics and providers while making it a crime to coerce women into having an abortion. In Missouri, a union asks the governor to veto legislation that would allow employers to opt out of providing abortion or contraception health insurance coverage.

15 Jun 2012

First Edition: June 14, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about how the pending Supreme Court decision is being viewed by investors, and the latest from the campaign trail.

14 Jun 2012

Health law's birth control mandate, Medicare's doughnut hole draw headlines

Drug manufacturers may abandon the health law's provisions to close Medicare's so-called "doughnut hole" if the high court overturns the measure. Also, religious leaders press the Department of Health and Human Services to widen the religious exemption to the health law's birth control mandate.

14 Jun 2012