Il fotografo israeliano Adi Barkan e il suo amico Alon Gal sono dei bravi ragazzzi. Due uomini che si sono lanciati a peso morto nella campagna contro l'anoressia in Israele. Da notare che Israele è stata la prima nazione al mondo, ancora prima della Francia e della Spagna, a dotarsi di una legislazione contro lo sfruttamento delle modelle anoressiche.

He has every reason to think he can do it. A 30-year industry veteran, Barkan started his crusade seven years ago, after his experience with model, Hila Elmalich, an anorexic whom he rushed to hospital after she collapsed. She later died.

In 2004, he successfully submitted a bill to the Knesset that requires all Israeli modeling agencies to use Body Mass Index (BMI) as a pre-requisite for employment. Today, the governments of Spain and France have adopted legislation based, in part, on Barkan's efforts, that prevent underweight girls from runway modeling.
 

http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enZone=Culture&enDisplay=view&enPage=BlankPage&enDispWhat=object&enDispWho=Articles^l2452

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Since 2002, Nepalese law has permitted abortion under most circumstances, but multiple barriers—including the government’s failure to implement its own policy, prohibitive costs, and inadequate availability of abortion providers—have prevented women from accessing safe abortion services. Under the court ruling, the government must set up a fund to cover the cost of abortion for poor and rural women; and invest enough resources to meet the demand for abortion services and to educate the public and health service providers of the existing abortion law. 

This decision shows that protecting women’s health and lives means more than just keeping reproductive health services legal – it means ensuring that those services are in fact available to everyone who needs them.

http://reproductiverights.org/en/press-room/court-orders-nepal-to-improve-women%E2%80%99s-access-to-abortion

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Today, Red Mujeres Chile launched the hotline "Aborto: Información Segura", marking the International Day of Action for Women's Health. The lauch took place in the Plaza Constitución, in the center of Santiago, Chile. The hotline will give information about the safe and effective use of Misoprostol to provoke an abortion. In the past weeks, members of the network have been trained in-depth about the use of Misoprostol, and have been working out legal strategies and expanding their support-network to make the hotline as effective as possible.

 

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 in the last 13 months, 12 of Mexico's 32 states have approved amendments to their state constitutions defining a fertilised human egg as a person with a right to legal protection, and seven other state parliaments are taking steps in the same direction.

 Behind the wave of reforms of state constitutions, according to critics, is a pact between the hierarchy of the Mexican Catholic Church and the leadership of the most traditional political parties to curb social movements advocating the legalisation of abortion.

"I have no direct evidence, but we have repeatedly heard allegations" that such a pact exists, María Mejía, head of Catholics for the Right to Decide (CDD), told IPS.

According to María Luisa Sánchez, director of the Information Group on Reproductive Choice (GIRE), what is happening is a kind of "revenge" on the part of conservative groups. "These reforms are absurd and put women at risk," she told IPS.

 No woman is happy to make the decision to have an abortion and no woman seeks an abortion for pleasure, which is "something conservatives just don't understand," and that is why they close the doors to women and their rights, and even worse, threaten them with imprisonment, Mejía said.

The state criminal codes lay down different penalties for women who have abortions, except for victims of rape or when the mother's life is endangered. In some cases, foetal malformation is also accepted as a legal reason for abortion.

In the state of Veracruz, for example, abortion carries a prison sentence of six months to four years; in Jalisco it is four months to one year, in Guanajuato from six months to three years, and in Baja California Sur from two months to two years.

Studies indicate that clandestine abortions are the fourth or fifth cause of death among Mexican women, and that obtaining permission for an abortion is complicated and, in many cases, impossible.

After the August 2008 Supreme Court resolution, GIRE legal adviser Pedro Morales called on state legislators to move from "prohibitive and punitive regimes on abortion to permissive laws compatible with the fundamental rights of women."

 

http://domino.ips.org/ips%5Ceng.nsf/vwWebMainView/68E2C9BA2E3A1B65C12575BE0063CF9D/?OpenDocument

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"I am currently exploring every option to be able to continue to make second- and early, medically indicated third-term abortions available," said Tiller associate LeRoy Carhart in a statement. Carhart, a Nebraska physician, performed abortions at Tiller's clinic on a rotating basis with two California doctors.

Warren Hern, one of the few remaining doctors in the U.S. who perform late-term abortions, said that the closing was understandable and was "the hideous consequence of 30 years of harassment." This week, he said, he has begun to see some of Tiller's patients at his clinic in Boulder, Colo.

Among the many things that may come out of the tragedy is "the recognition that more physicians need to step up and provide abortion care," said Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri.

Brownlie said that with the closure of Tiller's clinic, Wichita joins the ranks of cities that have no abortion providers at all.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tiller10-2009jun10,0,6032915.story

"Part of what is a tragedy about this is that violence has achieved its objective," said Nancy Northup, president of Center for Reproductive Rights. "There is a concerted, ongoing effort at harassment and restriction with an aim to make doctors leave the field."

Operations at Women's Health Care Services Inc. were suspended following Tiller's death last month. In a statement released by his attorneys, Tiller's family said relatives had chosen to honor him with charitable activities instead of reopening the clinic.

"We are proud of the service and courage shown by our husband and father and know that women's health care needs have been met because of his dedication and service," the family said in the statement. They did not elaborate on their reasoning to close.

At least one doctor, LeRoy Carhart, had expressed an interest in reopening Tiller's clinic. Following the family's decision to shut it down, the Nebraska doctor said he wouldn't abandon his effort to make sure third-term abortions are available but did not elaborate on his plans.

"I completely understand and sympathize with this decision," he said in a statement. "I am currently exploring every option to be able to continue to make second and early medically indicated third trimester abortions available."

Reaction to the clinic's closing ranged from sympathy from abortion rights supporters to relief from some anti-abortion groups. Planned Parenthood Federation of America saod the decision to close was difficult for the Tiller family, while Randall Terry, who founded Operation Rescue before a falling-out with the organization, said "good riddance" when he heard about the closing.

"If his replacement was going to continue to kill late-term children, the protests would continue, the investigations would continue, the indictments would continue," said Terry, who stopped using the Operation Rescue name following numerous lawsuits in 1990. He said history would remember Tiller's clinic as it remembers Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/09/george-tillers-clinic-clo_n_213184.html

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EARLY in the last century, a Scottish family planning pioneer and women’s rights campaigner, Marie Stopes, started a modest family planning clinic in England.

This humble initiative has today grown such a global reputation that it is undoubtedly one of the most widespread and growing family planning and reproductive health service providers in the world.

The entry of MSI into Zambia is a response to a felt need, because the concerns that MSI addresses are commonplace in the country.

For instance, there is lack of universal access to contraception while contraceptive uptake is low when one compares with the ever growing practices of unsafe abortions, spread of infamous sexually transmitted infections, on the one hand, and the recorded great deal of efforts that have been undertaken in the past to promote contraception and family planning services, on the other hand.

We are cognisant that all our development goals to be met, whether health ones or otherwise, a well-guided and vibrant private sector is fixture that we must create, nurture and sustain,” she said in a speech read for her by Ministry of Health spokesperson Reuben Mbewe.

Though the use of contraceptives in Zambia has been increasing significantly and contraceptive update is also on the rise, there was still need to ensure that the country achieved universal access of contraceptives, because the current levels as very low.

The situation, where of all the women that die from pregnancy related conditions, about 30 per cent of them are because of unsafe abortions, is gravely worrying.

This state of affairs, therefore, requires a proactive response to the challenges posed, and in that regard, investments should be targeted at improving access to family planning services. This is what has been shown by MSI.

All said and written, MSI is more than welcome to provide a difference in Zambia.

 

http://www.times.co.zm/news/viewnews.cgi?category=7&id=1245305417

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A decade after U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher called for the elimination of racial disparities in health, women of color in every state continue to fare worse than white women on a variety of measures of health, health care access and other social determinants of health according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The report, "Putting Women's Health Care Disparities on the Map: Examining Racial and Ethnic Disparities at the State Level," documents the persistence of disparities on 25 indicators between white women and women of color, including rates of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, AIDS and cancer, as well as insurance coverage and health screenings.  It also documents disparities in the factors that influence health and access to care, such as income and education.  Women of color fared worse than white women on most measures and in some cases the disparities were stark. 

Among different racial and ethnic groups, American Indian and Alaska Native women had among the worst outcomes on many health indicators, often twice as high as white women.  The percentage of American Indian and Alaska Native women in serious psychological distress was more than 1.5 times that of white women.  They exhibited the highest rates of smoking and cardiovascular disease and had considerably higher rates of access problems, such as not having a recent checkup and not getting early prenatal care.  One in three American Indian and Alaska Native women lived in poverty, and the median household income for such women was less than half that of white women.

http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/rehc061009nr.cfm

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Una buona notizia. Ci mancherebbe solo che un farmacista si permettese di interferire sulla base delle sue convinzioni morali sulle scelte fatte da altri.

Pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the "morning after" contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The plaintiffs asserted that their Christian beliefs prevented them from dispensing the pills, which can prevent implantation of a recently fertilized egg. They said that the new regulations would force them to choose between keeping their jobs and heeding their religious objections to a medication they regard as a form of abortion.

Although the courts have yet to pronounce judgment on other aspects of the lawsuit, the unanimous ruling on the free-exercise clause could portend further judgments, as the case moves forward, that a patient's right to timely medication supersedes a pharmacist's personal convictions.

The three 9th Circuit judges found common ground despite differing outlooks: Two conservatives named to the court by President George W. Bush and a liberal named by President Clinton made up the panel.

The right to freely exercise one's religion "does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability," the 9th Circuit panel wrote.

"Any refusal to dispense -- regardless of whether it is motivated by religion, morals, conscience, ethics, discriminatory prejudices, or personal distaste for a patient -- violates the rules," the panel said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pill-ruling9-2009jul09,0,6469894.story

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton blocked the rules statewide four months later in a suit by a family-owned pharmacy in Olympia, which was under state investigation for refusing to stock Plan B, and by two pharmacists who said they feared losing their jobs because of their objections.

Leighton also failed to consider the effect of his order on "sexually active women of childbearing age (who) will be denied reasonable access to Plan B," said Judge Kim Wardlaw in the 3-0 ruling.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/09/BA2G18L49P.DTL&type=health

http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/07/09/Court_Allows_Wash_to_Enforce_Pharmacy_Rules.htm

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Securing sufficient funding is the greatest obstacle to improving women's well-being and rights in the developing world, officials attending a conference on sexual and reproductive health said Friday.

Scott Radloff of the U.S. Agency for International Development told The Associated Press that the United States plans to increase its support for programs driven by that philosophy.

"We're likely to be witnessing about a 50 percent increase in funding for both family planning, reproductive health and for maternal/child health over a two-year period," Radloff said, without specifying exactly how much money would be allocated.

He said the funds would be distributed through NGOs and foreign governments, particularly in Africa and South Asia, where he and others at the conference see the greatest opportunity to spur development by improving women's health and rights.

"We put the money where the need is greatest," Radloff said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hb5T4iZdH-11qaUvKq4LuLv5Q7HQD9AGHPVO1

One of the reasons why successes in the arena of sexual and reproductive health are slow coming is that few people comprehend what is at stake. Michelle Goldberg, author of The New York Times bestseller, ‘Kingdom Coming’ said it is perplexing  that there is ‘so little understanding’ of sexual and reproductive health and rights in her country, the United States of America. ‘Savvy, well-informed people look at me blankly when I tell them that there is a global battle going on over sexual and reproductive health, and yet our [US] policies have impact over global health.’ Part of the problem, in getting people to pay attention could be that it was not an easy issue to ‘summarise in quick sound bytes,’ added Goldberg. Moreover, she said, it was hard to get people excited when the results seem vague and amorphous but have real world impact.

 

‘We call for an end to all forms of discrimination in connection with accessing and using health services, access to health services to be free of financial risks, universal access to sexual and reproductive health information, and services to be realized by 2015 at the latest, self-determination and the realisation of women’s human rights to be seen and promoted as being key to making sustainable progress on population development and health care.’ That’s a tall order for the immediate future. But without fulfilling it, the world will be forced to face a myriad of preventable human rights and resources-related crises.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/02-from-cairo-consensus-to-berlin-call-01

 

 

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es députés uruguayens ont adopté mardi un projet de loi permettant aux transsexuels de modifier leur état civil pour qu'il soit conforme à leur apparence physique,

«Chaque personne a le droit au libre développement de sa personnalité conformément à l'identité de genre qui lui est propre, quel que soit son sexe biologique, génétique, anatomique, morphologique, hormonal», dit le projet qui rend possible le changement de nom et sexe sur les papiers d'identité à partir de 18 ans.

http://www.tetu.com/actualites/international/luruguay-approuve-le-changement-detat-civil-pour-les-transsexuels-15478

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"The recession has put many women—including middle-class women who are having trouble making ends meet—in an untenable situation. They want to avoid unintended pregnancy more than ever, but at the same time are having difficulty affording the out-of-pocket costs of prescription contraception,” says Dr. Sharon Camp, Guttmacher president and CEO. “Unfortunately, while delaying a prescription refill or skipping pills may save women money in the short term, it increases their risk of an unintended pregnancy and results in greater costs related to abortion and unplanned birth later on.” Conducted in July and August, the survey covered a nationally representative sample of nearly 1,000 low- and middle-income sexually active women to determine how the current economy has affected them and their families, their views of contraceptive use, their ability to access contraceptives, and their decisions on whether or when to have a child. The women were aged 18–39 and had annual household incomes of less than $75,000.

http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2009/09/23/index.html

 

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The report Out of Reach: The Cost of Maternal Health in Sierra Leone uses graphic and personal testimonials to show how women and girls are often unable access lifesaving treatment because they are too poor to pay for it.

In Sierra Leone, one in eight women risk dying during pregnancy or childbirth. This is one of the highest maternal death rates in the world.

Thousands of women bleed to death after giving birth. Most die in their homes. Some die on the way to hospital; in taxis, on motorbikes or on foot. In Sierra Leone, less than half of deliveries are attended by a skilled birth attendant and less than one in five are carried out in health facilities.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/maternal-death-rate-sierra-leone-quothuman-rights-emergencyquot-20090921

http://livewire.amnesty.org/2009/09/23/thousands-unite-to-end-maternal-mortality-in-sierra-leone/#more-1586

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR51/005/2009/en/9ed4ed6f-557f-4256-989f-485733f9addf/afr510052009eng.pdf

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The woman whose life inspired the 1979 film Norma Rae has died of cancer after struggling with her health insurance company, which had delayed her treatment.

Crystal Lee Sutton was 68. She had struggled for several years with meningioma, a form of brain cancer.

She became a hero to the labor movement in the 1970s, when she took on her employer, a North Carolina textile plant, and unionized the factory floor. Her story became famous nationwide in 1975 after New York Times reporter Hank Leiferman wrote Crystal Lee: A Woman of Inheritance.

http://www.nyegateway.com/2009/09/real-norma-rae-dead-of-cancer-after-battle-with-health-insurer.html

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Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, issued the following statement about the US bishops' recent letter to Congress about healthcare reform:

"Last week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) wrote a letter to Congress urging legislators to "produce final health reform legislation that will reflect our principles." In the letter, the bishops laid out their three priorities; at the top of the list was strict opposition to abortion funding.

"The bishops' principles may lead them to oppose funding for abortion. However, the bishops' principles in no way reflect the principles of Catholics. According to a new poll of Catholic voters carried out by Belden Russonello and Stewart for Catholics for Choice, Catholics support a healthcare reform plan that would include funding for abortion.

"Large majorities of Catholic voters support health insurance coverage for abortions--either in a private- or a government-run scheme:

• when a pregnancy poses a threat to the life of a woman (84 percent)
• when a pregnancy is due to rape or incest (76 percent)
• when a pregnancy poses long-term health risks for the woman (73 percent)
• when test results show a fetus has a severe abnormal condition (66 percent)

"Opinion is split on whether insurance plans should cover abortion whenever a woman and her doctor decide it is appropriate (50 percent support and 50 percent oppose).

http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/CatholicsdonotsupportBishopsStanceonHealthcare.asp

http://catholicsforchoice.org/documents/Poll.pdf

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Increases in global contraceptive use have contributed to a decrease in the number of unintended pregnancies and, in turn, a decline in the number of abortions, which fell from an estimated 45.5 million procedures in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003. While both the developed and the developing world experienced these positive trends, developed regions saw the greatest progress

The new report makes three key recommendations:

• Expand access to modern contraceptives and improve family planning services.
• Expand access to legal abortion and ensure that safe and legal abortion services are available to women in need.
• Improve the coverage and quality of postabortion care, which would reduce maternal death and complications from unsafe abortion.

“The gains we’ve seen are modest in relation to what we can achieve. Investing in family planning is essential—far too many women lack access to contraception, putting them at risk,” notes Dr. Camp. “Legal restrictions do not stop abortion from happening, they just make the procedure dangerous. Too many women are maimed or killed each year because they lack legal abortion access.”

 http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2009/10/13/index.html

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/AWWfullreport.pdf

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Dr Ejike Oji, Country Director of IPAS, an NGO, said in Abuja on Monday that 760,000 induced abortions occurred in Nigeria annually.

Oji said this at the opening of a one-day training workshop organised by IPAS for the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) on maternal mortality and improving women’s reproductive rights.

He said 60 per cent of the abortions were unsafe and that they accounted for most maternal deaths in the country.

``An estimated 15,000 women die in Nigeria yearly from unsafe abortions because abortion is illegal in Nigeria and women who sort it do so it under unsafe procedures.

``The law regarding abortion should be reformed because the reproductive rights of women need to be protected.

`A lot of women are dying from unsafe abortions as well as other causes of maternal deaths such as haemorrhage, obstructed labour, entopic pregnancy, lack of family planning, infection and low contraceptive usages are being addressed.

``It is sad to note the extent some women go to terminate pregnancies through the use of cassava plant leaf and stem, bahaman grass, alligator pepper, native chalk and alum,’’ he added.

 `The right to reproductive health is very crucial as women suffer severe consequences in their bid to regenerate the society.

``The commission views the rights of women as crucial and any circumstances that abridge these rights or attempt to abridge them are unacceptable.

http://www.triumphnewspapers.com/indom21102009.html

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Four million American women give birth every year, and about 500 die during childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications.

In the richest nation in the world, giving birth is more risky than you would think.

So why are women in America more likely to die during childbirth than they are in most other developed nations?

The answers are complex. A healthcare system which leaves what Dr Lu estimates are 17 million women of child-bearing age without health insurance could be one factor.

Obesity, poverty and the high rate of C-sections in America all play a part.

JoAnne Fischer, Executive Director of the Maternity Care Coalition, which works with low income women to help them stay healthy during their pregnancies, says: "We do know that there is extraordinary stress involved in racism and in being poor. "

"And we know that sometimes this creates hypertension.

"Hypertension, obesity and diabetes are all linked, so we have to make sure women start their pregnancies healthy."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8325685.stm

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Abortion is illegal in the Philippines. Birth control and related health services have long been available to those who can afford to pay for them through the private medical system, but 70 percent of the population is too poor and depends on heavily subsidized care. In 1991, prime responsibility for delivering public health services shifted from the central government to the local authorities, who have broad discretion over which services are dispensed.

The main opposition in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country has come from the church and affiliated lay organizations, which say the proposed law would legalize abortion. In churches across the country, signs have been posted that read: “Yes to Life! No to RH Bill!”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/world/asia/26iht-phils.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=birth%20control&st=cse

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