Women’s Health News, Abortion & Contraception

1. At the end of its term, the US Supreme Court issued a stay in litigation around the state of Texas’ new laws that would close 10 more women’s health clinics that provide abortion services.

The law was scheduled to take effect on July 1.Previously, new laws in Texas reduced the number of similar women’s clinics from 41 to 19, making abortion services functionally impossible for tens of thousands of poor women in the state.

These tough new laws require 1) that a doctor performing an abortion — a procedure with an abnormally low rate of complications compared to other medical procedures done in clinics — have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The hospitals are most reluctant to give such privileges, wanting to avoid becoming embroiled in the abortion debate or for religious reasons.

2) The new laws also require clinics to meet the same standards as outpatient surgery center, upgrades that can cost $1 million or more.

Two dozen other states have new laws similar to those in Texas. Both sides of the abortion debate want the Supreme Court to involve themselves in clarifying the legality of legislation that seeks to eliminate abortion in many states in America, all in the name of protecting the woman. The jedges will indicate whether or not they will put abortion rights on the docket when the court reconvenes in September.

2. Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic in Jackson will remain open, with the US Supreme Court taking no action on a federals appeal ruling that left the clinic open.

Mississippi is another of the states demanding that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. No hospital in MIssissippi will grant such privileges.

3. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed notice of appeal on Wednesday that he will appeal a court ruling that overturned a Kansas law using an abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation.

The Wichita Eagle writes:

Laura McQuade, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, called the bill “extreme, unconstitutional” in an e-mail and said it “risks women’s health by banning the safest method of second trimester abortion according to every major medical authority.”

She said she was confident that the restraining order would be upheld and that the law would ultimately be defeated by the courts.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article26012419.html#storylink=cpy

4. Sources of post-abortion counseling that aren’t connected with right to lifers are hard to find.

Pro-Lifers Harass Women After Abortions The Daily Beast

In 2008, an American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force reviewed the scientific literature on mental health and abortion and concluded, “[T]here is no credible evidence that a single elective abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in and of itself causes mental health problems for adult women.”

The same Task Force cautioned that among the studies indicating that select women can experience grief, depression and anxiety after an abortion, all other risk factors must be taken into account. What is the woman’s exposure to poverty, violence, alcohol, drugs and other negative factors? The report concluded that the best predictor of a woman’s mental health post abortion is her health pre-pregnancy.

Still, writes The Daily Beast, post-abortion organizations are advancing rapidly on the American landscape.

5. In Oregon, lawmakers approved a bill that allows women to get birth control prescriptions from a pharmacist instead of a physician.

A second bill, passed a few weeks ago, allows women to get a 12-month supply of birth control at one time, instead of one- or three-month supplies, writes Reality Check.

7. A new contraceptive ‘pill’ for men is expected to be available in 2018.

The pill called Valsagel will provide protection for a continuous period of 10 years and will be the first clinically=approved contraceptive for men since condoms. Writes the International Business Times:

The new male contraceptive is not actually a pill. It is a gel which can be injected into the vas deferens of a male under local anesthesia. Vas deferens are the tubal structures known to carry sperm. The sperm-carrying tubes are accessible through the male scrotum.

The contraception mechanism works by using the gel to block the sperm. The process is reversible by having another injection to dissolve the gel so that the sperm can travel again. Researchers believe that each shot of gel can last for 10 years, but that has not yet been confirmed clinically.

8. Although teen pregnancy rates are dropping dramatically, new research reports that sexually-active obese teen girls are less likely to use contraception.

Writes Medical Daily:

Strangely enough, researchers did not find any other differences between overweight adolescents and their peers, concluding that practices like certain sexual behaviors, multiple partners, and frequency of sexual behaviors remained relatively the same. Researchers are still not sure what caused this difference, but hypothesize that low self-esteem, often a product of obesity, may cause these girls to not consider contraception as carefully before sex. Also, there may be a chance that socioeconomic differences which often contribute to obesity may lead to a lack of education among these young girls.