women’s health

A Few Notes on Those New Sexual Assault Statistics

by Cara December 15, 2011

Chances are, this morning, that you’ve seen the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control statistics on sexual violence and domestic violence. Most notably, you’ve probably seen the new statistic that almost 1 in 5 women have experienced rape in their lifetimes. That’s a terrifying statistic, though not [...]

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Arizona Bill Would Require Hospitals to Check Patient Immigration Status

by Cara February 15, 2011

Arizona legislators are working on a new anti-immigration bill that is essentially the hospital equivalent of their notorious SB 1070. The new bill, SB 1405, would require all hospitals within the state to verify the immigration status of all patients. If a patient cannot prove that sie is in the country legally, hospital staff would [...]

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Berkeley Considers Some Trans-Specific Health Care Benefits; Outrage Ensues

by Cara January 20, 2011

Berkeley, California has recently been considering beginning to provide some benefits to its trans employees for sex reassignment/affirmation surgery. It’s unclear precisely which procedures would be covered under such a plan, since all news reports merely use the outdated and offensive term “sex change” to describe what is being considered.1 A vote on the very [...]

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Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

by Cara January 5, 2011

Trigger Warning for sometimes graphic descriptions of human experimentation and medical research on non-consenting individuals There’s a photo on my wall of a woman I’ve never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape. She looks straight into the camera and smiles, hands on hips, dress suit neatly pressed, lips painted deep red. [...]

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Study Finds 10% of Teens Who Say They’ve Never Had Intercourse Test Positive for STDs

by Cara January 4, 2011

A new study purports to show a disturbing discrepancy between the number of teens who say they’ve “had sex” with those who test positive for STDs. Of those who supposedly said they’d been abstinent, 10% tested positive for at least one of the three common STDs (chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis). As such, researchers and journalists [...]

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Illinois Considers Laws to Revoke Medical Licenses of Sex Offenders

by Cara November 29, 2010

Trigger Warning for discussions of sexual violence within a medical context. Earlier this year, I wrote about part of a Chicago Tribune series that exposed how Illinois doctors can pretty easily sexually assault patients and get away with it with few to no negative consequences for their violations, frequently even being allowed to keep their [...]

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Study: Too Many Fat Women Don’t Even Know They’re Fat

by Cara November 23, 2010

So there’s a fascinating new study out about how women perceive their weight, with the results being that a significant proportion of women who were deemed “overweight” by the BMI did not view themselves as such. Cue the body-shaming, junk reporting, and photographs of fat1 people with their heads cut off. In the most neutral [...]

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Tuesday March in Pittsburgh in Response to the Death of Amy Lynn Gillespie

by Cara November 22, 2010

Last week, a post I wrote about the death of Amy Lynn Gillespie generated a lot of attention. Ms. Gillespie, who was being detained Allegheny County Jail for violating the conditions of her work release by becoming pregnant, died after being denied timely medical care for her treatable condition. As I argued in the post, [...]

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Woman Jailed for Becoming Pregnant, Then Died From Lack of Medical Treatment

by Cara November 18, 2010

Trigger Warning for prison abuse, specifically denial of medical treatment, and reproductive rights violations. At the beginning of this year, a 27-year-old woman named Amy Lynn Gillespie died (h/t @DCdebbie). She was 18 weeks pregnant, and died in a hospital after being transferred there by Allegheny County Jail, which was currently detaining her. The problem [...]

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Girls’ First Sexual Encounters Are More Likely to Be Unprotected. How About We Ask Why?

by Cara November 9, 2010

Trigger warning for discussions of sexual violence, victim-blaming. This morning I came across a post at a CNN blog about a new study (which has not yet been peer reviewed) on teen sex and sexual health. The aspect of the study making headlines both at CNN and elsewhere is this: “Girls take more chances during [...]

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