FDA Considers Approving Second-Generation Female Condom

On Tuesday, Pamela Merritt encouraged RH Reality Check readers to urge the Obstetrics and Gynecology Devices Advisory Committee at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the second-generation female condom, "FC2."  At Women's eNews, Molly Ginty covers the innovations of the new version of the female condom:

Like the other version of the female condom--the "FC" approved by the FDA in 1994--the second-generation "FC2" is made by the Chicago-based Female Health Company. Just as effective as its predecessor at preventing unwanted pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, the new version is made of nitrile, a cheaper material than the older version's polyurethane, and is 30 percent less expensive.

Midwives Critical for Maternal Care in Afghanistan

Our Bodies, Our Blog has an excellent write-up of a Chicago Tribune story on midwifery in Afghanistan.  Maternal morality is high in that country - a woman dies giving birth every 26 minutes - and midwives bring desperately-needed skilled birth attendance to women in rural areas.  Yet deadly threats to midwives remain:

[I]n a country where government employees are attacked constantly by Taliban-led insurgents, being a midwife is a risky political statement.

In Nuristan province, a midwife was kidnapped by the Taliban four months ago. In a rural part of Kandahar province, militants shot and killed a midwife about two months ago, allegedly because she was handing out condoms and birth control.

The Ghani Khel program is supposed to train students from neighboring Kunar province, a militant haven, but no students from Kunar are enrolled. A clinic that opened in the dangerous Pech Valley of Kunar has almost no patients because it is close to a U.S. base, and Afghans there do not want to associate - or be seen associating - with Americans. That clinic is being moved.

"People didn't want to send their women there because it was near the Americans," said Toorpekay Nawab, 51, the midwife who runs the Ghani Khel school. "The war affects everything. Of course it hurts our program."

 

"Is Richard Cizik Trying to Get Fired?"

Kyle on Right Wing Watch wonders, "Is [National Association of Evangelicals president] Richard Cizik trying to get fired?" Kyle mentions an interview Cizik had with NPR's Terry Gross, in which he expressed support for civil unions for same-sex couples and President-Elect Obama's plans to work to "reduce abortion." Notes Kyle, "Tony Perkins, for one, isn’t buying it, saying that Cizik 'left the reservation a long time ago' and wanting to know why he is still employed by the NAE:

How else can you explain enthusiastic support for what will probably be the nation's most pro-abortion, anti-family president in our nation's 232 year history?

The question, however, remains. If Cizik does not speak for the NAE, as the Rev. Anderson has said, why is he on Capitol Hill representing NAE and claiming to speak for Evangelicals? Is it possible for a human being to come with a disclaimer?

American Life League's Judie Brown Compares Wendy Norris to Barack Obama

To American Life League founder Judie Brown, both RH Reality Check contributor Wendy Norris and President-Elect Obama suffer from the same delusion about the true nature of fertilized eggs.  In a column on RenewAmerica, Brown writes,

Norris, like Obama, has the strange perspective that when pro-life America speaks of personhood, we are attempting to assign human dignity to a "fertilized egg." Norris is in denial, and she chooses to avoid being honest enough to tell her readers that the human being whose life begins at the union of sperm and egg is immediately a human being. By using the term "fertilized egg," Norris attempts to dehumanize the baby, thus giving her the opportunity to deny that scientific fact has anything whatsoever to do with the personhood of individual human beings.

Let's review the question of personhood and fertilization, shall we, with our handy Reality Check video!

RH Reality Check: Does Personhood Start At Fertilization? from RH Reality Check on Vimeo.