Beth Fredrick's blog

Legislation to prevent child marriage around the globe was just introduced in both the House and Senate that will give girls who are married too young a choice and a chance.

From Connecticut to Colombia, here are the International Women's Health Coalition's top ten wins for women's health in 2008.

A group standing in the way of passing a bill on U.S. global HIV/AIDS prevention is fixated on abstinence-only measures as a remedy, ignoring the "crushing weight of the evidence" to the contrary.

Women Deliver and the Global Safe Abortion Conference proved that at least a few thousand people from among the world's 6.6 billion are ready to shake up priorities for women's health and end the unnecessary suffering that in much of the world endures.

Beth Fredrick is Executive Vice President of the International Women's Health Coalition.

The session starts simply: eight young men stand at the front of a room in Minna, Nigeria. Each young man holds up a large piece of paper with a word written on it, each word a type of sexual activity.

From there it becomes more complicated.

First, the youngest boys are asked to leave. This is not a lesson on birds and bees and community leaders, though supportive, need to be reassured that this workshop is only for those who are mature enough. The 50 or more young men, ranging in age from 16 to 19, are learning how to stay safe from HIV. That will require frank conversation about what will put them at risk and what they can do to protect themselves and their sexual partners. In other words, this is a life-saving conversation.