It may surprise some of us to hear that the number one killer of pregnant women in the United States is not unsafe abortion, but homicide.

According to a March 2001 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) using death records and coroner reports, state health department researchers found 247 pregnancy-associated deaths between 1993 and 1998, suggesting that the maternal murder phenomenon is the leading cause of death among pregnant women.

This information is important when we’re considering the necessity of Bill C-510. Pregnant women, according to this research, find themselves in more vulnerable situations than women who are not pregnant. In situations of domestic violence, it is necessary then to provide pregnant women with additional support and further protective legislation. The murder of Laci Peterson in 2002 was an ignored harbinger, and Bill C-510 is an attempt to make up for 8 years of lost time and lost lives, like that of Roxanne Fernando.

“People think that pregnancy is a joyful, happy time for families. That’s not always true,” said Phyllis Sharps, an associate professor at The Johns Hopkins University’s school of nursing who researches violence against women.

In some cases, the woman has been abused for years, and the violence escalates to murder after she’s pregnant. In others, pregnancy itself sparks emotions that can lead to murderous rages.

“Violence in intimate relationships is all about power,” said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. “There are fewer times when you can have power over a woman than when she’s pregnant. She’s vulnerable. It’s an easier time to threaten her.”

In an attempt to educate and raise awareness, the Elliot Institute created this UnChoice Pop Quiz that provides statistics on coercion prior to abortion. Those who oppose Bill C-510 fear that it will negatively affect abortion providers. In my opinion, it’s more important to save women’s lives than to consider the risk to abortion providers.

In support to Andrea’s previous post, here is an article that gives a well rounded view from the mother’s perspective of various types of adoption in some of the most trying situations.

Carrying your baby to full-term and then giving it away is preferable to terminating the pregnancy for some women, but there’s no ‘easy option’. Here, three mothers tell KATE HOLMQUIST about putting their babies up for adoption.

[…]

THE RAPE VICTIM WHO RELINQUISHED HER BABY

Four years ago, 27-year-old Toni was raped on a holiday abroad. Having been made pregnant by her rapist, she says she spent a lot of her pregnancy in denial about the consequences, yet at the same time never considered an abortion. “From the second I found out I was pregnant, I knew I was in no position to be a single parent and I would not have considered a termination. I always believed everything happens for a reason. I think the child has a right to live.”

The options can range from open, semi-open (which Toni eventually chose), and closed. This article gives great insight into what can sometimes be a confusing process.

Earlier this month, the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council met to discuss the adoption of human rights, like the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, in order to determine what states must focus on in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals. But what right was Ontario based Dr. Kishore Singh concerned with addressing to the committee?

Sex education is a sensitive matter for all societies,” said Mr. Singh, relating that Mr. Muñoz, in his final report, had noted a “worrying lack of sustainable and comprehensive strategies” to ensure the adequate inclusion of sex education in educational and health policies and that, without accurate information, many people were exposed to abuse or risky practices, with potential consequences to their physical and physiological well-being.  The many recommendations made by the former Special Rapporteur provided a point of reference for discussions, Mr. Singh added.

[…]

The Special Rapporteur concludes his report by reiterating the necessity and the relevance of the right to comprehensive sexual education.  He presents specific recommendations for States and the international community, including:  adopting and strengthening legislation aimed at guaranteeing the right to sexual education; encouraging public policies aimed at ensuring the right to comprehensive sexual education; ensuring the inclusion of comprehensive sexual education from primary school onwards; establishing the curriculum of sexual education, providing high-quality teacher training; and encouraging the inclusion of families and civil society in curriculum design and implementation.

The idea of what constitutes appropriate sex education varies not only from nation to nation but from person to person, making the universalism of such a right impossible to establish. In the west (especially in the U.S.), parents tend to still have some degree of input on at what age and what kind of sexual education their children are exposed to, but attempting to make this information a basic human right essentially takes all personal choice and preference out of the equation. It would also annihilate respect to religious differences on the subject.

_______________________

Brigitte adds: But Jennifer, that’s exactly why they’re doing it… We just weren’t supposed to notice.

U.S. elections went sour for Nancy Keenan.

Here she is yesterday, in a mailing to supporters urging them to get out the vote for candidates who support the right to “terminations”:

And in a message to supporters today, following a string of defeats for pro-abortion candidates:

Must have been one hell of a rough night, by the look of things.

When I think of Brazil and poverty, the film City of God comes to mind. Shanty towns overfilled and run by drug-lords dominate parts of Rio de Janeiro, so it will take a strong personality to cause the kind of change so desperately needed. From CNN:

(CNN) — Brazil’s new president-elect vowed to continue her predecessor’s move to fight against inequality and promote human rights and fight poverty in her victory speech Sunday night.

“My mission is to eradicate poverty,” Dilma Rousseff said after the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal declared her the winner in Sunday’s runoff election.

As the nation’s first woman to hold the office, Rousseff said she has a mission to fight for more gender equality in Brazil.

“I hope the fathers and mothers of little girls will look at them and say yes, women can.”

Previously a left-wing guerilla fighter, Rousseff is taking her passion (and pro-life position) to the presidential office.

An interesting article on marketing from Forbes:

Of course, niche marketing is nothing new. Focusing on specific demographics – women between the ages of 20 and 30, say, or gray-haired men who play baseball – is an enormous part of how marketing is done.  But the latest such trend has some people seriously worried – and for good reason.

On October 30, marketing executives from companies like Pepsico, Ogilvy & Mather, and Best Buy will convene to absorb the wisdom of speakers like Safaa Zarzour, Secretary General of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an organization withknown affiliations to terror groups like Hamas. The goal: to raise awareness of the buying power of the Muslim market, and to encourage sharia-compliant branding through the creation of halal products–products which conform to the tenets of sharia (Islamic) law.  (Though usually understood to refer to meat, “halal-compliance” can include other foods, as well as bath products and even clothing.)

Is this smart?

Ogilvy & Mather think so, as do many corporate giants: KFC has introduced halal chicken in many of its U.K. franchises, and Campbell’s recently introduced a halal-compliant soup (are you listening, Andy Warhol?).  Other companies on the halal bandwagon include Nestlé (one of the pioneers in the market), Domino’s, and Subway. According to the Web site for the October 30 American Muslim Consumers Conference(AMCC), “the consumer preferences of the world’s nearly 1.5 billion Muslims are faith-based, and largely non-negotiable.”

[…]

* Jews who follow kosher laws may not consume halal foods, which are blessed with a prayer to Allah. Sharia-compliant Muslims, however (despite the AMCC claims that they can eat nothing that is not halal), are in fact permitted to consume kosher foods, providing that they otherwise conform to halal rules, such as being all-natural and alcohol-free.

It just goes to show that when we’re talking about marketing, whether it’s chicken or sexual health, providers care very little about the social impacts so long as it doesn’t effect their bottom line.

The Victorian period is full of canonical literature from women writers. Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen paved the way for later writers like Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield. And much has been written about the prevalent theme of madness that serves as a common thread to underpin all of these works. The suspicion of the woman as “unstable” and prone to madness is embedded in the bedrock of western culture, through such classics as Medea and continued through early and medieval Christian assumptions that women were more prone to heresy and demonic possession. The later development of the asylum allowed for a more general accusation of mental illness to permeate the fears of women. Michelle Iwen writes:

While women’s proportion of admission did rise modestly above that of men, I believe that it was the nature of confinement that so effected women’s writing enough to perpetuate the concept of the unruly woman unjustly confined which, in turn, helped advance this idea in popular culture and eventually into medical discourse, in a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle. It was this cycle which led to the trope becoming reality in the 19^th century as women internalized this threat because of its unique dangers to what was believed to be their inherent female qualities.

The idea that certain female characteristics need to be bridled has not escaped our contemporary writers, nor has it’s hum faded from the background of women’s lives. I experienced these inherited fears myself when I, like most new mothers, was given my first questionnaire on depression from my family physician. Sleep deprived, with images of Vivienne Eliot in my mind, I filled in the blanks.

As you have recently had a baby, we would like to know how you are feeling. Please UNDERLINE the answer which comes closest to how you have felt IN THE PAST 7 DAYS, not just how you feel today.
I have been able to laugh and see the funny side of things.As much as I always could
Not quite so much now
Definitely not so much now
Not at all  

I have looked forward with enjoyment to things.As much as I ever did
Rather less than I used to
Definitely less than I used to
Hardly at all […]  

This article brought back the memories of these questionnaires.

An influential medical group says pediatricians should routinely screen new mothers for depression. Depression isn’t just bad for moms: It can also harm their babies.

That’s according to a new American Academy of Pediatrics report published Monday in the journal, Pediatrics. It cites research showing developmental and social delays in babies with depressed mothers.

The academy says that every year more than 400,000 babies are born to depressed women. Estimates say that between 5 per cent and 25 per cent of women develop postpartum depression.

The pediatrics academy says severely depressed women should be referred to experts for treatment.

There’s no simple way to screen women, women having feared being institutionalized for centuries. While we need screening, I would advise extreme caution to physicians who choose to use generalized tools like these questionnaires. Relying on the answers from these tools will not only give inaccurate results, but may put women and their children in danger. Instead, emphasize the commonality of postpartum depression, look for the more obvious signs, and provide accessible counselling to not only the obviously depressed but perhaps to all new mothers. And of course, avoid words like “treatment”.

Do we really want to encourage boyfriends to administer through-the-mail pharmaceuticals?

The court heard uncontested evidence that Brennan had arranged for the medical abortion pill, a prostaglandin called misoprostol and anti-progesterone called mifepristone, to be posted from Russia by his sister, and that these pills were taken by Leach after she thought she might be pregnant.

The author (perhaps just a teensy bit melodramatically) argues for the defence…

The law the couple were alleged to have broken was an old one, based on the 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act of the English Parliament. Crafted in another century in another country and for another time […]

The law, the police, the judge, the lawyers, the doctors were all men, acting in a drama that had its origins when women were chattels and there was no notion that ”women’s rights are human rights”. Our sensibilities are different now.

Marie Stopes International runs one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns I have ever encountered, from TV ads on abortion to youth-friendly JibJab style cartoons depicting sexual scenarios, from World Cup themed vasectomy ads in cabs to the latest SexFactor (playing off the uber-popular UK talent show, The X Factor).

MSI, in their efforts to become the primary source of contraceptives, reproductive surgery and abortions, have now taken it upon themselves to be the first to “educate” the children of Manchester about the birds and the bees.

Marie Stopes International is hosting SexFactor for 200, 15 year olds from local Manchester schools to give them all the facts about how to avoid unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and sexual assault.

SexFactor will be a fun, interactive day with workshops on sex and relationships being held at the Lancashire County Cricket club today.

[…]

Louise Brennan, Clinical Lead at Marie Stopes International’s Manchester clinic said:

“The research is very clear; where sex and relationships education is taught in conjunction with contraceptive services, young people are more likely to delay their first sexual experience, practice safe sex and are less likely to have an unplanned pregnancy or contract an STI.

“Many of the students attending SexFactor, previously have not received any sex or relationships education. So this is about arming young people with the information to protect themselves against unplanned pregnancy and STIs, to respect each other and to have the skills and knowledge to have safe sexual relationships.

“We have received requests from teachers to visit their schools to teach sex and relationships education because students have become pregnant. Many teachers are telling us they don’t feel they have the training or information to properly teach comprehensive sex and relationships education.

“Marie Stopes International calls for the Government to make the teaching of sex and relationship education compulsory and to fund the proper training of teachers, but in the meantime we are helping local schools.”

School boards are elected by their communities. MSI, as a non-gvernmental organization, answers to no one but themselves. So is it really about teaching children to “respect each other” (which I find difficult to imagine for 15 year olds at an event called SexFactor), or is it about getting them familiar with the brand name?

From the Kansas City Star:

Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri faces 107 charges that it falsified records and performed illegal abortions. Phil Kline filed the charges in 2007 when he served as Johnson County district attorney.

The case had been tied up in a dispute over subpoenas, but the high court returned it to the District Court, where it may proceed.

Friday’s decision is far from a big win for anti-abortion groups, however, because it imposes restrictions on what evidence can be used by prosecutors. A key set of state abortion records, for instance, is off limits, the court ruled.

And with that, 23 felony charges against Planned Parenthood could just disappear without further investigation.