Quick Stories on Women's Health

There is more news out there than I have time to summarize individually, but I wanted to make these links available.

Feministing has covered a number of women's health-related stories recently:

NPR on Cecilia Fire Thunder - May 8th All Things Considered piece on Fire Thunder's plan to open an abortion clinic on tribal land, circumventing the state's recent abortion ban

Conference on STDs Gets Bullied Into Abstinence-Only Hell - apparently Rep. Mark Edward Souder (R-Ind.) put pressure on the organizers of the 2006 STD Prevention Conference to change the panel and add two abstinence-only advocates.

Pink Bats for Mother's Day - Major League Baseball players swinging pink bats to raise breast cancer awareness, (see MLB's announcement and pics of the bats)

Happy Anniversary, Birth Control!

Doctors Support Emergency Contraception with New Initiative - ACOG initiative to encourage advance procurement of emergency contraception, mentioned in this previous post

Colombia (somewhat) Legalizes Abortion

Catholic School Teacher Fired for Using Infertility Treatment

Kansas Gives Out Breastfeeding Cards - with the message "A mother may breast-feed in any place she has a right to be," and a number to call to report incidents to the contrary.
AND...

The Motherhood Manifesto - from the comments, it looks like some folks have the same questions I do

The Kaiser Network also has some great summaries of women's health policy-related news:

Senate Democrats Block Health Bill They Say Could Have Reduced Insurance Coverage Requirements, Including for Contraceptives and related, Sens. Reid, Rodham Clinton Argue Health Bill Would Decrease Women's Access to Contraceptives - this is the HIMMA bill - see previous post for links to bill text and status

Experts at Federal Meeting Call for Accelerated Research Into Causes of Potentially Fatal Bacterial Infections After Pregnancies, Medical Abortions

Baltimore Sun Examines Merck HPV Vaccine, Reaction From Conservative Groups

Researchers, Physicians Discuss Potential Causes of C. sordellii Infections, Safety of Mifepristone, Misoprostol, Ahead of Federal Meeting

Rep. Waxman Questions HHS for Allegedly Allowing Change in Content of CDC Conference Panel on STIs, Abstinence Education

Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report Highlights Studies Presented at STI Conference

Member of Congress Influenced Change in CDC Conference Panel on STIs, Abstinence Education, Organizers Say