Investing in birth control to reduce population growth could be more effective in cutting greenhouse gas emissions than building wind turbines or nuclear power stations, according to a United Nations report. Taking action to prevent one billion births by 2050 would save as much carbon dioxide as constructing 2 million giant wind turbines.
The UN Population Fund report predicts that the global population could reach 10.5 billion by 2050, up from 6.8 billion today, unless urgent action is taken to reduce fertility rates.
It says that even its medium-growth forecast of 2.3 billion more people by 2050, which assumes a fall in average fertility from 2.56 to 2.02 children per woman, would make it much harder to achieve the cuts in carbon emissions needed to prevent catastrophic climate change.
The report says that reducing population growth would allow the 2050 target for global average emissions per person to be increased significantly above the 2 tonnes recommended by Lord Stern, the author of an influential government report on global warming in 2006. Living standards would be higher because each person would be able to emit more CO2.
More at link.....And surprise! The Catholic Church is against it.
Investing in birth control to... more
women's access to birth control has made remarkable progress in the 20th century,
although misinformation is still circulating.women's access to birth control has made remarkable progress in the 20th century,... more
MANILA — Gina Judilla already had three children the first time she tried to terminate a pregnancy. “I jumped down the stairs, hoping that would cause a miscarriage,” she said. The fetus survived and is now an 8-year-old boy.
Three years later, pregnant again, she drank an herbal concoction that was supposed to induce abortion. That, too, failed.
Three years ago, in another unsuccessful attempt to end a pregnancy, she took Cytotec, a drug to treat gastric ulcers that is widely known in the Philippines as an “abortion pill.”
What drove Ms. Judilla, a 37-year-old manicurist, to such extreme measures is a story familiar to many Filipino women. She and her unemployed husband are very poor, barely able to buy vitamins for their youngest child or to send more than two of their older children to school.
“When I had my third child, I swore to myself that I will never get pregnant again because I know we could not afford to have another one,” Ms. Judilla said in a recent interview inside her home in Pasig City, on the eastern outskirts of Manila.
Abortion is illegal in the Philippines, though birth control and related health services have long been available to those who can afford to pay for them through the private medical system. But 70 percent of the population is too poor and depends on heavily subsidized care through the public health system. In 1991, prime responsibility for delivering public health services shifted from the central government to the local authorities, who have broad discretion over which services are dispensed. Many communities responded by making birth control unavailable.
More recently, however, family planning advocates have been making headway in their campaign to change this. Legislation before the Philippine Congress, called the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act, would require governments down to the local level to provide free or low-cost reproductive health services — from condoms and birth control pills to tubal ligation and vasectomy. It would also mandate sex education in all schools, public and private, from fifth grade through high school.
...More...MANILA — Gina Judilla already had three children the first time she tried to... more
What kind of Birth Control is more popular today, condom or pill? Here is the answer - neither!What kind of Birth Control is more popular today, condom or pill? Here is the answer -... more
The condom has now caught up with the pill as women's preferred method of contraception, latest figures suggest.The condom has now caught up with the pill as women's preferred method of... more
At their latest meeting in Rome, African bishops ignored Catholicism’s greatest failing—the AIDS crisis ravaging their continent.At their latest meeting in Rome, African bishops ignored Catholicism’s greatest... more
On Nov. 1, a law in Oklahoma will go into effect that will collect personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and post them on a public website. Implementing the measure will “cost $281,285 the first year and $256,285 each subsequent year.” Here are the first eight questions that women will have to reveal:
1. Date of abortion
2. County in which abortion performed
3. Age of mother
4. Marital status of mother
(married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
5. Race of mother
6. Years of education of mother
(specify highest year completed)
7. State or foreign country of residence of mother
8. Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
Live Births
Miscarriages
Induced Abortions
Although the questionnaire does not ask for name, address, or “any information specifically identifying the patient,” as Feminists for Choice points out, these eight questions could easily be used to identify a woman in a small community. “They’re really just trying to frighten women out of having abortions,” Keri Parks, director of external affairs at Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma, said. The Center for Reproductive Rights is challenging the law, arguing that “it violates the Oklahoma Constitution because it ‘covers more than one subject’ — a challenge that previously worked to strike down an abortion ultrasound law.On Nov. 1, a law in Oklahoma will go into effect that will collect personal details... more
The birth control pill may have done more than just help liberate women, it may also have changed “the laws of attraction” between the sexes, according to a new study.
Suspecting that the Pill, which contains synthetic versions of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone, might have a far-reaching impact on what modern women want, two British anthropologists went hunting for information on how big an effect a little tweak to our hormones might make. Their findings were published Wednesday in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
Women who have their hormone levels smoothed out by the Pill tend to seek men who look like good long-term prospects, says the new report’s lead author, Alexandra Alvergne, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Sheffield. On the contrary, a woman on a normal menstrual cycle will have a burst of hormones around the time of ovulation that will drive her to lust after the hottest, sexiest guy in the room.The birth control pill may have done more than just help liberate women, it may also... more
Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella have drospirenone, which is a new type of progestin. The lawsuits have claimed that Yaz has caused blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, heart attack, stroke and pulminary emboli. These birth controls also have the chance of sudden death.Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella have drospirenone, which is a new type of progestin. The... more
We can talk about viagra. Can we talk about birth control?
Watch this new video from sex.really. Its a hysterical take on a commercial gone terribly wrong!We can talk about viagra. Can we talk about birth control?
Watch this new video from... more
When the head of family planning in Shanghai said young couples should have more babies because the city was growing old, it sounded like a statement of the obvious.
Yet within days there was a storm of comment on the internet and in state media as people asked whether this meant the government was preparing to relax its one-child policy.
There are signs officials are rethinking the ban, which has prevented 400 million births since 1979, because on present trends China’s population will begin to decline by the middle of the century. By then, India will have overtaken it as the most populous nation.
Xie Lingli, the Shanghai family planning official, was forced to explain publicly that he had not deviated from the party line, which restricts most couples in Chinese cities to one child.
The rules allow couples who are both only-children to have two babies. Shanghai has introduced other exceptions, including more leeway for fishermen and farmers. It has also abolished a rule that couples who are allowed more than one child must wait four years between births.When the head of family planning in Shanghai said young couples should have more... more
Sex with robots is coming and it's going to happen soon - probably within 40 years. The only thing holding it back at this point is the technology. Legal barriers do not exist, and moral barriers are eroding rapidly. Its advent will signal the impending end of the human race as "perfect" mates replace the imperfect ones we now have. In order to stop this perversion from destroying the human race, we must act now to change attitudes toward virtual sex of all kinds, including pornography.
----------------------------------------------------------
How do you feel about getting freaky with a robot?Sex with robots is coming and it's going to happen soon - probably within 40 years.... more
A nationwide anti-abortion group launched an effort in Florida Friday to outlaw all abortions and certain types of birth control, including oral contraceptives and the morning-after pill.
The religion-infused movement, called "Personhood Florida," would define conception in Florida's constitution at the "biological beginnings," supporters said -- when the sperm meets the egg. The group filed its amendment today but the exact ballot language is still being worked out.
The amendment seeks to outlaw all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. Also criminalized: the morning-after pill and oral contraceptives taken by women, known as the pill. "There are some (birth control) methods that kill a child," said Pat McEwan, who is leading the Personhood Florida group.
The amendment faces extremely long odds. First, supporters must gather 676,811 signatures to make the ballot -- by Feb. 1, to go before voters in 2010.
And Florida has a 60-percent threshold for constitutional amendments to become law, a very difficult hurdle even for less radical ideas. In Colorado, the only state where the "personhood" amendment has appeared on the ballot, voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea by an almost three-to-one margin.
Even if adopted by voters, the amendment runs counter to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that held the U.S. Constitution grants women the basic right to an abortion.
Supporters say they're pushing the personhood amendment not only in Florida, but in a dozen other states.A nationwide anti-abortion group launched an effort in Florida Friday to outlaw all... more
Infomania's Target Women: Birth Control named one of the funniest birth control moments on TV!Infomania's Target Women: Birth Control named one of the funniest birth control... more
ATLANTA — Mississippi now has the nation's highest teen birth rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, a new federal report says.
Mississippi's rate was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, according to new state statistics released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The teen birth rate for that year in Texas and New Mexico was more than 50 percent higher.
The three states have large proportions of black and Hispanic teenagers groups that traditionally have higher birth rates, experts noted.
The lowest teen birth rates continue to be in New England, where three states have rates at roughly half the national average, which is 42 births per 1,000 teen women.
It's not clear why Mississippi, with 68 births per 1,000, surged into first place. The state's one-year increase of nearly 1,000 teen births could be a statistical blip, said Ron Cossman, a Mississippi State University researcher who focuses on children's health statistics.
The New Mexico rate was 64 per 1,000; Texas was 63. New Hampshire, with a rate of 19 per 1,000, was the nation's lowest.
More than a year ago, a preliminary report on the 2006 data revealed that the U.S. teen birth rate had risen for the first time in about 15 years. But the new numbers provide the first state-by-state breakdown.
The new report is based on a review of all the birth certificates in 2006. Significant increases in teen birth rates were noted in 26 states.
"It's pretty much across the board" nationally, said Brady Hamilton, a CDC statistician who worked on the report.
About 435,000 of the nation's 4.3 million births in 2006 were to mothers ages 15 through 19. That was about 21,000 more teen births than in 2005.
Numerically, the largest increases were in the states with the largest populations. California, Texas and Florida together generated almost 30 percent of the nation's extra teen births in 2006.
Some experts have blamed the national increase on increased federal funding for abstinence-only health education that does not teach teens how to use condoms and other contraception. They said that would explain why teen birth rate increases have been detected across much of the country and not just in a few spots.
There is debate about that, however. Some conservative organizations have argued that contraceptive-focused sex education is still common, and that the new teen birth numbers reflect it is failing.
Other factors include the escalating cost of some types of birth control and their unavailability in some communities, said Stephanie Birch, who directs maternal and child health programs for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.
Glowing media portrayals of celebrity pregnancies don't help, either, she said. "They make it out to be very glamorous," said Birch, who cited a calculation by Alaska officials that teen births were up 6 percent in that state in 2006.
A variety of factors influence teen birth rates, including culture, poverty and racial demographics. For those and other reasons, kids in mostly white New England likely would delay child birth, said David Landry, a researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based organization which supports abortion rights and gathers research on sexual and reproductive health.
"It's more costly for youth in the Northeast to have a teen birth than for youth in the South, in terms of opportunities they'll miss," he said.
Anti-abortion conservatives are proposing a new constitutional amendment that critics claim would make it a crime to take birth control pills in Florida.
The "Personhood Amendment" that conservative activists are filing today in Tallahassee would add language to the state constitution that defines someone as a "person," regardless of age or health status, "from the beginning of the biological development of that human being."
Pat McEwen of Palm Bay is one of two leaders of the loose collection of activists, collectively known as Personhood Florida.
"In the original Florida Constitution in 1885, they gave Floridians the right to enjoy and defend life," she said. "This amendment defends the unborn, and it also gives older people like me – a retired college professor – the right to make my own decisions and not have someone override it."
Personhood Florida will have to collect 676,811 petition signatures by Feb. 1 for its proposal to appear before voters as soon as 2010, though organizers can keep trying for a future ballot if they don't make that deadline. Signatures on petitions remain valid for four years.
On the group's side is the American Life League, a socially conservative Virginia-based organization that is supporting similar amendments in about two dozen states. The national group spent $250,000 on a campaign that put a similar question on Colorado's ballot in 2008. Voters rejected that measure roughly 3-1.
Though the wording of that proposal differs from the one pending in Florida, their meanings are similar. The 2008 proposal in Colorado defined human beings at "the moment of fertilization." The Florida amendment refers to "the beginning of the biological development," which McEwen defined in a Thursday interview to mean a fertilized egg.
That, opponents say, would make it a crime not just to kill a fetus by abortion, but also to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman's uterus as birth control pills can.
"By their definition, anything that you might do to interfere with the implantation of a fertilized egg would be tantamount to murder," said Marc Farinella, a campaign consultant for Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, presumptive Democratic candidate for governor.Anti-abortion conservatives are proposing a new constitutional amendment that critics... more
I was crafting on the floor of my bedroom, watching Bravo, when a woman’s voice came on the television. “Did you know when you are on the birth control pill, there is no medical need to have a period?”
My heart sank. It just sounded gross. A pill to kill your instincts? It’s like a werewolf willingly taking small doses of silver.I was crafting on the floor of my bedroom, watching Bravo, when a woman’s voice came... more
A UK survey has revealed that myths about contraception may be widespread.
One in five women said they had heard of kitchen items, including bread, cling film and even chicken skin, being used as alternative barrier methods.A UK survey has revealed that myths about contraception may be widespread.
One in... more
Thousands of women are being denied the most appropriate contraceptive because their doctors aren't telling them about alternative forms of birth control.
Two studies published today confirm that all types of the Pill slightly increase the chances of a woman suffering blood clots and that too many women are not being given the safest tablets.
Another survey found that fewer women are being given a choice of birth control method. There are currently 23 brands of Pill but there are also 14 types of femal contraceptive - everything from intrauterine devices to patches, implants and injections that slowly release hormones. But women are saying they're not always told about these options.Thousands of women are being denied the most appropriate contraceptive because their... more
India is offering couples cash for not having children until two years after their marriage. Couples can receive 5,000 rupees (£62) or 7,500 rupees if they wait another year. With the population currently at 1.2 billion, officials are optimistic that this will drive the birthrate down.India is offering couples cash for not having children until two years after their... more
