Tag: Menstruation

ICYMI: ‘Everything You Need to Know About Birth Control’ with Dr. Sophia Yen

In this time of crisis, Dr. Sophia Yen says it’s essential we take charge of our own reproductive health. Yen is the CEO and co-founder of Pandia Health, the only doctor-led and women-founded and -led birth control delivery company. She is a board-certified physician with a focus in adolescent medicine, and serves as a clinical associate professor at Stanford Medical School in the Department of Pediatrics.

In a Ms. webinar on Tuesday, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Birth Control,” Yen broke down the best forms of birth control and emergency contraception, why you should consider skipping your period, how to get abortion pills (even if you live in a state with a ban), and more.

Abortion How-To: The Ms. Q&A on Menstrual Extraction With Carol Downer

Before Roe v. Wade, one of the ways women bypassed the medical system to get necessary abortions was a technique feminists called “menstrual extraction,” using a syringe, flexible plastic tubing and a mason jar to extract the contents of the uterus.

Ms. spoke with activist Carol Downer about her experiences teaching people to perform menstrual extractions and how the procedure could help post-Roe.

“How in the world can that Supreme Court sit up there and deny this thing to us? How can they get away with that? You can guarantee that Amy Coney Barrett has not seen her own cervix.”

What Was Justice Alito Thinking?

When Justice Samuel Alito did the final proofreading of his majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, he must have felt a great sense of moral rectitude and satisfaction at the fulfillment of a half-century-long mission.

But he should also have been a bit nervous about the thinness of some of his assertions and the vulnerability of some of his legal analysis. That last reading might have gone something like this.

Abortion on Our Own Terms: ‘Supreme Court Justices Can’t Put Abortion Pills Back in the Bottle’

and

In response to the Supreme Court’s imminent overturning of Roe v. Wade, a coalition of over 70 reproductive health, rights and justice organizations have created a new campaign, Abortion On Our Own Terms, to educate the public about the safety and effectiveness of self-managed abortion using medications.

“We are defiant that no matter what these bigoted justices do to abortion access under the law, we know that people will continue to take abortion into their own hands.”

Now More Than Ever, It’s Time for Universal Menstrual Education for Gender Equality

and

Ninety-two percent of high school students reported needing a new pad or tampon during school. Yet, period poverty, a lack of access to menstrual products due to economic circumstances, impacts students’ ability to safely address menstruation.

“Some girls find out about their periods when they actually get them. It’s just never talked about in schooling.”

Will My Period Tracking App Betray Me? Menstrual Surveillance in a Post-Roe World

Menstrual data and period tracking has already become a lucrative industry for apps. Selling private and personal reproductive health data to companies has created income many fertility apps.

The availability of this data already poses a unique threat to the lives of all people with uteruses, but in a world without Roe the risk of this data becoming a weapon for the anti-abortion movement. They have been known to use such data to influence decision making and reproductive choices. In order to keep this vital data out of their hands action needs to be taken to provide protection and safe alternatives for menstruators.

Women’s Rights and Democracy Are Inextricably Linked

Last fall, America was featured for the first time on a list of backsliding democracies. With inadequate progress in women’s participation in government, reproductive rights, and maternal mortality, this title may reflect recent attacks on gender equality. Amer­ica’s long­stand­ing and abysmal record on myriad gender equity mark­ers has been the true harbinger for our down­graded democracy status.