Thursday, August 9, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

US school under attack for forcing girls to take pregnancy tests

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 07:00 AM PDT

Rachel Ogbu
WVoN co-editor

A school in Louisiana, USA, has been criticised for forcing girls to undergo pregnancy tests and dismissing any who refuse the test or who are found to be pregnant.

Now under legal pressure, the Delhi Charter School is said to have forced pregnant girls to leave school or study at home.

According to a controversial "Student Pregnancy Policy" in the school manual, the school reserves the right to hold a parent conference if it suspects that a student is pregnant, and requires female students to take pregnancy tests and refer those girls to a doctor of its choice.

Pregnant students are not allowed to attend classes on campus. Instead they have to study at home.

A refusal to take the test or being found to be pregnant carries the same punishment as possession of a firearm, knife or illegal drug.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has now written a public letter to the school demanding that it shelve the policy.

 

Addressed to the school’s two principals Chris Broussard and Nikki Roark, as well as the board chairman Albert Christman, the organisation argues that the policy is in “clear violation of federal law and the US constitution”.

According to the ACLU, the policy had violated ‘Title IX’ of the Education Amendments of 1972, the federal law that bans discrimination based on gender in educational programs, as well as the equal protection and due process clauses of the Constitution.

The policy is discriminatory because it treats girls who are pregnant or suspected of being pregnant differently from all other students.

Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU, said the policy also violated part of the Education Amendments and Equal Protection Clause “because it excludes students from educational programs and activities on the basis of sex.

"What a school should do is treat pregnancy as any other medical condition and allow the student to participate fully in anything that she's medically capable of participating in," Esman said, noting the policy doesn’t say anything about male students who father children.

"The policy violates the substantive Due Process right to procreate and to decide whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy .. [and] by imposing an irrebuttable presumption that pregnant students are unable to continue to attend classes," she said.

The policy is also "based on the archaic and pernicious stereotype that a girl's pregnancy sets a 'bad example' for her peers — i.e. that in having engaged in sexual activity, she has transgressed acceptable norms of feminine behaviour," according to Esman's letter.

State officials agreed that the policy violated federal law and the Louisiana State Department of Education has demanded that it be changed.

In a statement to the Daily News, Principal Chris Broussard said the school is reviewing the policy with a local law firm.

“There have never been any complaints from students or parents about the school’s policy,” he said.

“However, in light of the recent inquiry, the current policy has been forwarded to the law firm of Davenport, Files & Kelly in Monroe, La., to ensure that necessary revisions are made so that our school is in full compliance with the constitutional law”.

Court rules Namibian HIV positive women sterilised without consent

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 05:30 AM PDT

Natalie Calkin
WVoN co-editor 

A judge in Namibia has ruled that three HIV positive women were sterilised without their informed consent, although there was no evidence this was because they were HIV positive.

Namibia's Legal Assistance Centre brought the cases on behalf of the women, who were aged between 22 and 47.

During the period 2005 to 2007, the women elected to have caesarean sections to avoid the risk of their children becoming infected with HIV.

However, at the same time, they were asked to sign consent forms that used unintelligible acronyms that the women could not understand.

After being in labour for four days, one of the women was made to believe she could only have a caesarean if she signed the form.

All three women only realised the meaning of "BTL" (bilateral tubal litigation), the operation to which they were "consenting", after surgery had taken place.

Judge Elton Hoff said the women should have not been asked to sign consent forms given the circumstances and ruled that they could not give informed consent. The hospitals therefore acted illegally and were in breach of the women's human rights.

The courtroom was full of campaigners wearing t-shirts printed with the words "non negotiable; my body, my womb, my rights".

Welcoming the judgement, the women’s lawyer, Amon Ngavetene, was reported in The Guardian as saying: "I was happy that the judge said we are moving from medical paternalism to patient autonomy".

The case and surrounding publicity is also paving the way for other countries to take action against the forced sterilisation of HIV positive women.  In Kenya, South Africa, and Swaziland women are coming forward to report similar cases.

Dr Norbert Forster, Deputy Permanent Secretary of Namibia's Health Ministry, has now said that forced sterilisation of HIV positive women is not official government policy.

According to UNAids, 13% of Namibians are affected with HIV, a figure that is lower than other sub-Saharan African countries.

Mother to child transmission of the disease can be prevented using the drug Nevirapine, but UN Aids reports that this drug only reaches 58% of expectant mothers  in Namibia at present.

Mugabe launches women’s empowerment framework in Zimbabwe

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 04:00 AM PDT

Natalie Calkin
WVoN co-editor

Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, last month launched the government’s Broad-Based Women’s Economic Empowerment Framework (BBWEEF).

Acknowledging women as important contributors to Zimbabwe’s development after the country’s economic collapse in 2008/9, he said that women needed to obtain the necessary skills to ensure success in their business activities.

One of the Framework’s strategic interventions is “enhancing women’s business ownership or entrepreneurship and facilitating women’s participation in key economic decision-making positions”.

Mugabe also proposed investing in girls’ education, encouraging them to take up trades and apprenticeships, saying:

“Let us educate our children so that the girl can be a metallurgist or geologist” enabling women to aspire to “employment equity with men”.

Zimbabwe is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), which scores and ranks countries according to factors like life expectancy, educational attainment, income and quality of life, Zimbabwe currently stands at 173 out of 179 countries.

The HDI also shows that Zimbabwe has experienced the largest decrease in economic development between 1998 and 2010.

Life expectancy is about 50 and less than half the population have adequate access to sanitation.

Meanwhile, Mugabe, who has claimed he has died “more times than Jesus” reportedly flies via private jet to Singapore in order to be treated for prostate cancer. Each trip costs around $3 million.

According to UNICEF over 50%  of the population live on $1 a day.

As long as such vast inequality exist between the president and Zimbabwe’s people, economic empowerment – for women or men – remains a distant reality.

Women’s rights essential to reduce poverty in rural Asia

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 02:30 AM PDT

Laura Bridgestock
WVoN co-editor 

A report published by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) shows the full extent of the damage caused to entire societies and to the environment, when women are marginalized and disempowered.

In particular, the report focuses on women in rural parts of Asia.

It argues that the lack of progress on women's rights in many parts of the region is leading communities deeper into poverty, and exacerbating the harmful effects of climate change.

RRI summarizes the research as showing that: "despite more understanding, more resources, and policy recommendations, women continue to be largely marginalized and ignored or exploited in resource management processes throughout Asia – to the detriment of global climate and poverty reduction goals."

Susan Assifah, a Kuala Lumpur-based researcher who is also exploring the relationship between women's rights and environmental issues, said:

"We have long thought of women as keys to building societies, but in Asia the idea that women can be movers in the economic and environment realm has to be the biggest thing gained from this report."

Meanwhile Cécile Ndjebet, president of the African Women's Network for Community Management of Forests, commented:

"If women are left out of the land rights equation, we will see a drastic drop in agricultural production, leading to increasing food insecurity and potential famine.

"Poverty and displacement will increase, and we will see a drastic rise in conflicts over resource ownership and usage."

The report identifies key areas of action necessary to break the 'cycle of poverty' into which many women are currently locked.

It highlights the importance of networks such as the Federation of Community Forest Users, Nepal (FECOFUN), which help to raise awareness and share information, while also calling upon other agencies – governmental and NGOs – to step up efforts at understanding and taking action on gender rights issues.

The full report is available here.

Healthy headlines?

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 01:00 AM PDT

Abiola Awojobi-Johnso
WVoN co-editor 

'Pregnant? Don’t drink.’

'Implants? Yes, they’re safe apart from the ones made by a certain European company – if you've had them they'll have to be removed.'

'A drink a day keeps disease away.'

'HRT – the best thing for  menopausal women?’

‘C-Section? A 10% chance of getting an infection.’

‘Pregnant?  You can drink. In moderation.’

These are just a selection of headlines that I’ve noticed recently that relate to women's health.

It seems barely a day goes by without a new report being published advising women what they can and can't do when it comes to their bodies and their health.

Whether it's medication regarding family planning, substances that can affect your unborn child, warnings that too much tv may make your toddler obese, or concerns over artificial hormones when you are past childbearing age – it's enough to make you take to your bed!

What's giving me a headache is the extent to which the information is contradictory.

One minute, it's good news – a scientific report from one source says you can drink a stipulated number of units of alcohol when pregnant. But then another counters it, saying that pregnant women should not drink. At all.

One day it's ok to drink wine – but only red not white. And chocolate can aid one thing but will damage another. And can we really reduce the risk of breast cancer by walking for at least 2.5 hours a week?

With mankind’s (womakind’s too!) increased scientific knowledge, consumer access to health information is growing fast. And women's health in particular is continually being put under the spotlight, causing confusion about what we can and cannot do.

It goes without saying that discussion and debate together with robust research and enquiry are vital to help increase our understanding of health issues and try and stay in good shape through different life stages.

But headlines can be startling and sensational. And if the headline is the only piece of the article you read, that's all you're going to take away from it. And so you'll stay Miss Informed.

With online media and social networking taking over from traditional media, headlines and bite-size pieces of information are often all that people read.

With this in mind, headline writers should stop being so sensational and instead become more responsible. This is especially important when it comes to health.

Scare headlines such as 'cat ladies more likely to commit suicide' or  'children born by C-Section are twice as likely to be obese' or 'sunscreen ingredient linked to endometriosis' and the like should provide proof rather than just sensationalism.

In a recent survey conducted by China Youth Daily's Social Investigation Center and quoted in The English People's Daily in China, 60% of respondents have been misled by sensational headlines.

It said: 'When reading news, over 20% of respondents only read headlines and over 66% scan full stories after reading the headlines. Only over 11% read full stories thoroughly.'

The saturation of sensational headlines in our media outlets, especially online, means people are being seduced with eye-catching headlines. The actual content in the story often does not match up.

Even taking into consideration the fact that new research is being undertaken all the time, meaning that advice given to pregnant women five years ago may now be out of date, it’s those old headlines that they’ll remember.

Dr Jennifer Blake, Head of Women's Health and Chief of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at both Women's College Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, said in Women's Health Matters that instead of being overwhelmed by sensational headlines that women 'use common sense, work with your doctor, know what works for you and above all adopt a healthy lifestyle.'

So, maybe it is ok for me to indulge in that extra glass of wine after all.

According to research it won't hurt, but I guess that depends on whether it's red or white and which piece of research I choose to follow.