Jill

An FDA advisory panel unanimously approved the FC2 female condom. The FC2 is very similar to the current version of the female condom and is in fact intended to replace it. The primary difference is the FC2 is made of nitrile instead of polyurethane, making it cheaper to manufacture. As that one of the primary barriers preventing women from using female condoms is cost, this is excellent news.

I'll be honest: I don't approve of cosmetic surgery. I think it's incredibly important to love and accept our bodies for what they are, and to extend that acceptance to everyone's body. To my mind, surgically altering your body solely for cosmetic reasons is neither loving nor accepting.

I came across an interesting study on the state of sex ed in Illinois today. Illinois, like most states, receives money from the federal government for abstinence-only sex ed. Some highlights of the study include:

I don't think I need to explain that this is a step in the right direction. The Boston Globe and AlterNet have articles going into more detail.

Mike Huckabee has recently been taken to task for his positions on the transmission and treatment of AIDS.

Congress is considering repealing the military's discriminatory "don't ask, don't tell" policy. At present the bill (The Military Readiness Enhancement Act (H.R. 1246)) is in committee with 136 cosponsors. In the past fourteen years Don't Ask, Don't Tell has done a great deal of harm, not only to...

Before I get started, full disclosure: I haven't shaved or depilated anything in nine years and I just don't come in contact with much advertising. (It's amazing what you miss when you fast-forward through commercials and don't buy mainstream magazines.) That being said, I am appalled by Nair's new ad campaign.

Recently, the cost of hormonal forms of birth control such as the pill and the patch, among others, have skyrocketed. At least if you're buying them from a campus health clinic. Up until this year, pharmaceutical companies gave colleges deep discounts on contraception. Time Magazine explains why costs have gone up so much and The Chicago Sun-Times gives an example of the consequences.

We're already gearing up for the 2008 election and some candidates have some rather antiquated views on birth control. That's right, the pill and other routine methods of contraception considered controversial -- at least if you're trying to gain the Republican nomination for president.

The dramatic declines in teenage pregnancy rates noted in the United States between 1995 and 2002 were largely due to improved contraceptive use, not to abstinence, a new study shows. The article goes into far more detail but I just want to point out that this is evidence that teens can and do make responsible choices when choosing to be sexually active. Indeed, contraceptive use accounted for 86% of the drop whereas abstinence can only claim 14%.