Happy November, Voxers!

Hey guys!   Thanks to everyone who came out to Sexual Arts and Crafts, it was a great event with an awesome turnout!  And Halloween was made safer by our very own Safer Sex Fairies!

Here's an article about Sexual Arts and Crafts from last week's Cavalier Daily:

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2009/10/23/safe-sex/

But there's still lots to do this semester!  Check back here (and our e-mail list) for updates about future meetings.

At our next meeting, this Thursday, November 5th at 7:15 pm in Cabell 222, Stephanie Shaw from Planned Parenthood's public policy department will speak about the role of women's health in the health care debate, covering topics such as the Hyde amendment, the Mikulski amendment, abortion coverage, the issue of pregnancy and domestic violence being considered pre-existing conditions by insurance companies, and what women and all reproductive health advocates can do to participate in the debate about health care reform. 

Plus.... free pizza!! :)

And...don't forget to vote this Tuesday!

-Margaret

P.S. Sorry for utterly failing as Secretary in recent weeks... I'm going to attempt to be way more consistent with updates! :)

SEXUAL ARTS AND CRAFTS

SEXUAL ARTS AND CRAFTS is TOMORROWWWWW!!!!!

I'm super excited and super stressed but I know that it's going to be amazing. SO come one, come all and learn the things you never did in high school, ask the questions you never felt comfortable asking, play some fun games and win some sweet prizes while you're at it!!

xo Tati

Articles!

Hi out there, everybody! I volunteered to be Media Watchdog at the beginning of the year, but I haven't gotten much (or, um, anything) done in that role since then...until now! Here are a few items of note.

First, you may have seen this on the front page of today's New York Times, but in case you didn't, here's a look at how abortion factors into the health care debate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/health/policy/29abortion.html

Texans finding a better use for government money:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/28/texas-contraception/

I also wanted to share a couple links about mandatory waiting period laws. I feel like it's an issue that sort of slips through the cracks in a lot of discussions about reproductive rights. You don't hear a whole lot about it, but it's actually very important. Think about a woman in a rural location, having to travel hours to get to an abortion clinic- and then having to either make ANOTHER trip 24-48 hours later, or else get a hotel and incur those expenses. And of course, she might be missing work, or she might need to find someone to watch her kids, or she may not have reliable transportation...these laws create so many needless obstacles. Here's a wikipedia map showing which states have these laws (Virginia is one of them):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_US_mandatory_waiting_period_laws.svg

A report from the Guttmacher Institute about this issue (as well as the related issue of mandatory counseling):

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/MandatoryCounseling.pdf

And a nice piece about one of these laws in South Carolina:

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20090503/NEWS/905019935?Title=Abortion-waiting-period-Bill-hits-women-below-the-belt

That's all for now! Hope your week's going well!

-Matthew

VOX Meeting Minutes: September 3!

Hi, Voxers!  As part of the exciting position of Secretary, I'm going to be posting meeting minutes to the blog so everyone can stay connected and up to date on what we're doing!

Here's what happened last week, September 3!

-Check out the Midwest Teen Sex Show, if you haven't already!  It's got lots of humorous episodes discussing issues that traditional Sex Ed probably won't cover...

-Tatiana gave us a brief history of Planned Parenthood;

Did you know that 1 in 4 women has gone to Planned Parenthood at least once?  That there are 850 in the U.S.?  Or that 90% of the services provided by Planned Parenthood are preventative?  

-Sarah shared some great info about strategies for positive tabling for Planned Parenthood

-Keiana is planing to create some cool, informative flyers to put around Grounds to educate people about Planned Parenthood and what it's really all about.

-Lots of Voxers volunteered to help sell drinks at Fridays after Five... awesome!

-Also, Sexual Arts and Crafts will be October 29, so mark your calendars!

Next meeting -- Thursday, September 10, 7:10 pm in Cabell 119 (hey, that's only two hours from now!)

See you there!

-- Margaret, your new Vox Secretary!

New Year, New Semester

Hey Voxers,
I can't believe a new school year is starting so soon...summer flew by.

This year we have a lot of ideas for VOX; we're going to continue having Sexual Arts and Crafts which is always awesome and there's also the state conference to look forward to which provides us with tons of useful information and is a great time to meet Voxers from other schools in the state.

Also Sarah and I have been thinking up some new activities for this semester. We were thinking maybe some interesting speakers (Catholics for Choice, Med Students for Choice) and maybe also focusing more on the legislative side of things since it is an election year in the Commonwealth and the national health care debate is all over the news and one sticking point is how abortion services would be dealt with.

I think we're going to have a great year and I can't wait to see y'all at our first meeting on Thursday the 27th from 7:15 to 8 pm in Cabell 118! Food and drinks will be provided.

xo,
~Tati

MTV surprised me

Hey Voxers!
Hope you're having a fabulous end of July.

So this evening I settled down to watch some tv and to my surprise the season finale of 16 and pregnant came on MTV. Now I know most of you are shaking your heads right now in disbelief that such a show even exists. It does and it's actually pretty good. Each episode follows one teenage girl through her pregnancy and for a couple of weeks after she gives birth and does a good job of accurately showing that pregnancy is a big deal and not something you just decide to do on a whim. You see just about everything in these episodes from the strain that the pregnancy is having on various relationships to the agony of labor. Anyways the season finale was a big reunion type thing with Dr. Drew presiding over it and looking back the these young womens' journeys and asking them questions about their experiences. What really struck me is the poise with which these young ladies carried themselves and took responsibilty for their actions. Universally all of them wound up pregnant because they didn't use birth control or didn't use it every time, but during the show they said that looking back and knowing what they know now they would have been much more vigilant about using condoms or the pill or whatever.

Moral of my post though is this show (at least the finale) should be required watching for middle and high schoolers...and though MTV may no longer play music and may produce such smut as the show based on Hot Chicks with Douchebags, it actually did a really great job with 16 and Pregnant and showing teen pregnancy from all sides and not glossing over anything.

Hope you all have a fabulous Friday and weekend!!

xo ~Tati

P.S. Pictures from tabling to come from this weekend!

Keep women's health a priority!!!

Gooooooood morning, VOXers!

So...I received a rather troubling e-mail a few days ago from PPFA (Planned Parenthood Federation of America) about an attack by anti-choice Sen Orrin Hatch on an amendment to the Senate HELP committee health care reform bill. This Women's Health Amendment, proposed by Sen. Barbara Mikulski and passed several days ago, will ensure coverage for preventive medical care like cancer screenings, contraception, pap tests, HIV screenings and other essential preventive medical services. The amendment ensures that women will be able to seek care, and have that care covered, from "essential community providers," a category under which Planned Parenthood falls....sounds great right? I mean, why would anyone NOT want essential preventive care included as a part of comprehensive health care reform? Wellll...Sen. Orrin Hatch, along with other Republicans in the Senate, have publicly attacked the amendment, accusing it of "forc[ing] private insurance companies to pay for abortions..." This accusation is false, and is an attempt to advance his anti-choice agenda with disregard to the need for the preventive medical services provided for in the Women's Health Amendment. The truth is, the amendment would do no such thing...it would not mandate coverage of abortion, but rather of medically appropriate and necessary preventive care. The preventive medical services included in this amendment that PP, and other "essential community providers" like it provide are an integral and vital component of health care for women. I am appalled that Sen. Hatch and others would attempt to advance his own political agenda in this way at the expense of women's health.

Click here to tell Senator Hatch you won't stand for it!

Alrighty, I hope you're all enjoying the GORGEOUS weather... I know I can't wait to get outside and soak up some sun :) And for all you Harry Potter fans out there...get excited! (And no, I am not ashamed to admit I'm still a big Harry Potter geek, even at this age...)

xoxo,

Sarah

Something I woke up to this morning

Hey there Voxers!
So this morning after waking up to the terrible sound of the alarm system coming from Scott Stadium, I found this link in my facebook inbox from Amber (former pres). I reallyyyy want one of the vulva puppets; it would be absolutely amazing for sexual arts and crafts and I would also probably keep it on my desk year round just to get a rise out of people.
One really shocking statistic that I read in the article though is that according to a 1996 study in Hong Kong, 78% of youth use porn and mass media as their main source of information about sex. My guess is that it's probably not much better in the US were 8+ years of abstinence only sexual education has only yielded a ridiculously high teen pregnancy rate and the staggering statistic that 1 in 4 teenage girls has an STD/STI. Maybe we need our own version of Kar Kar and Tak Tak in conjunction with age appropriate, medically accurate, comprehensive sexual education. Maybe that way we could empower young people with knowledge that could protect them from detrimental choices and their consequences and maybe I personally wouldn't go back to my high school and see another 5 senior girls pregnant (out of a 200 person class). Anyways I'm going to get off my soap box and do some actual work.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and if you're in Cville, have an awesome Midsummer's!!

xo,
Tati

Vox has a blog!!

Hey VOXers!!!

We've gone and created a blog for Vox. We'll use this as a way to keep you updated about Vox activities, events and current news and legislation regarding women's reproductive health.

Wishing you all a healthy, happy and fun summer!

--Tatiana and Sarah