[sudo-discuss] TIL: Hacking Sexual Health: Good news: Plan B.

[Anon195714]

Yo all-

A federal judge has ruled that the "Plan B, One-Step" emergency
contraceptive pill must be made available _over-the-counter_ (not just
on prescription) to all ages, e.g. young women under 17 as well as 17
and up.  He ruled that the Obama Administration's attempt to limit Plan
B to prescription-only for women under age 17, was clearly based on
election-year politics rather than on science, and only health science
can be a valid basis for policies re. medications.  It appears that the
Obama administration is happy with the ruling and probably won't
appeal.  This information via CBS Radio news. 

If I'm not mistaken, Plan B works by preventing implantation of a
fertilized egg in the uterus.  This can be a life-saver particularly for
teenage young women and for rape victims.  In the past few years there
have been some truly outrageous cases where rape victims who were
transported to hospitals that turned out to be run by the Catholic
Church, were denied emergency contraception on the grounds that the
hospital has a religious freedom right to determine what treatments it
will offer.  (More accurately, that the hospital's right to its freedom
of religion trumps the emergency patient's right to their own freedom of
religion.)

The extreme religious right calls Plan B "an abortion in a pill,"
presumably because only God can determine which fertilized eggs do
implant, and which ones (the majority of them) pass out of the body
during the monthly period.  Based on that reasoning, only God can
determine who lives and who dies from common diseases, so members of the
religious right should stop taking all medication for infectious
illnesses.  (Wishful thinking, but none the less;-)

It occurs to me that SudoRoom sexual health might include making various
contraceptives and safer-sex materials available at no cost to members,
along with instructions for proper usage.  Having Plan B available at SR
might be a very good idea in the event someone needs it urgently at a
time when pharmacies are closed or there is some other issue preventing
them getting it at a pharmacy.

---

In other public health news, international public health experts are
seriously concerned about the H5N9 virus, because it's a novel virus
with an extremely high case fatality rate ("CFR").  Recently there have
been approx. 18 cases in China, of which approx. 6 have been fatal.  

New viruses often emerge first in China due to migratory bird paths over
China plus agricultural practices that keep ducks and pigs in relatively
close proximity.  The transmission path is from wild birds to captive
ducks, and from there to pigs.  Pigs catch both avian and human viruses,
so they become "mixing vessels" enabling swapping of genetic material
between avian and human viruses, leading to emergent viruses that are
potentially deadly to humans. 

I follow the public health news pretty closely, so if H5N9 starts to
look like an actual danger rather than only a potential threat, I'll
pull the red fire alarm on the SudoRoom mailing list.

-G.


=====


On 13-04-04-Thu 3:29 PM, Hol Gaskill wrote:
> any excuse to finally build out a sex dungeon
>
> Apr 4, 2013 03:26:16 PM, greggahorton at gmail.com wrote:
> Maybe we can rent out one of the other rooms to be a "testing and research" area. 
>> On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 3:24 PM, Praveen Sinha dmhomee at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I've been wanting to do more "quantified sex" experiments, with heart rate monitors, skin flushing, eeg, etc.  This may be a good excuse to actually do some of that.
>>
>
>> On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 12:18 AM, Vicky Knox vknoxsironi at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
> Tonight during the general meeting I proposed the Today I Learned event "Hacking Sexual Health". I'd like to open up the floor to multiple facilitators interested in this topic area to help me lead either one TIL workshop, or a series of workshops if there is sufficient excitement. Hacking Sexual Health is intended for sexual and asexual people alike. 
>
>
>
>> So what does it mean to hack sexual health? Ruminate on it. :]
>>
>> My personal interest is hacking menstruation. I'd like to lead a workshop for creating cloth pads out of recycled clothing. The workshop is intended both for people who menstruate and for people who have friends who menstruate (and want to make them lovely presents!). We will go over different lady product options and have fun cost-comparisons for different products and unproducts. 
>
>
>> I will be reserving either April 27th or May 4th upon consulting my secretary. :P
>> Please contact me if you are interested in developing your own workshop or helping me to facilitate menstruation hacking! 
>
>
>> ykciV
>> PS: Clothing hackers, you know who you are! 
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