Felt Cervix Project PSA

Today is National Voter Registration Day. With October right around the corner, so is the voter registration deadline for many states. In California, home of the Felt Cervix Project, you can register to vote online at the Secretary of State's website www.sos.ca.gov. Information on where to register in your specific state can be found at www.usa.gov. Register and participate because your vote is your voice.

vagina :: cervix

Women now more than ever must stay informed and stay educated. There is a never-ending stream of legislation revolving around women's bodies, from health care, abortion, funding for low-cost screenings, to redefining rape, much of it being debated and decided on by men. And many have shown themselves to be truly ignorant on the subject.

A fascinating thing that emerges is that the frame we have around the vagina is very recent and very, very negative. We sort of take for granted that it's going either to be medicalized or demeaned and kind of ridiculous.

When women in the west began to be educated and began to clamor for their rights, immediately gynecological and obstetric industry arose that was determined to keep women ignorant about their bodies as a form of social control.

                                                                                                                     Naomi Wolf

Cervix Mail

On the heels of the entire Felt Cervix Project returning from display at The Kinsey Institute, this sweet cervix pair came in the mail from Amy. They are both knit using Kraemar Yarns, the bottom in Mauch Chunky, color Cotton Candy and the top in Naturally Nazareth, in the color Bloom. 

Package

 

They're back after their summer at The Kinsey Institute!

Let's hear it for the ACA!

Today the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. It's good for the country and especially good for women.

The Campaign Against Women

I may not always agree with ACOG, but this  Letter to the Editor in the NY Times is spot on:

The onslaught of laws focusing on denying reproductive health care rights is a concerted campaign against women. These laws are not grounded in science or evidence-based medicine.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists believes that access to family-planning counseling and to the full array of contraceptives is a basic and essential component of preventive health care for women. 

Efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides cervical cancer and mammography screening, contraception and other preventive care to millions of women, are egregious and disproportionately hurt poor women. 

As physicians for women’s health care, ob-gyns see firsthand the havoc that punitive ideology-based laws have on the health of women and their families. These ill-conceived laws are based on the pretext of protecting health, but they do anything but that. 

Mandating that women be legally forced to undergo transvaginal ultrasound or any other medical procedure against their will and against their physician’s judgment is an outrageous violation of patient autonomy and the confidential doctor-patient relationship. Decreasing access to family planning and contraception will only increase unintended pregnancies and negatively affect family and societal health. 

Politicians were not elected to, nor should they, legislate the practice of medicine or dictate the parameters of the doctor-patient relationship. Our message to politicians is unequivocal: Get out of our exam rooms. 

JAMES T. BREEDEN
President, American Congress
of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Washington, May 22, 2012

Pap Smear Protocol

The link between cervical cancer and particular strains of the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) will mean fewer pap smears for women. If you test negative for HPV, you will only need a cervical cancer screening every three years. That doesn't mean women should miss their annual well woman visit, but I won't complain about less speculum time! Read about details in this article from City of Hope.