Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Good News on Gender Issues


First, this story about a letter sent fifty years ago to a female Harvard applicant is salutary reading.  The world has changed for the better, at least in some countries.  Much work remains to be done on the global level, however.

Second*,  as a response to those who argue that girls and women just can't do science or at least don't want to do science, well, some, at least, are  good at it.



Third, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologist has (finally) made a statement about all those things the forced-birther politicians require them to do:

The statement specifically denounces several types of laws, including those that tell physicians what to say to women about breast cancer risk and breast density, those that mandate outdated abortion treatment protocols, and those that require women to undergo ultrasounds and view the images before having an abortion.

ACOG in the statement acknowledges that laws can promote public health and help provide for medical services, but it cautions that "laws that veer from these functions and unduly interfere with patient-physician relationships are not appropriate." 


What they are supposed to say about breast cancer risks are untruths.  Or lies, if you prefer a more direct word.  Abortions do not increase the risk of breast cancer, based on all large studies with good data.
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*KHBuzzard in the comments noted that this is an old story, from 2011.  My apologies for that.  I have faced this possibility a lot in my blogging career  (because people re-start a discussion about something old without mentioning that it is old),  This is the first time I failed to spot that something wasn't new.  As an aside, I once wrote a really neat and funny post about something and then couldn't use it because the original piece was five years old...