The Null Device
Posts matching tags 'contraception'
2006/2/9
The Australian Senate has voted to legalise the RU486 abortion pill. Up until now, the conservative pro-life state required applications to receive the pill to be personally approved by the Health Minister (conservative Catholic Tony Abbott), which effectively banned it. The Senate vote was a conscience vote (which is not that common; most votes in Australia's Federal Parliament are strictly whipped along party lines, more so than in Britain), and passed 45 to 28.
The battle's not over; the vote in the House of Representatives is still pending, and it is expected that Representatives will pay more heed to conservative religious groups. The Religious Right certainly aren't holding back on the pressure. Meanwhile, you can contact your MP about the issue here.
2004/6/13
So what will the culture-warriors in Canberra do to follow up their anti-gay marriage bill? How about withdrawing the morning-after birth-control pill from prescription-free sale. All in the name of protecting young girls from the dangers of sex, of course. Presumably the need to get parental consent for a prescription will scare a lot of teenagers into abstinence, or so the theory goes. (Do the Silent Majority Of Suburban Battlers really vote for such reactionary gestures?)
Anyone want to start a book on when the Howard government's US-style abstinence-only sex education push will be unveiled?
2001/2/19
Studies have apparently shown that women select sexual partners by scent, in a way that maximises diversity of immunity genes, but that women on the pill choose exactly the wrong partners, at least from the point of view of genetic immunity. Mind you, not all scientists agree even that humans can pick up such olfactory information. (via RobotWisdom)