Women's Right to Health, Safety

USA TODAY

Guest Columnist - Sybil Shainwald

 

NEW YORK – Billions of dollars every year are spent on weapons.  Those in power have made a choice in favor of technology while the improvement of safe, simple barrier methods of birth control has been practically overlooked.

 

The U.S. retail contraceptive market has been estimated at $1 billion a year.  Hormonal contraceptives are, of course, the most profitable.  Research focuses mainly on the female reproductive system.  Only 12 percent of all contraceptive research funds are spent on male contraceptive research.

 

Our emphasis has been on technology, which has produced methods that require medical supervision.  There is virtually no research to improve condoms.  If barrier methods were promoted with the same zeal as the pill, IUDs, injectables, and sterilization, the experience of many women would be very different. 

 

IUDs were marketed to 22-year-olds like cream cheese, birth control pills were not adequately tested before being marketed, and we’re still in the midst of litigation over the Dalkon Shield, a product that should have been taken off the market in 1972.  Technology has not really protected us; in many cases it has caused serious harm – and death.

 

Despite some shift, the emphasis in contraceptive research is still on female hormones.  On the horizon are implants, injectables, hormone-releasing vaginal rings, anti-pregnancy vaccines, and RU 486.  RU 486 is a steroidal derivative, which inhibits the action of progesterone, a hormone necessary in pregnancy.  Clinical trials are under way in at least 10 countries, but there are problems with it and we do not know enough about its safety and reliability.  It is as likely as other forms of contraceptive research to suffer from a shortage of funds.

 

We have a right to abortion, we have a right to family planning, but we also have a right to health and safety.  A women-centered contraceptive revolution would take into account women’s values, women’s health, women’s bodies, and women’s choices.  The cervical cap, a safe, effective barrier method, is expected to be approved by the FDA this year, largely due to the work of women activist.

 

Women must not be treated as potential breeder who must be controlled by the population-control establishment.  Women have an interest in having more options and in controlling their lives and their bodies