Oral STDs: Pictures, types, symptoms, treatment, and prevention

Republican Opposition To Birth Control Bill Could Alienate Voters, Poll Finds

One month after the Supreme Court struck down the right to an abortion, Democrats who then controlled the House pushed through a bill aimed to ensure access to contraception nationwide. All but eight Republicans opposed it.

That vote two years ago, opposing legislation that would protect the right to purchase and use contraception without government restriction, may come back to haunt Republicans in November, as they seek to keep hold of their slim majority at a time when real fears about reproductive rights threaten to drive voters away from them.

The risks they face became glaringly clear last week, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children. In response, a stampede of Republicans in Congress have rushed to voice their support for in vitro fertilization treatment — even though they have supported legislation that could severely curtail or even outlaw aspects of the procedure.

A new national poll conducted by Americans for Contraception and obtained by The New York Times found that most voters across the political spectrum believe their access to birth control is actively at risk, and that 80 percent of voters said that protecting access to contraception was "deeply important" to them. Even among Republican voters, 72 percent said they had a favorable view of birth control.

When voters were told that 195 House Republicans had voted against the Right to Contraception Act, 64 percent of them said they would be less likely to support Republican candidates for Congress, according to the poll. And overall, the issue of protecting access to contraception bolstered voters' preference for Democrats by nine points, giving them a 12-point edge over Republicans, up from three.

The survey found that birth control access was especially motivating to critical groups in the Democratic coalition, including Black voters and young people, who are currently less enthusiastic about the election.

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IUDs Removed From Bill Guaranteeing Women On Medicaid Access To Long-term Contraceptives Control After Giving Birth

INDIANAPOLIS — There's controversy at the Statehouse over changes to a long-term birth control access bill.

House Bill 1426 had required hospitals to offer long-term birth control access to new mothers on Medicaid. 

Republican Rep. Cindy Ledbetter, a co-author on the bill, testified in a Senate committee that Indiana Right to Life considered I-U-D's "abortive."

Planned Parenthood responded to the amended bill with a statement, reading in part:

"An IUD is not an abortion. It's just one of many effective birth control methods Hoosiers have to protect themselves against a state of forced pregnancy. The Dobbs decision has emboldened reproductive health opponents in Indiana to spread lies and blur the lines between contraception and abortion." – Haley Bougher, Indiana State Director for PPAA. 

IUDs would still be covered by Medicaid under the amended bill, but hospitals would not have to offer them. Hospitals are also exempt from offering contraceptives under the bill if there is a documented faith-based objection.

Medicine: Birth-Control Birthday

The first State-controlled birth-control program in the U.S. (NorthCarolina's) had its fifth birthday last fortnight. The purpose of NorthCarolina's birth-control program has not been to cut down the State'sbirth rate—one of the highest in the country—but to increase the numberof healthy newborn Tarheels. In five years the State's stillbirths,maternal and infant death rates have dropped sharply. In counties wherethe birth-control program reached a large number of women, theinfant-mortality rate dropped an average of 40% since 1937.

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