Family Planning Perspectives articles from July 2000

Family Planning Perspectives archives from July 2000

Nebraska Abortion Ban Banned.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court on June 28 struck down a Nebraska law that made it illegal for providers to perform "partial-birth abortions."(1) The Court held that in its use of this phrase, which is not a standard medical term for a...

Kids Say the Darnedest Things.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Two nationally representative surveys of 12-17-year-olds conducted in early 2000 yielded what many observers might consider surprising results.(1) Overall, 58% of young people think that it is unacceptable for school-age youth to be sexually...

Windows on the Risk of Gonorrhea.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Residents of run-down neighborhoods have an elevated risk of contracting gonorrhea, according to results of research-conducted in New Orleans.(1) To assess the independent effect of neighborhood deterioration on the gonorrhea risk,...

It's a Knowledge Thing.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Pediatricians' knowledge about emergency contraception, rather than their attitudes toward it, influences whether they provide the method to teenagers.(1) Among 121 pediatricians surveyed in the District of Columbia, all but one had heard of...

Infertility: A Mind-Body Problem?(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Infertile women who take part in group psychological interventions may improve their odds of conceiving.(1) In a study of 184 women who had been trying to become pregnant for 1-2 years, researchers randomly assigned participants to one of three...

Who Sticks with Hormone Therapy?(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Participants in a prepaid health plan in Washington State who initiated continuous combined hormone therapy to alleviate symptoms of menopause were more likely than those who adopted a sequential regimen to still be using their method after one...

The Price of Pelvic Disease.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Medical expenditures for pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and its three major consequences totaled $1.9 billion in 1998.(1) Analysts using cost data from private insurance claims and information on PID and associated conditions from national...

For Some, the Hotline Is Not So Hot.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... A substantial proportion of women who call the toll-free Emergency Contraception Hotline are unable to get timely care from a participating provider.(1) When researchers posing as women in need of emergency contraception called a random sample...

Good and Bad News About Smoking.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Pregnant women were less likely to smoke in 1996 than in 1987, but the change reflects lower overall smoking rates, rather than a trend toward quitting during pregnancy.(1) Using data from 33 states that account for about three-fourths of the...

Adolescent Sexual Behavior: Estimates and Trends From Four Nationally Representative Surveys.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Adolescents in the United States have a higher proportion of pregnancies that are unintended and that end in abortion than do adults.(1) Moreover, adolescents who have initiated sexual intercourse have some of the highest age-specific rates of...

Explaining Demographic Trends in Teenage Fertility, 1980-1995.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Between 1991 and 1998, the birthrate among U.S. adolescents decreased by nearly 18%. Competing hypotheses have been advanced to explain this decline, with some observers claiming that abstinence programs are responsible(1) and others arguing...

Why Are U.S. Women Not Using Long-Acting Contraceptives?(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... By the late 1980s, pill use was tapering off,(1) the IUD was no longer being produced in the United States,(2) diaphragm use was at half the level it had been in 1960(3) and sterilization was becoming many couples' primary method of...

Acceptability of a Novel Vaginal Microbicide During A Safety Trial Among Low-Risk Women.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... In recent years, the testing and evaluation of topical microbicides to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV, have been the focus of considerable attention. This focus reflects increasing recognition that female-controlled...

British General Practitioners' Attitudes Toward Abortion.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... General practitioners play a pivotal role within Britain's National Health Service (NHS). They are experts in diagnosis and carry out minor surgery in their offices. However, for any major surgery, patients are referred to a hospital, where...

Has Canadian Contraceptive Use Really Declined?(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... The recent article by Kelly Martin and Zheng Wu [Contraceptive use in Canada: 1984-1995, 2000, 32(2): 65-73] stresses that contraceptive use in Canada underwent a steep decline in that 11-year period. In fact, protection by contraception and...

Understanding Pregnancy Intentions: A Problem In Evidence Everywhere.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... We read with interest a recent article by James Trussell and colleagues on contraceptive failures and unintended pregnancies [Are all contraceptive failures unintended pregnancies? evidence from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, 1999,...

Americans' Opinions on Population Issues Are Strong, Although Their Knowledge of the Issues Is Poor.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Four-fifths of Americans support U.S. funding for voluntary family planning programs in developing countries, yet about half favor congressional measures that have limited such funding, according to the results of a national public opinion...

Very Short and Very Long Interpregnancy Intervals Raise Odds of Prematurity.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Women who conceive less than 18 months after giving birth are about 10-50% more likely to have a very or moderately premature infant than are women whose interpregnancy intervals are between 18 and 59 months. Women for whom the interval between...

An Elevated Breast Cancer Risk Following a First Birth Declines with Time; Later Pregnancies Do Not Affect Risk.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Women's risk of breast cancer is modestly increased following their first full-term pregnancy, but it then falls gradually and is not affected by subsequent pregnancies. Moreover, the risk related to a first birth is especially elevated among...

Some Effects of Home Nurse Visits to Women in Memphis Endure After the Visits End.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Socioeconomically disadvantaged women in Memphis reaped several long-term benefits from a program in which they received home visits by a nurse during their first pregnancy and for two years after delivering. In the 54 months after giving...

Has There Been a Talk About Sex? Teenagers and Their Mothers Often Disagree.
July 1, 2000... Nine in 10 women surveyed in Philadelphia said that they had talked to their teenage son or daughter about sex, but only two-thirds of the young people agreed. The likelihood that a teenager would report having had such a discussion was reduced...

After Abortion, Danish Women's Odds of Preterm Delivery Are Doubled.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Danish women whose first pregnancy ended in abortion are about twice as likely as those who did not terminate their first pregnancy to subsequently deliver an infant at less than 37 weeks' gestation, according to results of a population-based...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2000... In the digest "In Clinical Trial, Women Using Once-a-Month Injectable Contraceptive Avoid Pregnancy and Approve of Method" [2000, 32(2):95-96], the paragraph under the subheading "Acceptability" should read "To assess the influence of recent...