Help Us Protect Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Care Today!
Nov 23
Linda Prine MD, Natalie Hinchcliffe DO, Shauna Gallagher MD How many times have we heard the refrain: “We don’t need to do abortions in our family medicine practice, we have a XXX (fill in the blank with the name of your local abortion care clinic) in town.”? Too many times. Comments like these reflect…
Sep 28
Starting next year, Oregon and California will be the first two states in the nation to offer birth control without a prescription. Women living in these states will be able to purchase birth control at the pharmacy after undergoing a short health screening performed by their pharmacist. The laws differ somewhat in the two states.…
Aug 18
Dr. Lucia McLendon was RHAP’s 2012-2013 Reproductive Health and Advocacy Fellow. We recently spoke to her about some of the projects she worked on as a Fellow that are still an important part of her work today. “I became involved in reproductive health care because of my experiences growing up in the rural south. I…
Mar 24
99% of sexually active American women will use contraception in their lifetime. As key providers of primary care to women and families across the country, family physicians need to be able to provide evidence-based, patient-centered contraceptive care. In 2014 the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education recognized the importance of family planning as a part…
Jul 02
The development of safe, effective contraception is widely considered to be one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. Contraception reduces unintended pregnancy, improves birth outcomes, reduces maternal death and has been correlated with improved health and economic benefits for families and communities. Worldwide, contraception is considered basic health care and access…
Jul 01
I’m a pro-choice nurse practitioner and I am the only medical provider in the only clinic serving a community in the rural South. My clinic is run by a Catholic hospital. I want to share my story for a couple of reasons. One, I hope that other folks out there in similar situations (I know…
Apr 30
The concept of cervical barriers has been around for a long, long time. Some of these (pretty creative) objects have included partially squeezed lemon halves, oiled paper disks, algae and seaweed, sponges, and even balls of opium, just to name a few. However, the first official cervical barrier was invented by German gynecologist Friedrich Wilde,…
Mar 20
We’ve just released two new birth control fact sheets covering Natural Family Planning and Permanent Birth Control (Sterilization). The Natural Family Planning (NFP) fact sheet lays out seven common methods of natural family planning, and compares them by efficacy. The sheet explains how each NFP method works and lists common pros and cons. The Permanent Birth Control…
Jan 17
Nexplanon/Implanon is a type of birth control that lasts three years and is over 99% effective at preventing pregnancy. A health care professional inserts the implant in your arm, and it is thin plastic rod that releases progestin. Over the 30 years since the implant was introduced, it has gone through many phases and several…
Dec 11
Apparently IUD users love their IUD so much they can’t help themselves from spreading the word about how great a contraceptive option it is. New York Magazine is calling this phenomena “IUD Evangelism.” Why is getting an IUD an almost spiritual experience? “..learning about the IUD is like discovering that some benevolent God has been listening to…