As the average American tries to make sense of the constantly shifting health plan and attendant debates, one issue remains crystal clear. Women’s reproductive rights are being used as a football and bargaining chip in the fight to secure a long awaited health care bill.
“The most important point that I have always said from day one, is that the use of this vaccine must be done with informed consent and complete disclosure of the benefits and harms of Pap screening and HPV vaccines. The decision to be vaccinated must be the woman’s (or parent’s if it is for a young child), and not the physician’s or any board of health, as the vaccination contains personal risk that only the person can value.
Dr. Gibstein suggested that time would tell if the protection is durable, and if complications can be directly attributable to the vaccine.
I talked with Media Relations spokesperson, Pam Eisele, about the vaccine. I submitted a series of questions for the company to answer via e-mail, referencing red flags that had come up in my research. All my queries were responded to, and Eisele offered to put me in touch with a clinical researcher if I required further explanations.
Day two featured a host of top speakers sharing their insights on how to jumpstart reform in a way that puts women’s interests squarely in the middle of the health care landscape. Individual presenters parsed varying agendas, with each pointing out inequities in the existing formula.
Ullman scrutinized how stewardesses from the Middle East and Singapore still have the “I Dream of Jeanie” outfits, reflecting the male corporate ideal. Ullman morphed into an American aviation executive when she exclaimed, “Goddamn it! We lost control of how we make the girls look.”
Feigenholtz has spoken repeatedly about her mother, who emigrated from Poland and put herself through medical school. From her mother she learned that “health care is a right, not a privilege.”
"The Jump Rope Line" by Marcia G. Yerman is included in the Seal Press anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom.
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