Your Non-Repro Health News

Happy Friday! As the week winds down, here are a few not-quite-repro-health-related stories of note:

• "Helloooo, this is Dr. Maya Angelou calling. Tell me something: Would you deny your son or your daughter the ecstasy of finding someone to love?" These are some robo-calls I actually wish I was getting.


• I personally have always been a horrible speller. But that doesn't stop me from loving the story about this thirteen year-old girl winning the spelling bee.


• There's a great roundup of Judge Sotomayor's Opinions over at RH Reality Check.


• And finally, most of you must have heard the sad news that the CA Supreme Courtupheld Proposition 8. Below is a small collection of some of the protests that happened all over the country as a result.

So tell me all. What will you be up to this weekend?

Protesters gather in the castro district in San Francisco. Via Capt' Tim..

Protest in Dupont Circle, DC. Photo via M Hoek.

Protest in Atlanta, GA. Photo via Melissa Terry.

Michelle Obama & Elmo Encourage You to Stay Healthy

Make this your smile of the week. (Via.

Not afraid to be helpful: Fun ways to break the ice when asking someone their HIV status

As you already know, today is World AIDS Day. One of the hardest, yet most essential, things about dating in this day and age is getting up the guts to ask potential partners about their HIV status. So we’ve included some helpful ways to break the ice below:

• Say “Look, I put clean sheets on the bed! And speaking of clean….”

• Arrange to meet someone at a certain time. Arrive ten minutes early. While waiting, text them asking for a status update. When they write back, reply “No, not THAT status silly…”

• Find the free HIV testing places closest to cupcake bakeries. Propose a “recession date” where you take advantage of the free activities around NYC. Show up at the testing facility and bribe date with promise of cupcakes.

• As an early Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanza/New Years present, give your date a coupon for one hot and steamy makeout session, redeemable upon presentation of their HIV test results.

• Find out your potential partner’s favorite celebrity superstar. Photoshop up a fake copy of US Weekly with that celebrity in it espousing on how cool it is to get your HIV test results. Casually read this out loud in front of them (note this works extra well if their favorite celebrity has already spoken out about the importance of HIV testing. Not so well if their favorite celebrity is someone like Heidi Montag).

• “Knock knock”
“Who’s there?”
“Orange”
“Orange who?”
“Orange you glad I know my HIV status? When are you finding out yours??”

This is not an endorsement, either

Yesterday, Presidential candidates Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, along with Elizabeth Edwards, spoke at Planned Parenthood Action Fund's convention. Each pledged to support reproductive health and rights. (All Prez candidates were invited, the above were the only ones to attend...) Probably nothing we didn't already know right there, but nice to see the tops of the ticket show up and stand up.

And, on that note, what legislation are we supporting today? Check out Senator Clinton's re-introduction of "The Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act," a law that would make Emergency Contraception (EC) -- a second chance to PREVENT unintended pregnancy -- available at all facilities for our servicewomen. As it stands now, Department of Defense policy does not require EC to be available at all health care facilities. In fact, current availability of EC is up to the discretion of each individual facility. Considering that timely access to EC (which is effective up to 5 days after unprotected sex but is most effective the sooner you take it), Congress should waste no time passing this common-sense legislation. But. They probably will.

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On a COMPLETELY unrelated note, I think that the people who have uploaded Harry Potter #7 are really not playing fair (oh, and breaking the law). Marketing aside, there's something to be said for an extremely rare, exciting experience that has truly united the global community and the HP madness has singularly offered/captured that. Don't spoil it for the rest of us...