Quick Hits

New legislation introduced in the Senate this past Tuesday would require federally funded hospitals—under Medicare or Medicaid—to provide emergency contraception to rape victims who request it. A group of Democrats are backing this legislation, titled the "Emergency Contraception Access and Education Act of 2014." 

The proposed bill says that a contraceptive drug must be provided if it is approved by the FDA and "prevents pregnancy primarily by preventing or delaying ovulation, and does not terminate an established pregnancy."

Previous blog posts on AASECT Express have highlighted the ways in which sexual education across the United States is lacking, oftentimes because of legislation that limits access to more a comprehensive sex education. But a study recently published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders shows that it can be even worse for disabled students, who are often cut out of sexual education entirely.

The World Health Organisation recently released a report detailing the extent to which sexual orientation and gender expression/gender identity are pathologized in The International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. The authors of the report conclude that such reporting practices should be revised, and make suggestions as to how to go forward with said revisions.

Half of young British women don’t understand the basic anatomy of their vaginas, reports the Eve Appeal, a women's cancer charity. In an attempt to encourage women to learn more about the risks and symptoms of gynecological cancers, they surveyed 1,000 women on their anatomy, and on the health of said anatomy. Out of those 1,000 women, just half of those aged 26 to 35 could locate the vagina on a medical drawing of the female reproductive system.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in a study led by Dr.

It was only last month that we posted about the results of a study indicating that sex ed should start sooner. Yet parents of high school-aged kids — the typical starting age for sex education — are still pushing back against sex-related educational materials.

Earlier this year, we ran a piece in Contemporary Sexuality on how chronic illness can affect sexual functioning. A variety of illnesses were mentioned in this article, among them cancer, which often affects sexual functioning because of both the emotional and physical changes that occur as a result of diagnosis and treatment.

Considering the theme of AASECT's recent Summer Institute — "Is Sex Good for Adolescence?" — the publication of a recent study on sex education for adolescents in Global Public Health: An International

The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that for-profit employers with religious objections can opt out of providing contraception coverage under Obamacare.

The decision is stunning in its disregard toward women's reproductive rights alone, but also has far larger and more troubling implications, as it could open the door in the future to corporations attempting to withhold coverage for other medical procedures at odds with their religious beliefs.

According to a recent story in The Lancet, eight years ago, researchers implanted laboratory-grown vaginal tissue into four women who happened to have a rare syndrome — Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKHS) — that resulted in absent or under-developed genital structures.