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NEWS & LETTERS, March 2002
Column: Women Worldwide by Mary Jo Grey
After two years of hard work and fundraising, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and the Afghan Women's Mission have succeeded in reopening Malalai Hospital for Women and Children in Islamabad, Pakistan, an area with a large Afghan refugee population. The hospital had closed after ten years of operation. The facility will give women and children much needed access to quality health care in a part of the world where one of 12 women dies in childbirth. They are working to expand the hospital to again serve up to 400 patients a day. —Information from Afghan
Women's Mission newsletter *** Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama finally decided at the end of 2001 to cover prescription contraceptives and other forms of birth control for all 2.5 million members in its 28,000 employer-sponsored health care plans. Lawsuits have already forced Blue Cross in other states to begin such coverage. In the quote of the day from company spokesman Jim Brown, "Perhaps it should have been done sooner." Unfortunately, the Utah Senate
Health and Environment Committee has not even progressed that far. In February,
they rejected bills that would have required employers to provide coverage for
prescription contraceptives. Supporters of the legislation blame the rejection
of the bills (for the sixth time!) on the low number of women in that state's
legslature. *** Lithuania's "gender ombudswoman" decided in January that a national law requiring women (but not men) to undergo gynecological exams before they could obtain a driver's license is discriminatory. For those who question why this should be required of anyone, some Lithuanian medical officials argued that the law is necessary because some gynecological diseases can cause "sudden pain and even temporary loss of consciousness." |
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