Top of the News: Afternoon Edition

A brief round-up of today's afternoon stories related to reproductive health, rights and justice for those late to the party, on the "other coast," or who aren't afraid to call themselves "news-junkies"!

A brief round-up of today’s afternoon stories related to reproductive health, rights and justice for those late to the party, on the “other coast,” or who aren’t afraid to call themselves “news-junkies”!

  • A young woman who is accused of assault and battery on the newborn baby she threw out the window, in Boston two months ago, confesses she was brutally raped in her home country of El Salvador, threatened by her attacker with death if she told anyone and came to this country pregnant and terrified, unable to speak or understand English. Her lawyer says she’s in a fraglie psychiatric state but the prosecutor says the report of the rape “will have no influence” on the decision to prosecute.
  • In more hi-tech news, CNN.com reports that peeing on your mobile phone isn’t just for venting your anger that your phone keeps dropping calls!  A research project in Europe is looking at developing chips for your phone which would test your saliva, urine or blood for STIs and diagnose you if needed.
  • Our Bodies, Our Blog informs that DePaul University’s Master in Public Health program will host “The Health Disparities and Social Justice Conference” with a special emphasis on women’s health.  And it’s free!
  • Colorlines has a great round-up of the buzz on wildly successful film director Tyler Perry’s newest film “For Colored Girls” – an adaptation of the 1975 play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Was Enuf.” The film’s reviews have been mixed but it’s so far grossed $20 million at the box office (on opening weekend), notes Colorlines blogger Jamilah King.
  • A new study conducted by Dr. Hawley Montgomery-Downs at West Virginia University, published online yesterday at the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found no significant differences in the amount or quality of sleep between women who exclusively breastfed, exclusively bottlefed or did a combination of both.
  • The Mother Wingnut, Phyllis Schlafly, gives us all an education in economics today. Are you a low-income, single mother? Or just a low-income woman without children? Do you want more money? The “white picket fence and SUV in the ‘burbs”? Get married to the father of your children, says Schlafly! Marriage is the answer to poverty! Don’t marry for something silly like love or companionship! Don’t chose to change the system which keeps single women and children in poverty! Just tie the knot – with the father of your child/ren. It’s simple.
  • Planned Parenthood launches a Spanish-language mobile web site  today to offer information on birth control, STIs, parent/teen communication on sex-ed, and how to find your nearest health provider. The Pew Research Center recently released a study which showed that Latinos were more likely than other groups to search for health information on their mobile phones.