A Public Private Space
Nice.

Nice.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Overrides FDA Decision to Make Emergency Contraception Broadly Accessible

The facts in this case are clear. After a thorough and months-long review of the evidence by the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced on December 7 that she concurred with the Center’s recommendation to make the emergency contraceptive available as a nonprescription drug. She stated that there is “adequate and reasonable, well-supported and science-based evidence that Plan B One-Step is safe and effective and should be approved for nonprescription use for all females of childbearing potential.”
Yet despite the official commitment of the Obama administration to scientific accountability in political decision-making, Secretary Sebelius ignored that body of evidence, overriding the FDA decision. Her stated rationale? To ensure that teens as young as 11 years old would not be able to obtain the medication without guidance from a health care professional. However, Sebelius’ focus on 11-year-olds is specious. Fewer than 1% of 11-year-old girls are sexually active, but almost half of girls have had sex by their 17th birthdays, and most of these begin at age 15 or 16. Recent government data from the National Survey of Family Growth suggest that the age restriction on emergency contraception has limited use of the method among this demographic, even as use increased substantially among older teens and young adults. Continuing to restrict access will only increase the number of teens faced with an unintended pregnancy.

www.guttmacher.org

Obama, where are you? I assume you have some control over your cabinet members’ decisions!?

Meanwhile the troupe got a crash course in East Village civics when a “Hot Chicks Room” sign, advertising the club’s bar and referring to a skit from the group’s Comedy Central series, drew complaints from neighbors. The sign was taken down and given to an environmental group, which posted it over the greenhouse where it keeps its chickens.
Amazing, from the NY Times article on the new UCB theatre in the East Village:

(Source: The New York Times)

Knee socks and high tops at low tide.

Knee socks and high tops at low tide.

I have been sitting on this plane since 2am NY time.

Best art exhibit ever.

Best art exhibit ever.

life:

Researchers in panda costumes perform a physical exam on a 6-month-old panda cub at the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Centre in China in February 2011. The cub, born to a captive panda mother, was the first captive-bred cub to be reintroduced to the wild. The researchers dressed as pandas so the cub wouldn’t begin to identify with humans.
see more — People Dressed in Animal Costumes

life:

Researchers in panda costumes perform a physical exam on a 6-month-old panda cub at the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Centre in China in February 2011. The cub, born to a captive panda mother, was the first captive-bred cub to be reintroduced to the wild. The researchers dressed as pandas so the cub wouldn’t begin to identify with humans.

see more People Dressed in Animal Costumes

Waiting in line to go to court. I’m overdressed.

Waiting in line to go to court. I’m overdressed.

Has anybody been watching the debates lately? You’ve got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change. It’s true. You’ve got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don’t have healthcare and booing a service member in Iraq because they’re gay. That’s not reflective of who we are,
Pretty psyched about my sweet gore tex ski mittens that I got for FIVE DOLLARS today!! I don’t care that they’re cammo. Love Paragon Warehouse sale.

Pretty psyched about my sweet gore tex ski mittens that I got for FIVE DOLLARS today!! I don’t care that they’re cammo. Love Paragon Warehouse sale.