The following is Sybil Shainwald’s Keynote Speaker address given at the 27th Annual Hysterectomy Conference for Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services (HERS). Castration: The Goldmine of Gynecology Introduction/Statistics Female castration is the most performed non-obstetric operation in the U.S., at the rate of about 1,643 per day. That is more than one every minute. Sex organs have been removed from more than 22 million U.S. women and over 600,000 hysterectomies are still performed each year without informing women of the consequences of this needless, heedless surgery. In fact, for every 10,000 hysterectomies performed in the United States, 11 women die. [...]
Sex Differences in Clinical Trials: Another Example of Inequality
The following is a speech given to a group of Columbia University Fellows on November 12, 2014. A PDF version of the entire article can be downloaded by clicking here. INTRODUCTION Ambien, the sleeping pill, which was prescribed 40 million times last year and approved 20 years ago, has been prescribed for women in a dose that is twice as high as they need, putting them at risk for drowsiness while driving and other problems. Indeed, it appears that women respond differently from men to a broad array of treatments, from aspirin to anesthesia, and often do not derive the [...]
Reproductive Injustice in the New Millennium
This article originally appeared in 20 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 123 (2013), http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl/vol20/iss1/7 A PDF version of the entire article can be downloaded by clicking here. REPRODUCTIVE INJUSTICE IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM by SYBIL SHAINWALD* INTRODUCTION I. COMMON LAW, THE EARLY STATUTES, AND THE EMBERS OF REFORM A. Legal Abortions (c. 1250–1803) B. Abortion Becomes a Crime: The Birth of Anti-Abortion Legislation (1803–1900) C. Abortion is Illegal (1900–1960) II. THE TIDE CHANGES A. The Liberalization Movement (1960–1973) B. The Decision in Roe and its Aftermath (1973–1982) C. Twenty-Five Years of Legal Abortions (1982–2007) III. A CONSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS [...]
Conversation with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
Please see the conversation with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi covered by CSpan. http://www.c-span.org/video/?321519-1/conversation-house-democratic-leader-nancy-pelosi
The Medicalization of Women
The following is a speech given at a conference for Hysterectomy Education Resources and Sources (HERS). INTRODUCTION It is a great pleasure to be here and to be on the same program with the first woman elected to Congress from my district, as well as the first and only woman to establish a successful hysterectomy prevention organization. I have reviewed the number of speeches that I have made over the course of the last twenty years for HERS and they are all mainly repetitive of the same themes: Estrogen, unnecessary surgery, the medicalization of our bodies, and the rise of [...]
Jackson Women’s Health Organization v. Currier
The recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Jackson Women’s Health Organization v. Currier, again illustrates how endangered a woman’s reproductive freedom is in today’s climate. The Court struck down a law that required doctors performing abortions in a clinic to obtain hospital admitting privileges. The crucial ruling allowed the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi to remain open, stating that Mississippi could not rely on its “neighbors to provide protection of its citizens’ federal constitutional rights”. The ruling is limited and such rights as those to safe and legal abortions or contraceptive [...]
Hobby Lobby
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Hobby Lobby case caused a great deal of chagrin for those concerned with reproductive freedom. A careful reading of the majority opinion and developments thereafter show that the concern is more than justified as Hobby Lobby has put the Court on a slippery slope that will undoubtedly lead the country backward. Although extremists take issue with Justice Ginsberg’s dissent, that dissent did not overstate the depth of the majority opinion. A corporation is clearly an entity that is distinct from its directors and shareholders. It is an artificial entity and one that confers [...]
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