Educate Congress – Erin goes to Our Bodies, Ourselves’ kick off event at The National Press Club

There’s no greater time to return to sex-ed class than now, especially if you’re a member of Congress.  That’s because the men and women making important decisions about women’s health, which so deeply impact women’s lives, seem to need a little refresher on the basics of anatomy, physiology, psychology and biology.  Our Bodies, Ourselves, the book that taught so many of us the facts of life is taking on the challenge to Educate Congress.

Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS), also known as the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective (BWHBC), is a nonprofit, public interest women’s health education, advocacy, and consulting organization. Beginning in 1970 with the publication of the first edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, OBOS has inspired the women’s health movement by:

• Producing books that make accurate health and medical information accessible to a broad audience by weaving women’s stories into a framework of practical, clearly written text
• Identifying and collaborating with exemplary individuals and organizations that provide services, generate research and policy analysis, and organize for social change
• Inspiring and empowering women to become engaged in the political aspects of sustaining good health for themselves and their communities

The National Press Club hosted an event yesterday (10/22/12) to kick off OBOS’s Educate Congress campaign.  Their goal is to present each member of Congress with a copy of the latest edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, to ensure they have the most up-to-date, pertinent information upon which to base healthcare policy decisions.  

Erin Thornton, Every Mother Counts’ executive director was invited to attend the campaign kick-off and speak about the issues that are essential to our mission to advance maternal health.  Erin joined Judy Norsigian, executive director of OBOS and Dr. Vivian W. Pinn, past director, of the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health for a discussion focused on the importance of relying on evidence-based reproductive health information when making policies regarding women’s lives. Clearly, we haven’t seen enough of that in the quarrelsome arguments waged lately regarding abortion, contraception, insurance, employment, ultrasound and even rape. 

Judy Norsigian, opened the discussion about evidence-based maternity care, the importance of insurance coverage for key reproductive health prevention services and the need for better registry tracking for devices and drugs used in women’s health services. Erin spoke next about how EMC got into the maternal health picture and the strategies being put in place to reduce global maternal mortality rates. She discussed programs that need to be scaled up in developing regions where maternal mortality rates are dire and about US policies and practices that place us 50^th in the world in terms of maternal mortality.

Finally, Dr. Vivian W. Pinn (past director, of the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health) spoke about the Women’s Health Initiative, and spoke eloquently about how critical evidence was and is for issues such as hormone therapy.   Then all three speakers fielded questions about when evidence was and was not used to make policy decisions and, inevitably, about whether Romney or Obama makes a better candidate for women’s issues.  That gave the speakers a chance to point out that women’s health is not a partisan issue. It’s not about the candidates. It’s a health and human rights issue and that’s what policy decisions should be based on.  But the political slant to the questions also gave Judy the opportunity to mention OBOS’s larger campaign, Our Bodies, Our Votes, which encourages citizens to use their votes and voices to protect women’s access to reproductive healthcare.

Launching these campaigns and providing all members of Congress with copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves is an expensive venture so OBOS has set up an IndieGoGo campaign with the goal of raising $25,000.    

How can you help?

• Click on Our Bodies, Ourselves website and learn more about the work they do to support women.

• Pick up a copy of the 40^th anniversary edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves and refresh your own education on women’s reproductive health.

• Donate to Our Bodies, Our Votes IndieGoGo campaign.

• Log on to Educate Congress and learn more about this campaign to make sure that members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are provided with accurate, evidence-based information about women's bodies and reproductive health.

• Vote in the upcoming election and let your vote and your voice count.