CMAJ • June 6, 2006; 174 (12). doi:10.1503/cmaj.060530.
© 2006 CMA Media Inc. or its licensors
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association.
© 2006 CMA Media Inc. or its licensors
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association.
News @ a glance
US abortion bans: South Dakota banned abortion in February, and 11 other states are poised to consider similar action. "People are afraid here," Dr. Marivin Buehner told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Buehner's Rapid City office was picketed after he spoke on TV against the ban. "The whole environment of intimidation that is the legacy of the anti-abortion movement has a stronghold here in South Dakota. That's how the ban got through the Legislature without a challenge from the South Dakota Medical Association." The law is slated to come into effect July 1, but Planned Parenthood has vowed to block it through a federal lawsuit. Opponents of the law are also collecting signatures calling for a plebiscite on the ban in November. Similar laws are being considered by governments in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. In related news, the Guttmacher Institute, a not-for-profit corporation for reproductive research, policy analysis and public education, reports that 33 states have made it more difficult or more expensive for poor women and teenagers to obtain contraceptives and related medical services.
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Michener finalist: CMAJ was short-listed for the Michener Award for Meritorious Public Service in Journalism for its article on barriers to accessing Plan B (CMAJ 2005;173:1435-6). The 6 finalists for the award included the Globe and Mail, which won for 2 series of articles about breast cancer. The CMAJ article, by Laura Eggertson and Barbara Sibbald, informed women about their right to obtain this emergency contraceptive without giving their names and addresses and other personal information to pharmacists, alerted privacy commissioners to this unnecessary practice and, in the end, lowered barriers to access for women in Ontario and, quite likely, in BC and Saskatchewan as well. Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian said "I applaud you for raising this issue. I can't thank you enough, because it wouldn't have come under anyone's radar screen if you hadn't done this." This is the second year that CMAJ's news department has been short-listed for the award, Canada's highest honour for journalism.
Free Nepali MDs: Physicians for Global Survival (Canada) is urging physicians to sign a petition calling for the freeing of 7 Nepali physicians. The physicians, including Mahesh Masky, the vice president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, were arrested Apr. 8 after peacefully protesting against the Nepali regime and defying the imposed curfew. On Apr. 10, 20 medical students were also arrested; 2 were held at least 48 hours and beaten while in police custody. Health professionals have also been threatened for treating people injured during protests. Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Nepal is party to, strictly prohibits the arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention without charge of all persons. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists have called for sanctions against the current regime's violation of human rights. Canadian physician Dr. Neil Arya and Dr. Sonal Singh started the online petition calling for the release of the physicians. — Compiled by Barbara Sibbald, CMAJ
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