March, 2009

Tonight I’ll be on ABC’s Nightline discussing sexting.

I began discussing sexting when I defined it on this blog months ago. Since then, there have been dozens of reports of teens who have been caught sexting.  Sometimes teens have been threatened with — or charged with — distributing child pornography.  The cases have run the gamut from the seemingly harmless, not “pornographic” (such as the PA teen wearing her white training bra who was consensually photographed by her friends), to the very troubling new case of an MA teen who videotaped two teens having intercourse and sent the video around a junior high via cell phone. Sexting, thus, becomes a complex topic to discuss because some cases may prove to be relatively innocent private activities, while other cases are extreme examples of exploitation.

Today, I was on Your World with Neil Cavuto. We were discussing “Getting Through Tough Economic Times” a new web page posted by SAMHSA, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. The web page has some great resources for people who are coping with stress or depression because of the economic crisis.  Also, this organization oversees the free 24 hour suicide hotline, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK.

While an uncircumcised penis leaves more for a man (and his partner) to play with, a new study confirms that circumcision reduces the chance of infection from HIV, HPV and Herpes-2.  

A study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine examined the occurrence of syphilis, herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) and human papilloma virus (HPV) in both circumcised and uncircumcised men in Africa. After two years, it found that circumcised men had a 25 percent reduced risk of infection of HSV-2 and a 35 percent reduced risk of infection of HPV.  Syphilis showed no difference. Previous research found that circumcision may reduce the risk of HIV transmission by 60 percent.  The results are said to be generalizable to American men, yet the study is not without its caveats. To read the details, check out the New York Times article about it.  Also, here’s the abstract to the study.

There are too many misconceptions about Plan B, and I’d like to correct some of them.

Yesterday when I appeared on CNN Headline News, I heard many misconceptions about Plan B — also called EC, Emergency Contraception, and The Morning After Pill — and about what it means for our government to allow 17 year olds to buy it without a prescription. Here are the top misconceptions, and then the realities. (more…)

I am appearing twice this evening on CNN Headline News to talk about Emergency Contraception, Plan B. For more infomation about Emergency Contraception, also known as EC, Plan B, and The Morning After Pill, you can check out these three sites: Plan B and Planned Parenthood EC  and The EC Website.

I was on The O’Reilly Factor tonight. Bill was on vacation, and Laura Ingraham was the guest host. We were supposed to talk about the increase in the birth rate among people of all ages, including teens and twentysomethings. However, instead Laura only asked me about abstinence ed funding and Planned Parenthood. She’s always interesting to work with, because her questions and comments can be surprising. At least I had the chance to remind her audience that most Americans want comprehensive sexuality education to be in schools for their children and teens.