Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program’s “New Security Beat”: Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability: Assessing the Evidence Cara Thuringer, intern at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program, discusses an event held at the Wilson Center in late June, during which panelists discussed findings from a new…

Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program’s “New Security Beat”: When It Comes to Water Scarcity, Population Growth Tops Climate Change Robert Engelman, senior fellow at the Worldwatch Institute and project director of the Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability Assessment (FPESA), discusses findings from a FPESA report released at…

NPR: Puerto Rican OB-GYNs Offer Free Birth Control To Fight Zika “In Puerto Rico the local association of obstetricians and gynecologists has launched a new attack on Zika. Because Zika primarily is a problem for pregnant women, the doctors are trying to reduce the number of pregnant women by offering…

Associated Press: Egypt parliament toughens penalties for female circumcision “Egypt’s parliament on Wednesday toughened penalties for female genital mutilation, adopting amendments that punish perpetrators with up to 15 years in prison if a child dies and up to seven years for performing the procedure. … Wednesday’s vote came four days…

The Guardian: Fall in ovarian cancer deaths worldwide linked to contraceptive pill use “Deaths from ovarian cancer have fallen around the world, largely because of the widespread use of the contraceptive pill, according to a major new study. Another factor is the decline in long-term use of hormone replacement therapy…

Devex: Maternal health issues ‘aren’t finished yet’ — and neither is Jill Sheffield “In 2007, 1,700 people gathered at a large conference center in an east London borough. They’d come at the invitation of Women Deliver, a fledgling advocacy organization founded by Jill Sheffield that same year. It was time,…

RH Reality Check: Tackling Zika: Have We Learned Our Lesson on Rights? Luisa Cabal, chief of human rights and law at UNAIDS, and Mariangela Simão, director of rights, gender, prevention, and community mobilization at UNAIDS, discuss the Zika outbreak and reproductive rights. “…The response demands long-term commitments to three rights…

The Guardian: World leaders accused of backtracking on gender equality commitments “Claims that world leaders are backtracking on their commitment to end gender inequality have emerged on the final day of negotiations at the Commission on the Status of Women. Several countries are reportedly trying to water down the progressive…

The Guardian: Nepal’s bleeding shame: menstruating women banished to cattle sheds “…Sofalta is one of thousands of girls and women in Nepal who practice Chhaupadi — banishment to a cattle shed or makeshift hut — because of so-called ‘impurity’ during menstruation or just after childbirth. … Although Chhaupadi was outlawed…

Devex: Family planning takes a 360-degree approach “…[Community health worker Happiness Chacha’s] work is a result of the Endangered Ecosystems Northern Tanzania, a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development that aims to make both people and wildlife more resilient to threats like climate change and population growth.…