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We know politicians regularly use fear tactics to advance their agendas, but what about Hollywood? A new blatantly anti-choice horror film, The Life Zone, is emerging as the summer’s worst movie. This film engages young people in a disrespectful way. Rather than appealing to our intelligence or capacity for nuanced ethical thinking, it uses blind fear to scare young people into being anti-choice:
Here is the trailer for the film, which is premiering at film festivals now and will be released conveniently around the 2012 Presidential elections.
In the …
Nigerian sex traffickers lure young girls (ages 12-18) into sex slavery in Europe. There are over 100,000 Nigerians in the sex trade in Europe, mainly in Italy and England. Around 80% come from Edo, a southern state that is home to only three percent of Nigeria’s population. It is the trafficking capital of Africa, and home of the traditional West African religion known as Juju. (Modern Ghanha)
While sex workers face struggles for power and rights when their work is voluntary, the struggles are even more heartbreaking …
Last Tuesday, the newly elected ultra-conservative NC State House voted on a new budget bill. Included in this budget were many ideological attempts to bring about a new era of social conservatism in the state; among them was the elimination of state funding for Planned Parenthood.
Unfortunately, the budget bill passed the house and efforts to restore the Planned Parenthood funding failed. With a Republican controlled State Senate, it is a real possibility that Planned Parenthood will lose its state funding. This is a shame for many reasons, but …
The past week has been an exciting time for me: college decisions were released! Having gotten into several of my top choice schools (Duke, Tufts, GW) I can stop worrying about the college admission process and start getting excited about going to college next year.
My excitement for the beginning of college, and the anticipation of expansive, fun, life changing experiences is tampered by the fact that sexual assault and rape on college campuses is all to prevalent. At least 1 in 4 college-age women will be victims of …
Imagine this scenario: a girl, under the age of 18, is being repeatedly raped by her stepfather. She has no one in her family or friend group to turn to. The stepfather is well liked, and the girl thinks that no one would believe her if she spoke up. Then imagine that the girl tried to go to a rape crises center, and even a doctor, to get help and STD/pregnancy testing.
If a new Senate Republican-supported provision in a state omnibus bill passes in Minnesota, young women in …
Yesterday news broke that Ke$ha has landed a deal to have her face put on 10-15k condoms, which she will distribute for free at her concerts. While some criticize her for her party girl image, Ke$ha also has a responsible side. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed nation with 750,000 teen girls becoming pregnant every year. Condoms will be shot out of cannons at gigs on her upcoming tour, a robust and creative strategy for promoting safe sex. When a famous pop …
Brigham Young University basketball starting player Brandon Davies committed a terrible offense: pre-marital sex with his girlfriend. BYU’s honor code forbids students from having premarital sex and instructs them to "live a chaste and virtuous life." This move by the university this highlights the negative attitude towards sexuality harbored by many conservative religious traditions, especially Mormonism. At a university so conservative on their views about sex, I am concerned about the student’s sexual health and safety. Surely at a University that does not “allow” pre-marital sex, students still are …
Washington University of St. Louis hosts an annual Sex Week, to “start an open sexual dialogue, encourage students to experiment with sexual viewpoints that differ from their own and to provide wide-reaching sexual education.”
Originally, they chose Bristol Palin to be the keynote speaker for the event. Wash U was going to pay her $20,000 to speak about sexual responsibility. After having a baby in 2008, teen mom Bristol Palin embarked on an ironic campaign to advocate for (obviously) ineffective abstinence-only sex education. Students at the university did not think …
Teen Health Now and the Adolescent Teen Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina are hosting the inangural 2011 Sex Ed Film Festival. Our event was covered in Time Magazine Online! Check it out:
Film festivals, once an elite institution dominated by cineastes, insiders and glamorous cities like Cannes and Venice, have become a growth industry. Teensy towns now have them, as do islands — from Nantucket to Staten Island. These festivals have also become more specialized, both by genre and age; one of the most robust new trends
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Today, January 22nd, is the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which legalized abortion in the United States. Today we have a lot to be thankful for, and we also have to brace for a tough fight ahead. Republican control of many state legislatures means we could see the most anti-choice legislation passed in decades.
Looking at the current state of abortion laws all over the world, there is a lot to be thankful for in living in the United States. The Roe …
At Frayser High School in Memphis, Tennessee, 90 girls are pregnant or recently gave birth. In Fraser County where the school is located, the pregnancy rate is 26%.
Tennessee law requires schools to teach the Family Life Education curriculum, which puts an “emphasis on abstinence from sexual relations outside of marriage” and is only taught for a few weeks in 9th grade.
I have seen stories like this over and over again. It is so frustrating to see adults cling to ideological arguments of restricting information in spite of …
We have been talking about oppression, race, gender, and class in my 6th period philosophy class. Last week we had a very fun debate where women had to defend a masculism (men’s rights) argument and the men had to defend feminist ideas.
The women read about social, cultural, and legal efforts aimed at providing equal rights to men and boys. They argued that men face discrimination in the following areas:
· A societal pressure is placed on men to take on violent roles and enjoy violence
· Violence against …
China has a one-child policy. And they don’t teach comprehensive sex education in school. This leads to some frightening statistics, for instance in China there are 23 million abortions very year.
Finally, Chinese youth are getting the sex education they need. A Guttmacher report indicated,
More and more Chinese adolescents are engaging in premarital sexual activity. As a result, the numbers of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among Chinese young adults have increased markedly.
Today, news is out that about the FIRST sex education class taught at …
The DREAM Act failed today in the Senate, a heartbreaking defeat to many who have worked hard for years on this legislation. This is also a set back for our whole country and for my generation, as we are not able to offer a path to citezenship to those who want to serve our country. The Senate needed 60 votes to bring the bill to the floor, they got 55 — well above what would be needed for the bill to pass in a normal vote.
Among the six Democrats who …
Love him or hate him, Julian Assange is in prison not for leaking classified information, but for alleged rape. The details of his case are bizarre and vary widely between different news reports. The case exposes issues of consent in sexual encounters, which is a very important issue to have in the public consciousness, and the case aslo runs the risk of making if harder for victims to get justice in the future if he turns out to be innocent.
So what really happened? While we just …
A few days ago I wrote about the Pope’s decision to condone condom use in certain situations. Today, news is out that condoms used to prevent HIV are even OK for heterosexual sex. The AP reports:
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters Tuesday that he asked the pope whether he intended his comments to apply only to men. Benedict replied that it really didn’t matter; the important thing was that the person took into consideration the life of another.
"I personally asked the pope…
Since the 1960’s, the Catholic Churches official position has been that it is always intrinsically wrong to use contraception to because it prevents new human beings from coming into existence, and therefore defies the will of God. However, this is beginning to change. Pope Benedict XVI (yes, the same guy who was criticized of inaction during the sex abuse scandal) took a historic stance this week when he said condom use might sometimes be ok when it is used to prevent the spread of HIV:
Benedict said condoms…
Last Tuesday, I showed the documentary “Let’s Talk About Sex” to a group of around 75 parents and students at my school in Durham, North Carolina. The film explores the disconnect between the widespread sexualization of teenagers in American culture and the hesitancy of Americans to address adolescent sexual health in educational and healthcare settings. After I showed the movie, we had a discussion about some of the issues raised in the movie.
Parents and students split off into groups, and I led a discussion of the students. …
Upwards of 250,000 people swarmed to Washington, DC on Saturday to promote sanity and rational debate in the American media and American politics. After an election season filled with crazy, unproductive discourse, this rally could not have come at a better time. No one knew how much of this event would be comedy, and how much would be a serious call for sanity. I was able to attend the rally, and interviewed several attendees to try to get a feel for why people attended:
Much of the rally was devoted …
Much of our poor public sexual health outcomes in America can be traced back to a societal view that sex is dirty, wrong, and immoral. Since sex has such a negative connotation when discussed by politicians, teachers, and parents, young people feel ashamed or fearful of using protection. European countries that are more open about sex have MUCH lower teen pregnancy rates, STD rates, and abortion rates. But how open should a society be about sex?
Puttenham, England. A small town outside of London with about 2,500 residents. It is …
In Thailand, condoms are sold on rafts in small villages, in mini-bars, and passed out by policemen, as well as blessed by priests. Yes, thats right. Thailand’s "Mr. Condom," Mechai Viravaidya, has done amazing work since the 1970′s creating and implementing simple but genius strategies for family planning. He places enormous value on action and impact, creating programs that WORK. The result of his programs? average family size declined from 7 children to 1.5 children, and HIV infections declined by 90%.
He spoke at at TEDx event in New York …
I am a 17-year-old high school student who has worked to improve adolescent sexual reproductive health and rights for a several years. I work with other amazing young people from around the country and around the world who are active in their communities. We are people who testify at school board meetings and demand for our right to complete information about sexual health, peer educators who reach out to friends in need and give life-saving information and support, youth who develop groundbreaking campaigns to increase contraceptive use among young people. We …
Maternal mortality is one of the most heartbreaking and devastating challenges women and families face in the developing world. The leading cause of death for young women ages 15 to 19 in developing countries is complications from pregnancy, especially in sub-Saharan Africa(1). Also in sub-Saharan Africa, 2.2 million young women have unintentional pregnancies every year (2). This crisis is finally being addressed effectively with exciting developments in Rwanda:
• 60,000 rural health workers have been trained to help mothers and children, at least one worker …
9:59 p.m EST: A federal judge in Southern California on Thursday declared the U.S. military’s ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment rights of gay and lesbians. (AP) The U.S. House voted in May to repeal the policy, and the Senate is expected to address the issue this upcoming summer. But that is not soon enough.
September brings about the start of the 2010/2011 school year, and in North Carolina sexual health advocates are celebrating. The Healthy Youth Act (HB 88) goes into effect this year, effectively ending North Carolina’s decade long policy of abstinence-only sex education. This bill replaces abstinence-only sex education with a more comprehensive reproductive health and safety program that promotes abstinence as the best method for avoiding pregnancy and STI’s, but also teaches about contraception, safe sex, and healthy relationships. State Senator Ellie Kinnaird, one of the bills supporters, …
A provocative new study presented by the American Sociological Association finds that not all teenage sexual activity leads to worse performance in school.
“It’s not so much whether a teen has sex that determines academic success, the researchers say, but the type of sexual relationship they’re engaged in. Teens in serious relationships may find social and emotional support in their sex partners, reducing their anxiety and stress levels in life and in school.”
(via AP)
Shocker: a young person’s school performance is not dependent on whether or not …
A recent Gallup Poll asked Americans about the morality of 16 different behaviors and social policies. The poll asked about things like cheating, suicide, gay marriage, cloning, the death penalty, and other similar moral issues. Americans generally come to consensus on 12 of the 16 items, but four stood out as the most controversial: doctor-assisted suicide, gay and lesbian relations, abortion, and having a baby outside of marriage.
When I first looked at the results of this poll, the results seemed fairly obvious and straightforward. Suicide and cheating are …
I am a person who grew up with the saying that all that is needed for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing"
-Anne Rice
Today, Rice followed through on that statement as she publicly left the Catholic Church over frustration with their social agenda, particularly their stance on gay rights.
Anne Rice, author of Interview With The Vampire, has had an interesting relationship with religion in her life. She was raised Catholic, but renounced the church when she was 18. She became an atheist …
Elena Kagan, Obama’s second appointee to the Supreme Court, was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary committee last week. Kagan is the second woman Obama has appointed, and she will replace justice John Paul Stevens later this year. The Senate Judiciary committee approved her by a vote of 13-6, with one Republican (Lindsey Graham) supporting her. She appears to be headed to an easy confirmation in the full senate soon. But where does she stand? And what will her confirmation mean for the pressing social and health …
Did you know…half of the world’s population-nearly 3 billion people-are under the age of 25?
And consider this:
- One out of every four people diagnosed with HIV is between ages 13 and 29, and 45 percent of new HIV infections are among young people ages 15-24. (link)
- Young people are the second highest uninsured demographic in the United States. (source)
- In the United States, nearly one million young women under age 20 become pregnant each year.
- Worldwide, for …
There has been a raging debate the past few days about women’s roles on The Daily Show, starting with a Jezebel post that accused The Daily Show and Jon Stewart of being sexist. The discussion has began to get to the larger point of women’s contributions to the news media in general, but so far the back and fourth has been petty, shallow, and largely unhelpful. I think the topic of women on TV is a VERY important discussion to have, but it should not be about what Jezebel …
When the birth control pill came out in 1960, it was revolutionary because women could take charge and control their fertility. For the last 50 years, women have had numerous hormonal products available to control when they can become pregnant, and the only options for men have been getting surgery or using a condom. The challenge in creating male birth control pills is that women make one egg a month, whereas men produce about 1,000 sperm every second. So scientists have been working for about 30 years to create …
I was intrigued to see protesters at the local mall here in Durham, NC outside of an Urban Outfitters. What were they protesting? This shirt, and the lifestyle it promotes:
The protest at Southpoint mall was led by Amy Lambert:
It wasn’t unusual for Lambert, who had an eating disorder for more than eight years, to consume little more than one 80-calorie container of yogurt in a day. Now recovering, Lambert led a protest last week outside of Urban Outfitters at Southpoint mall in Durham. (via The Independent)
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While a lot of public attention has been given to abortion policy in Washington (abortion funding in health care reform, the potential overturn of Roe V. Wade, etc), all the action is happening at the state level. And it’s not good. This year saw an avalanche of extreme pro-life legislation, aimed at restricting access to abortion. Many of the laws add procedures that have nothing to do with “life,” and everything to do with not trusting women with the decision to have an abortion. This …
Currently, 6,000 young people (aged 14-24) contract HIV EVERY DAY, and more then 3.1 million people die from AIDS each year. This disease, while responsible for resurgence in condom use after the rise of the birth control pill, is also the disease that exposed America’s dark underbelly of poverty and homophobia in the 80’s and 90’s. This disease, which defined a generation and revolutionized approaches to sexual health, is stronger then ever both at home and abroad.
It’s important to recognize the success we have achieved. The United States, …
The horrific sexual abuse on the part of Catholic priests has been called a scandal by the media, but this is not an accurate term to describe what has happened. Thousands of children were abused, molested, and raped by priests, and each time a higher-up in the Church found out, this person chose not to expel the criminal from the church but to redistrict him to a place where the crimes continued. This is not gossip. This is not a scandal. This is a disgusting violation of young peoples’ …
Breaking news in North Carolina: The NC Division of Social Services has recommended the elimination of the State Abortion Fund!
* Click here to send a letter asking State Legislators and Gov. Bev Purdue to stand up and defend reproductive freedom in NC *
The NC State Abortion Fund was originally established in response to the Hyde Amendment so that all women, regardless of income, would be guaranteed the ability to make personal, private childbearing decisions. We must stand up and make our voices heard to ensure that the State …
Working as a youth activist in North Carolina, I thought the one and only barrier to comprehensive sex education was the law. Well, we changed the law. We lobbied for a bill that passed last summer, it now mandates all schools teach information both about abstinence (as the only 100% effective way of preventing unwanted pregnancy and STD’s) AND contraception. Prior to this bill, only the ineffective abstinence-only programs were allowed to be taught in schools. I thought that the main reason why we had high teen pregnancy rates …
Yes, folks, it’s time that I write a post about everyones favorite pop-singer Ke$sha (real name Kesha Rose Sebert, the $ is added for stylization to her performer name). Full disclaimer, I am a huge Ke$ha fan and my friends and I made a kick ass video to Tik Tok, check it out:
There are several issues that Ke$ha brings up around teen sexuality and sexual identity. In some ways, people who immediately disapprove of Ke$ha show how conservative and backwards American culture is when it comes to sex. …
Yes, folks, its time that I write a post about everyones favorite pop-singer Ke$sha. Full disclaimer, I am a huge Ke$sha fan and my friends and I made a kick ass video to Tik Tok, check it out:
There are several issues that Ke$sha brings up around teen sexuality and sexual identity. In some ways, people who immediately disapprove of Ke$ha show how conservative and backwards American culture is when it comes to sex.
…
The bill the House passed in November barred abortion funding in programs directly funded by the federal government. But it also banned it in private insurance plans that cover abortion if those plans are federally subsidized. (NPR).
Abortion is a politically charged issue that is at the forefront of the current debate over healthcare. Initially, Democrats didn’t want to change or mess with abortion policy at all; they wanted to maintain the status quos as set by the Hyde Amendment. In 1977 the Hyde amendment barred federal funding for …
Emergency Contraception (EC), the hormone birth control method used to prevent pregnancy up to three days after unprotected sex, was mocked recently by The Onion. This made me laugh so hard I had to share it on Amplify: (if the embed below doesn’t work click this link)
The Onion makes this joke for a reason. Currently, EC is not available to everyone. Obtaining EC is much more difficult than going into Taco Bell and ordering a burrito. The Onion makes this contrast to show that EC is just a …
Sex. It is a topic that is discussed on TV, in music, in Washington by our politicians, at dining room tables, and now….at the Winter Olympic games in Vancouver.
Luckily, the discussion in Vancouver isn’t about morals or shame around sex, but about safe sex. 100,000 condoms were shipped to the Olympic Villages where the athletes live in Whistler and Vancouver. The Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research provided them. 100,000 condoms are a lot; this means there were at least 14 condoms for every athlete.
Apparently, many athletes …
Most of the information and stories I hear about sex education are negative. Many schools in America teach abstinence-only, and too many young people leave high school with an incomplete knowledge of sexual health. Today, I am going to share a more positive story.
I go to Carolina Friends School, a private Quaker school that is very liberal and open about sex and sexual health. I took our required "Adolescent Health" class last year, and it was a positive experience for me. Working as an activist for …
I take a modern dance class at school, and it is very enjoyable. I find it a fun way to relax, get some exercise, and be creative during an otherwise stressful day filled with academic subjects. I never thought my dance class would be a way to explore social issues and health issues, but last week I discovered I was wrong!
Marie Garlock wrote a dance/storytelling performance piece called {it is in you}: Health Justice Performance in Tanzania. It was based on her experience living in Tanzania and working with …
The Olympics have officially started, and I am very excited. I am huge Winter Olympics fan!
Lindsey Vonn, American downhill skier, posed for the cover of Sports Illustrated recently. They titled the cover story "America’s Best Woman Skier Ever." Lindsey Vonn is an amazing athlete, and if she is able to recover from her recent shin injury she may take home a lot of gold medals this year. Vonn is also blond, young, and attractive. There is some controversy over the Sports Illustrated cover. Some say that because she …
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0925c08.mp3/view
http://www.itisinyou.org/path/…
Candidate for US Senate Harold Ford Jr. talked with Stephen Colbert last night about abortion and gay marriage. Harold Ford is a Democrat, and a former congressman from Tennessee. He recently moved to NY, and has come under heat for changing his position on some important issues. Tennessee is much more conservative than New York, and for the most part you have to be a moderate democrat to win in the south. Most congressmen in the south are anti-choice and anti-gay marriage. In the past, Ford had said …
Here in the United States, youth face many challenges with regards to sexual health and reproductive rights. I have been involved in the fight for accurate sex education where I live, because I have seen the damaging affects of abstinence-only sex education and wanted to help change this ineffective program. The challenges that youth face in the United States are NOTHING compared to the challenges that youth face in the developing world.
In Bangladesh, a 16-year-old girl was raped, became pregnant, and was sentenced to a cruel and …
A year or two ago, the thought of going into NC public schools and training teachers how to teach comprehensive sex education would have seemed crazy. Schools were required to adhere to a strict abstinence-only policy, unless they went through a long, complicated, messy public hearing process
Last June, youth activists in North Carolina helped pass a law that mandates schools to teach "all FDA-approved methods of contraception." The law also requires schools to teach about STD’s and sexual assault, and requires that schools provide opportunities for students and …
Last Tuesday, Republican Scott Brown was elected to the Senate seat left vacant by the tragic death of Senator Ted Kennedy. Leah627 wrote a great post about the Massachusetts (Massastupids?) meltdown, and how Scott was able to win the election.
In his victory speech, Scott Brown said that his two daughters are available. It was pretty bad. Check out this video:
Feministing has a post up about this, but I wanted to go into it in a little more detail. Sure, Scott Brown was just …
On last nights show, Colbert covered the invention of a sex robot that has touch sensors and the ability to download different personalities. (Note, the above video above is short and hilarious, please watch it. IF you cannot get the embedded video to work, you can watch the clip here). Because, as Colbert said,
When you’re talking about a sex robot, the first question most guys as is ‘how is her personality?’
Touche, Stephen…I am LMAO, if I dare use a acronym such as that in …
I wrote earlier this week about the homophobic legislation being considered in Uganda, the one the gives a death sentence to LGBTQ people. I have some more news about how United States politicians are affecting this legislation, through a group called “The Family”, which runs The C-Street house in Washington DC. On ‘Fresh Air’ on NPR, Terry Gross did an interview with Jeff Sharlet, who is the author of the bestseller The Family, “about the secretive fundamentalist group that promotes its anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-free market …
I am shocked by the recent happenings in Uganda. The African country Uganda is considering a bill that would impose the death penalty on HIV positive men who have committed what is called "aggravated homosexuality," which basically means having gay sex if you are HIV positive. Lemme make this clear: you will be PUT TO DEATH for having sex with someone of the same gender if you test positive for HIV, if this bill becomes law. The punishment for having gay sex in Uganda if you are not HIV …
The Health Care debate is getting pretty messed up. Want proof?
Majority Leader Reid is using the health-care bill to restore funding for abstinence-only sex education programs that liberals (such as Mr. Reid himself) have spent the past three years trying to zero out. (via WJS)
What! Senator Ried, WHY! This is bad news.
Senator Harry Ried fought ab-only education for years during the Bush administration, and introduced the Prevention First Act to redirect money from ab-only programs to comprehensive sex ed.
My question is why is ab-only …
Conservapedia topics
Ken Lewis on Sex ed
Uganda and the family http://rawstory.com/2009/11/author-the-family-proposed-ugandan-law-execute-hiv-men/…
Once again Colbert has proven to be the man. Check out this clip from Thursday’s show about William Phillips choosing not to say the Pledge of Allegiance because gays cannot marry.
Both hilarious and insightful, this made me feel some hope about the future of youth activism when those like Will take our place. Will, you are NOT a gay-wad, and you should feel very proud of what you did.
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Great satire from my man Stephen Colbert on DC gay marraige and the church, and he asks the question "How is the governor of Rhode Island supposed to rest in peace knowing that a couple of plots over two dudes are being gay dead?" -Enjoy
-D…
I want to share this great article from Alex at UNC Asheville’s The Blue Banner
"Sex education in North Carolina just legally changed for the better, but the economy might force that change to wait. The problem is that teenagers won’t wait, and the result is an economical and social disadvantage for women statewide.Teenagers in the United States have sex. Realizing this, legislators in North Carolina recently passed a bill changing statewide sex education standards. Now sex education won’t just be about abstinence.There are questions about where…
I always love hearing what Michele Obama has to say, she is so intelligent, charming, and well spoken.
This morning the White House put out this video with Michele Obama talking about the importance of Health Care Reform, especially for women:
Enjoy!
-Dan
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a pathetic excuse about why Obama hasn’t followed through on his promise to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell-
The president and I feel like we’ve got a lot on our plates right now, and uh lets push that one [reffering to dont ask dont tell] down the road a little bit.
Jon Stewart, one of my heroes, had a very simple message for Obama about this on The Daily Show this week:
All that stuff you’ve been putting on your plate? It’s F***ing chow…
Since earlier this year, the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina (APPCNC) began providing an awesome service for teenagers called the BrdsNBz Text Message Warm Line. BrdsNBz is a free service that allows teens in North Carolina to text a question about sex, sexual health, and relationships – receiving a response within 24 hours. APPCNC’s overall goal for the BrdsNBz is summarized below:
Through the BrdsNBz Text Message Warmline, APPCNC will provide North Carolina teens with a personalized, nonjudgmental, medically accurate answer to those hard-to ask questions about
…
