Public Voice and Action

The credibility and reputation of Our Bodies, Ourselves has been central to establishing our organization as a key voice in policy, advocacy, and educational efforts related to women’s health.  Our Public Voice and Action program strives to improve the health conditions of women by bringing a consumer and feminist perspective to debates where market-driven messages may mislead the public.

Over the years, through media interviews, speaking engagements, letters and op eds, and collaborations with other organizations, we have focused on a range of issues, including the following:

• Whether the FDA should approve a silicone gel implant for general distribution and use in the absence of long term safety studies.  We have argued that such approval is dangerously premature, but in November 2006 the FDA approved their use. We continue to educate women about the safety concerns of implants.
  
  
• Problems with direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs – so called “DTC” ads, which are often misleading and inaccurate. We are part of the Prevention First Coalition, and continue to speak frequently to diverse audiences about the serious consequences of more than three billion dollar a year advertising effort.
  
  
• The well-documented benefits of midwifery care, and the need to expand the midwifery model of care in most communities across the country. 
  
  
• The emergence of a new tendency among some medical specialists to define women’s sexual problems as primarily biomedical and thus requiring such solutions as Viagra-like drugs for women (rather than a host of tried-and-true approaches long used by sexuality counselors, educators and therapists). We are now part of the Campaign for a New View of Women’s Sexual Problems, which is responding to media distortions regarding “female sexual dysfunction” (see Female Sexual Dysfunction: A Feminist View for more information).
  
  
• The hormone therapy controversy resulting from the findings in the Women’s Health Initiative. With the new understanding that estrogen plus progesterone does NOT protect against heart disease, there has been considerable confusion, especially among those women who never needed to take estrogen for extreme hot flashes or other disruptive problems. Although there is still a clear and useful role for estrogen therapy among some women, many women still do not have access to balanced information during their decision-making regarding hormones.    
  
  
• The controversy over human embryo cloning, a technique that can be used for either reproductive purposes (producing a genetic duplicate human) or for research purposes (in pursuit of medical therapies). We support embryo stem cell research while at the same time calling for greater restraint with embryo cloning, especially because of the inadequately studied risks surrounding multiple egg extraction.
  
  
• The need to incorporate early abortion services, especially abortions performed with the drug combination of mifepristone and prostaglandin, into the primary care setting. We are working with other organizations and professionals to encourage community health centers, hospitals and others to include these services as part of basic primary health care. 

Organizations we have collaborated with:

• Committee on Women, Population and the Environment
• Consortium for Industrial Collaboration in Contraceptive Research
• Contraceptive Research and Development Program
• Council for Responsible Genetics
• Department of Public Health Bureau of Family and Child Health
• ECRI
• Family Health International
• Francophone Africa Network for Research in Reproductive Health
• International Reproductive Rights Research Action Group
• Massachusetts Friends of Midwives
• Massachusetts Tobacco Control Oversight Council
• National Black Women’s Health Project
• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
• National Women’s Health Network
• NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health
• Project on Women and Disability
• Reproductive Health Matters (journal)
• Reproductive Rights Network of Boston/The Abortion Access Project
• Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
• USAID Population and Nutrition Division 
• Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights
• Working Group on Reproductive Health
• World Health Organization

"Thank you a million times for helping make women’s lives so much healthier and happier."

Pat McFadden
Southern African Political Economy Series, Zimbabwe

"The Network has worked with the Collective on tampon labeling, regulation of breast implants, approval of the Prentif cervical cap and other barrier contraceptives, advocacy for more research on women’ health conditions, and many other specific issues. We turn to the Collective for information on international issues, and feel that the goals of the Network and other US-based groups are addressed by the work that the Collective does in other countries. While the Network often gets involved in contraceptive issues when they reach the FDA, we rely on the work of the Collective to make an impact during the earlier stages of research and development."

Cindy Pearson, Executive Director
National Women’s Health Network