Today we visited the Robinson Pitalua public high school school in Monteria, in the north of Colombia. Profamilia peer educators were conducting games/exercises to bring accessible sex, health and violence prevention information to their fellow students. These peer educators get over 100 hours of training. I was immediately assigned to a team of three 13 year olds. The first game was to throw a dart at a dart board and then answer a question on contraception depending what ring you hit. The next game was a version of Concentration where we had to match questions and answers on violence. Another game involved rolling dice and having to answer a question from the square where you landed. My question was whether an IUD could cause uterine cancer. I had to think for a second. My team was probably thinking, why we’d get this guy? But I said ‘no’ and won a lollypop which I gave to my team. If it had been a chocolate prize, the scene could have gotten ugly. In the final game, I had to spin a wheel and answer a question. Mine was on economic violence and because of Monday’s session at the school with the Profamilia Wamba rock band, I was able to answer to great cheers from my team and high fives all around.
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Today a visit to the hilltop suburb of Alto de Florida, an hour south of Bogota. The last mile in was on a steep, rutted dirt track. The community has electricity but no running water or sewage. Water is delivered in tank trucks. The school is a one hour walk for the children. The Church runs a communal soup kitchen. We climbed the last bit to reach the site of the Profamilia mobile health clinic, which did not operate out of a van, but instead, was set up inside two ramshackle huts on a precipitous ledge. The Profamilia team consisted of two doctors, two nurses, two social workers and a van to transport all the necessary equipment. The social workers had visited many times over the past weeks to educate the community on the upcoming visit. When we arrived at 9am, about ten women and children were already lined up and waiting. An hour later there were about 80 mothers and children, and a few men, waiting. The Profamilia staff quickly set up a consultation room and exam suit in one hut and another consultation area and dispensary in the other. The lead doctor took everyone’s name.
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Colombia has poverty unlike anything we see in the US. On average Colombia is a middle income country, but the disparities in wealth mean that it’s poor are among the most disadvantaged in the world. Transportation is spotty and communication erratic. Machismo is alive and well, and teen pregnancy is increasing. So, how to reach the kids? You don’t wait for them to come to you; you go to them.
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Below are links to various articles where I am quoted on the 50th anniversary of the Pill.
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By Alexander Sanger

That great reformer Martin Luther said, “If [women] become tired or even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth–that is why they are there.” Luther never recanted this statement. I guess he had other fish, or indulgences, to fry. Continue reading →

This week Spain decriminalized abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. The government enacted the law over the strenuous opposition of the Roman Catholic Church and brings Spain’s abortion law in line with much of the rest of Europe. Minors of 16 and 17 can obtain abortions without parental consent and in some cases notification. This is a major victory for women, which we hope to replicate in the former Spanish colonies in the Western Hemisphere.

Photo from International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region showing the complete devastation of its PROFAMIL Haiti clinic. Continue reading →

The latest report we have from our Planned Parenthood in Haiti, Profamil, is that our two clinics in Port au Prince and Jacmel are, if not totally destroyed, then unusable. The staff has tried to salvage what supplies they can, but have been largely unsuccessful.
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