© 2024 Public Radio Tulsa
800 South Tucker Drive
Tulsa, OK 74104
(918) 631-2577

A listener-supported service of The University of Tulsa
classical 88.7 | public radio 89.5
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

ST on Health: Upstream USA, Women's Health, and Full (and Fully Informed) Access to Contraceptives

Aired on Thursday, January 14th.

On this edition of ST on Health, we speak with Mark Edwards, the co-founder of Upstream USA, a newly formed nonprofit that aims, as noted at its website, "to change healthcare so that all women receive the highest quality services and can conveniently access the full range of contraceptive methods, including IUDs and the implant." Indeed, as stated further at the Upstream USA site: "Fully half of all pregnancies in the United States are accidental. Many of these pregnancies occur to women who are using a birth control method that doesn't work well for them. There are new methods of contraception -- the new IUDs and implants -- that are 20 times more effective than the pill, safe, convenient, and recommended by the major medical governing bodies in the field, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Recent research shows that many women prefer these methods if they receive accurate information and can get them easily that same day. Unfortunately, many U.S. health centers don't offer these methods. In fact, a recent George Washington University study found that only 36 percent of community health centers offered implants at their largest site. Upstream USA's mission is to change contraceptive counseling and care in health centers so that clients have easy access to the best contraceptive methods. When women can plan their pregnancies, they are more likely to achieve other personal goals -- finishing school, finding and keeping a good job, and selecting a life partner for the right reasons."

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
Related Content