Roundup: Fake wombs and (even faker) female superheroes

Plus: Pharmacists sue state for forcing them to sell emergency contraception.

Published July 27, 2007 9:36PM (EDT)

Locked up and losing it. It's no shocker that girls in juvie face greater emotional hurdles than your average, unincarcerated girl. But, according to a new study, they're also more likely than incarcerated boys to deal with depression or severe levels of anxiety. (Or, to be more exact, they were two and a half times as likely to report those emotional issues.) And, while girls are typically less likely than boys to externalize emotional problems, among incarcerated teens, girls are twice as likely to be physically aggressive.

Female superheroes rid the streets of bad fashion! Avi Arad, producer of the upcoming "Bratz: The Movie," says the movie is like "X-Men for girls." As MTV put it, "It's just that their superpowers are singing, fashion, soccer and cheerleading."

Good, but not great, news. Amnesty International is going to stick to its decision to advocate for women's greater access to abortion, despite opposition from conservative leaders. One not-so-minor detail: Instead of defending abortion as a basic right for all women, the organization is only calling for greater abortion access in cases of rape and incest or when the mother's life is at risk.

Scientists develop fake womb. It isn't meant as a replacement womb but as an interim incubator before artificially fertilized eggs are inserted into a real live womb. Here's the interesting thing, though: The artificial womb is a chip that closely simulates "the conditions of a natural womb." This "lab on a chip" holds embryos until they're ready for implantation; because the eggs grow faster in the faux womb, they'll have a greater chance of survival.

Morning-after suit. Pharmacists are suing Washington state because they say a new requirement that they sell emergency contraception forces them to make a choice between "their livelihoods and their deeply held religious and moral beliefs."

And finally, the quote of the day: "The detritus left in the wake of 30 years of feminism is considerable, an international disaster. And, as with most other disasters, such as 9/11, it falls mainly to men to clear up the mess," David Hughes, chairman of the ManKind Initiative, recently told a U.K. newspaper.


By Tracy Clark-Flory

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