I really love our children.  They are special and make Shelly and me proud just by the way they carry themselves.  Every so often I get to take pleasure in the special things they do at work.  Last Thursday, after sharing birthday greetings with a friend, I share an old pic of Marisa and Jonathan with her 28 years ago. The focus of the exchange was Marisa and her work at the American Jewish Committee but I updated her on Jonathan as well linking to their profiles on the web.  When I came to Jonathan’s site I noticed he just got published in the prestigious independent international weekly medical journal, The Lancet.  I immediately posted the article title and link to X. Jonathan co-authored the article, “Biomedical innovations in contraception: gaps, obstacles, and solutions for sexual and reproductive health” with Professor Deborah J. Anderson, PhD (Department of Medicine, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston); Frances W. Grimstad, MD (Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School); Thesal Palanee-Philips, PhD (Wits RHI, University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health, Johannesburg, South Africa and Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA) and Ariane van den Straten, PhD (Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California San Francisco).

According to its summary, “Contraception and family planning are vital aspects of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Despite major advances in modern contraception over the past 60 years many gaps remain, and the rate of unplanned pregnancies and abortions remains high….The best way to improve family planning and promote women's health is to offer better contraception options to those who wish to avoid unplanned pregnancy. This can be done by renewed commitment from scientists, private foundations, and government institutions, and from industry partners who are needed to bring promising developments to market.”