A note from the editors.The Guttmacher Policy Review and its readers recently suffered a tremendous blow. On December 24, 2006, at the age of 38, one of our most prolific and accomplished authors, Cynthia Dailard, died suddenly. Trained as a lawyer and seasoned through her work on Capitol Hill and in the White House, Cynthia, who joined the Guttmacher Institute's policy staff in 1998, was a disciplined, rigorous analyst and a compelling communicator. She seamlessly blended an authoritative knowledge of research--and an inherent feel for the power it can have in policy formulation--with an insider's understanding of the policy-making pol·i·cy·mak·ing or pol·i·cy-mak·ing n. High-level development of policy, especially official government policy. adj. Of, relating to, or involving the making of high-level policy: process. Cynthia was the Institute's chief policy analyst on issues related to domestic family planning family planning Use of measures designed to regulate the number and spacing of children within a family, largely to curb population growth and ensure each family’s access to limited resources. programs, sex education and teenagers' sexual behavior sexual behavior A person's sexual practices–ie, whether he/she engages in heterosexual or homosexual activity. See Sex life, Sexual life. . Over the course of eight years, she proved herself a powerful, determined advocate, bent on Adj. 1. bent on - fixed in your purpose; "bent on going to the theater"; "dead set against intervening"; "out to win every event" bent, dead set, out to moving a positive sexual and reproductive health Within the framework of WHO's definition of health[1] as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, reproductive health, or sexual health/hygiene agenda forward even in the most difficult political environment. Much of her work, and her writings, revolved around efforts to sustain and expand the reach of publicly subsidized family planning programs serving disadvantaged women, and to ensure the coverage of contraception in health insurance plans. At the same time, she pushed us to think and to stretch in new directions, often anticipating policy opportunities or trends before they were widely recognized. Some of her recent writings, for example, explored the logistic hurdles to providing widespread cervical cancer Cervical Cancer Definition Cervical cancer is a disease in which the cells of the cervix become abnormal and start to grow uncontrollably, forming tumors. vaccination, and she painstakingly documented the increasingly restrictive definition of sexual abstinence Sexual abstinence is the practice of voluntarily refraining from some or all aspects of sexual activity. Common reasons to deliberately abstain from the physical expression of sexual desire include religious or philosophical reasons (e.g. being articulated quietly, in drips and drabs, by the federal government. Cynthia Dailard was also a beloved colleague and friend. It is, therefore, not only with respect and admiration but also with abiding affection that we dedicate this issue to her, in her memory and her honor. The compilation on page 17 is excerpted from six of Cynthia's most influential articles and provides an overview of her thoughts on some of the issues dearest to her. We hope these parting words will educate, illuminate, inspire. |
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