Angelina Jolie has never been one to sit back and let the world happen around her, so we probably shouldn’t have been surprised when news broke of the actress undergoing a double mastectomy as a preemptive move again breast cancer. That’s just how she rolls.

Okay, ladies, it’s time for something I like to call “Girl Talk.” And no, I’m not talking about our lady parts — I’m talking about our whole lady lives. A new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation says that while human life expectancy continues to grow, the growth rate for the life expectancy of women is slowing down and men might actually surpass us. Actually, our lifespans have been lagging for a while now, since 1999, and in some parts of the United States, it’s actually gotten lower. Life might not be a contest, but, um, we’re dying earlier than we used to, and that’s a major problem.

Good afternoon, Mary Sue readers! Meet Virginia State Senator Ryan McDougle! He is one of the state lawmakers who has come out to ardently support the state’s mandatory transvaginal ultrasound bill, almost as if he had no idea what was really entailed in women’s health decisions that are usually made by women. He is pictured above speaking with some of his constituents, and he invites other constituents to visit him on his Facebook page! Some of them have, and they have some questions that concern their vaginas, ovaries, and uteri they have felt compelled to share with him, what with his sudden interest in the reproductive goings-on of strangers! Want to come take a look? There are screenshots!

We’re not going to deny how much we love hearing about female lawmakers on the state level standing up to their anti-choice colleagues by introducing amendments to terrible women’s health legislation that entail men undergoing similar scrutiny and invasive procedures that women would be subjected to should these bills pass. That’s why this morning, we were all pretty psyched to hear about Ohio State Senator Nina Turner. The Ohio Senate is debating its own anti-choice bill, which would prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected (which first happens at about six weeks after conception). Sen. Turner thinks it’s high time that men got a taste of their own medicine, so she has introduced an amendment that would require doctors to put men through a variety of tests and counseling before being prescribed the erectile dysfunction pill, Viagra. Why? Because if the Ohio Senate is “only looking out for women’s health,” then darn it, Nina Turner is going to fight for the same concern to be shown towards the menfolk!

In a move that is not exactly the most surprising of moves, several newspapers have pulled the syndicated comic Doonesbury from its funny pages for the next week because its creator, Gary Trudeau, will be tackling the issue of yet another state law (this time in Texas) requiring women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion. While some papers will run old Doonesbury strips during the duration of the story, one paper has agreed to run the new strip online while running reprints in the actual newspaper. They cited “different audience expectations” for print vs. online. Uh huh.

Well, it’s about time they came forward and explained themselves! Courtesy of Funny or Die and a delightful group of actors (Nick Offerman, Tim Meadows, Judd Nelson, Kurtwood Smith, Ray Wise, Corey Stoll, and Brian Flaherty) those poor, misrepresented men finally get the opportunity to explain exactly why they are better at talking about women’s health issues than women are. Full disclosure, I could only watch about 28 seconds because I started to have my period. I always have that!

(via Pajiba)

Previously in Women’s Health

“Any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.” — Text from the amendment proposed by Oklahoma State Senator Constance Johnson as a protest to the state’s controversial “personhood” bill (currently being debated in the State Senate) which would force women to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus before going through with an abortion. Sen. Johnson tabled the amendment after making her point and explained her feelings in an op-ed in The Guardian, in which she said:

The Personhood bill would potentially allow governmental intrusion into families’ personal lives by policing what happens to a woman’s eggs without any similar thought to what happens to a man’s sperm.

My amendment seeks to draw attention to the absurdity, duplicity and lack of balance inherent in the policies of this state in regard to women.

Much like the “digital exam” amendment of Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell, Sen. Johnson never expected this to go through, regarding it as a way “to draw humorous attention to the hypocrisy and inconsistency of this proposal.” While we are proud and glad that she is fighting for women’s rights, we are also kinda tickled that the senator might be a Monty Python fan. That’s why we put the “Every Sperm Is Sacred” video after the jump.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, the largest breast cancer research, treatment, and awareness organization in the United States, shocked a lot of people earlier this week when it announced it would no longer be making its usual grants to Planned Parenthood, eliminating more than half a million dollars of funding that would have allowed PP to offer breast cancer exams and education to women without the income to otherwise receive them.

Luckily enough, John Scalzi, author of Old Man’s War and president of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, is trying to help Planned Parenthood out, and urging others to do the same.

We already know First Lady Michelle Obama puts a high priority on staying fit and healthy but we’ve got a new piece of evidence that shows she’s also pretty competitive about it as well. Watch this clip from The Ellen DeGeneres Show where the comedian and the First Lady go head-to-head to see who can do the most push-ups. I had a good feeling going in who would win.

(via The Daily What)

Huh. So this is interesting. While most of us are busy worrying about whether Apple’s new Siri program on the iPhone 4S will eventually turn into Skynet, folks have been testing its limits (or just saying ridiculous things to it while intoxicated). It seems that when you ask the intelligent software assistant where to get an abortion you’ll get responses that range from anti-abortion crisis centers to absolutely no results but not actual places to get abortions. The same goes for asking about places you can obtain emergency contraception. So now we pose this question to Siri, “Are we reading too much into this or is that a little odd?”