Urban News Features

Michelle Obama’s Book Revelation of In-Vitro Fertilization by Glenn Ellis

Nov. 12, 2018

Michelle Obama’s Book Revelation of In-Vitro Fertilization
By Glenn Ellis

NEWS ANALYSIS

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In her just-released book, Michelle Obama made public, for the first time, that she used In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) to have both her daughters. Michelle Obama, at 34-years old, experienced something many women and couples have a hard time discussing: infertility.

The news, TV, internet, magazines, newspapers and movie stars have popularized infertility and fertility therapy. They have also popularized having babies over the age of 40. Celebrities are now more open about the use of fertility therapy, donor eggs and donor sperm to conceive. Like it or not, celebrities have made it less shameful to experience infertility.

About 10 percent of U.S. women between 15 and 44 years old (or 6.1 million) have difficulty getting or staying pregnant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In about 8 percent of couples’ infertility, the problem lies with the male, whereas in 35 percent of infertility cases, it is both the male and female.

IVF is a common infertility treatment. During the procedure, a fertility doctor takes the eggs from the ovaries using a small needle and fertilizes them with sperm in a specialized lab. After fertilization happens, the eggs develop into embryos. Three to five days later, the specialist re-implants the embryos back into the uterus.

However, in some cases, the eggs of a “donor” are required for many couples to have children. In these cases, the eggs of a donor are used to fertilize the sperm of the father, and then reinserted in the uterus of the mother. What we don’t know at this time is whether Michelle used her own eggs, or they were the eggs of a third-party donor.

There are many ethical issues with egg donation to consider. Concern has also been raised about the long-term health of children born through IVF. Otherwise healthy children conceived by IVF may have higher blood pressure, adiposity, glucose levels, and more generalized vascular dysfunction than children conceived naturally.

Unlike the process men undergo to donate sperm, the preparation and procedure involved in egg donation require a longer-term commitment — a woman’s body is hormonally altered through the process, and she undergoes surgery.

On average, nationally, a “fresh” IVF cycle costs $12,000, before medications, which typically run another $3,000 to $5,000. In a “fresh” IVF cycle, eggs are harvested, and after a closely monitored period of receiving ovulation-inducing medications and then “mixed” with fresh sperm. One or two of the best-looking of the resulting embryos are then transferred to the uterus via a thin catheter.

Most donors produce somewhere between 10 and 25 eggs, which are then sucked out of their fallopian tube with a hollow needle inserted through the vagina.

Though many egg donors derive great satisfaction from knowing that they helped someone start a family, the price of eggs has soared in recent years as demand has increased, and the sizable payments raise controversy.

Many feel that the real issue is whether the money can cloud someone’s judgment. Ethicists, and some women’s health advocates, worry that lucrative payments are enticing young women with credit-card debt and steep tuition bills to sell eggs without seriously evaluating the risks.

Every one of those eggs would become the property of the couple who choose their donor. Many women donate eggs for the money; compensation is commonly around $5,000 to $10,000, though it can range higher for those with the most “desirable traits”. Many countries, including Canada and Britain, prohibit payments to egg donors.

The process of egg extraction is time consuming, and it is not comfortable. For some women, it can be painful. A woman first has to take medications to stop her menstrual cycle and then daily hormone injections for several weeks to stimulate her ovaries to produce a crop of mature eggs at once.

The drugs may cause bloating, weight gain, moodiness and irritability, and there is a risk of a rare condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome that can cause life-threatening complications, blood clots and kidney failure.

The egg extraction itself is a surgical procedure in which a thin needle is inserted through the vagina into the ovary to retrieve the eggs and liquid from the follicles. Risks include adverse responses to anesthesia, infection, bleeding or the inadvertent puncture of an organ.

No one knows the long-term risks to egg donors — if, in fact, there are any. Some women say they experienced a plethora of health problems after donations, including ovarian cysts and endometriosis; a painful inflammatory disease that can cause infertility.

But there has been little research on the long-term outcomes for egg donors, who are often recruited on college campuses with the promise of tens of thousands in payments if they have particularly desirable characteristics, such as green eyes or high-level tennis skills or Ivy League degrees.

Why does Michelle Obama’s revelation matter? Infertility affects about 14-20 percent of couples nowadays. In modern societies the average maternal age during the first pregnancy is getting higher, mainly for sociological reasons. As these factors accumulate, the age of couples seeking help in assisted reproduction increases.

Remember, I’m not a doctor. I just sound like one. Take good care of yourself and live the best life possible!

The information included in this column is for educational purposes only. It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The reader should always consult his or her healthcare provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for their own situation or if they have any questions regarding a medical condition or treatment plan. Glenn Ellis, is a Health Advocacy Communications Specialist. He is the author of Which Doctor?, and Information is the Best Medicine. He is a health columnist and radio commentator who lectures, nationally and internationally on health related topics. For more good health information listen to Glenn, on radio in Philadelphia; Boston; Shreveport; Los Angeles; and Birmingham., or visit: www.glennellis.com

Black Trumpettes Swooned and Dined in Trump's White House By A. Peter Bailey

Nov. 12, 2018

Reality Check

Black Trumpettes Swooned and Dined in Trump's White House

By A. Peter Bailey

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A recent Washington Informer feature, ViewPoint, focused on the following: “Donald Trump hosted Black millennial conservatives at the White House for the Young Black Leadership Summit. They reportedly chanted ‘Build That Wall.”

The feature asked readers of ViewPoint, “What are your thoughts?” (about the actions of the young Black Trumpettes.) “Those kids are so lost,” was one response, “The sad thing is when you don’t know history or where you’re from, you don’t know where you are going. A wise man, Nelson Mandela, said, “Fools multiply when wise men are silent.”

My response to the Informer’s question is that those Black Trumpettes are direct ideological, psychological, and spiritual descendants of George Schuyler and Janet Collins and companions of Justice Clarence Thomas and Dr. Thomas Sowell.

Schuyler, in his book, Black and Conservative, lamented that, “A Black person learns very early that his color is a disadvantage in a world of White folks. This being an unalterable circumstance, one also learns very early to make the most of it. So the lifetime endeavor of the intelligent Negro is how to be reasonably happy through colored.”

Pioneering “Black” ballerina Janet Collins was equally sorrowful as noted in her book, I Dream a World, Lamented Collins, “When you get to be an exceptional Black, you don’t belong to the Whites and you don’t belong to the Blacks. You are too good for the Blacks and you will always be Black to the Whites.”

One of the compatriots of the Black Trumpettes, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was quoted in the conservative Richmond Times-Dispatch as lamenting that, “If I went to work for EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) or did anything directly connected with being Black, my career would be irreparably ruined. The monkey would be on my back because I am Black. People meeting me for the first time will automatically dismiss my thinking as second rate.”

Another of their compatriots, Dr. Thomas Sowell, warned all Trumpettes to beware of attending a Historically Black College or University.” As quoted in the Journal and Guide of Norfolk, Virginia, Sowell noted that, “Black students with SAT scores of 1000 should not consider going to any Black college because they will be educationally mismatched.”

As an Afrocentric, Pan Africanist, Malcolmite, I consider Black Trumpettes to be pathetic people who will be psychologically and spiritually shattered on that inevitable day when they will be confronted by an overt White supremacist.

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Professor A. Peter Bailey, whose latest book is Witnessing Brother Malcolm X, the Master Teacher, can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Our Political Realignment by Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

Nov. 11, 2018

Our Political Realignment
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Nancy Pelosi laid out clearly what Democrats must do. Watching her handle a press conference was such a contrast after seeing the angry, silly, untruthful, bragging, disrespectful press conference by #45, whose name is not worth calling because it is so filled with pollution. What a relief it is to have a potential Speaker stand up to #45—and have the power to block some of his childish antics!

Obviously, my heart was broken when it became apparent that we would not be able to celebrate the election of Mayor Andrew Gillum or Stacy Abrams for governor or Beto O’Rourke for the U.S. Senate. Those results harkened the bitter memories of the voter suppression, racial hatred and overtly racist acts I experienced in my own run for Congress in deeply red Louisiana. Sadly, a majority of this racism came from my own party.

I upset the image. I was both a woman and Black, and white Democrats had not seen such a candidate before. Louisiana was still firmly in the grip of the "Old South" mentality. And, as James Baldwin said, “Segregation may be practically gone, but the funeral is still going on.”

During this campaign, the spirit of racial animus was resurrected in full force. In Florida and Georgia high quality Democratic candidates were defeated by those who placed their delusional racist reasoning over their own interests and the interests of those they claim to love. In Beto’s case, the racists thought he might actually help the underserved.

Now, let’s talk about the good stuff. Democrats regained the House of Representatives. People, who are inclined to support our community, won many local elections.

Though not truly complete, the efforts of many women were rewarded with victory. More than 100 women were elected. Among them, 3 Black, 2 Muslim,

2 Native American, and a Palestinian woman! Now that women know we can win, future victories are assured.

It’s a shame that instead of welcoming diversity, many have gone out of their way to reject it—some in a violent way. We’ve seen white males in horrendous acts over the past few weeks. They’ve killed 11 innocent worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue and sent shockwaves of fear through that community and the nation; 2 innocent people fell victim in a yoga studio in Florida; and 2 innocent Black people were gunned-down at a Kentucky grocery store. This very same indifference to justice and honor was mirrored by the Secretary of State who was sufficiently arrogant as to try to sell us the idea he could fairly and impartially manage an election in which he was a principal. Oh, how they try to stop our progress!

Despite these inexcusable infractions and the fact that our preferred candidates did not win, we must hold to the belief that the arch of the pendulum swings toward justice. Horrible acts of domestic terrorism and #45’s immoral distortion of our national character and The TRUTH will not overshadow the insight, courage and bravery of those citizens who work unceasingly for the goal of perfecting our union.

Florida offered us little to cheer about in recent elections, but its voters have offered a ray of hope for the future. They approved the restoration of voting rights to felons who have paid their debt to society. In the midst of chaos, we continue the struggle to bring about equal justice for all. We must be willing to continue, because we’re not there yet. Perhaps this minor political realignment will start the process of moving us from the chaos wrought by #45 and some of his followers to a more perfect National coexistence.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. is National President of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. (www.natonalcongressbw.org--202/678-6788). She also hosts “Wake Up and Stay Woke” on WPFW-FM 89.3 radio in Washington, DC.)

Deep South States Take a Long-Overdue Step out of the Jim Crow Past By Marc H. Morial

Nov. 11, 2018

Deep South States Take a Long-Overdue Step out of the Jim Crow Past

By Marc H. Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal. As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” ― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow

The Urban League Movement congratulates two states in the Deep South that took a step out of the dark Jim Crow past by passing major criminal justice reforms on Election Day.

In Louisiana, voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state constitution that will require unanimous jury verdicts to convict on felony charges. Until now, Louisiana was one of only two states, along with Oregon, that allowed non-unanimous jury verdicts for felonies, and only Louisiana allowed them for murder.

And more than a million previously incarcerated Floridians have had their voting rights restored. Florida was one of 13 states that bar those convicted of felonies from voting even after their sentences have been served.

Both laws had their roots in the post-Reconstruction-era crackdown on civil rights for Black Americans, more than 150 years in the past. They have rightly been consigned to the ash heap of history.

Drafters of the 1898 Louisiana state constitution aimed to “perpetuate the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race in Louisiana,” scrubbing from the rolls nearly all 130,000 Black registered voters. By law, they couldn’t simply ban Black people from voting or serving on juries, so they devised a system that would invalidate the votes of the few African Americans who might make it on to a jury – the votes of only nine of 12 jurors would be counted.

In its 1972 Apodaca v. Oregon ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court validated non-unanimous verdicts in state courts — but not federal ones. At a Constitutional convention the next year Louisiana lawmakers changed the number of jurors required for a verdict from nine to 10.

The law’s racist intent carried into the present day. Roughly a third of Louisianans are Black, but two-thirds of state prisoners and three-fourths of inmates serving life without parole are Black.

An analysis of convictions by The Advocate newspaper found that 40 percent of all convictions in Louisiana came over the objections of one or two holdouts. When the defendant was Black, the proportion went up to 43 percent, versus 33 percent for white defendants. In three-quarters cases analyzed, the defendant was Black.

Those convicted of felonies have been banned from voting in Florida since the ratification of a new state constitution in 1872. According to Florida lore, lawmaker WJ Purman reportedly boasted he had prevented the state from being “n***erized”. At the time, so-called “black codes” – laws that restricted Black people's right to own property, conduct business, buy and lease land, and move freely through public spaces – criminalized a staggering proportion of the African American population.

Within a few years of the end of Reconstruction, an estimated 95% of convicts in the south were Black. A century and a half later felony, disenfranchisement has left more than one in five Black Floridians unable to vote.

Voters in Louisiana and Florida recognized not only the racism, but anti-American spirit inherent in non-unanimous jury verdicts and felony disenfranchisement, and were eager to bring their states’ laws into line with most of the rest of the country. We call on other states with similar laws remaining on the books to follow their example.

The President and the Press: Unhinged Attacks are Repulsive by Julianne Malveaux

Nov. 11, 2018

The President and the Press: Unhinged Attacks are Repulsive

By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A cursory look at the win-loss column after last week's mid-term elections suggests that nobody left the table empty-handed. Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives, Republican's expanded their control of the Senate, hundreds of state legislative seats flipped from Democratic to Republican, and Democrats gained gubernatorial, Attorney General, and other key positions.

But both democracy and the truth took a hit during the midterms, when the President of the United States obfuscated, prevaricated, and just plain lied every chance he got. And then he had the nerve to say he tells the truth "when he can," which really means he tells the truth only when it serves him. During the midterm campaign, 45 notably attacked Democratic opponents any way he could, often with the vilest of lies. African American political candidates, and especially Stacey Abrams (Georgia) and Andrew Gillum (Florida) were the focus of his ire.

While 45 counts the midterm election as a victory, he was so testily obnoxious in the press conference the day after the election that it is clear that he felt the loss. And when a bully is beaten, he lashes out. CNN's Jim Acosta was the victim of his ire. Because he was persistent in asking a question, he was falsely accused of putting his hands on someone, and his White House press pass was revoked. At the same press conference, the so-called leader of the free world was rudely dismissive to American Urban Radio's star reporter, April Ryan, repeatedly telling her to "sit down." Then, on November 9, he attacked Ryan, calling her a "loser" and saying that she "doesn't know what the hell she is doing." He said he might consider yanking her press credentials.

The president is on a roll when it comes to Black women in the press. He told CNN's Abby Phillips that she "always asks stupid question" when she asked him whether he elevated Matt Whitaker to acting Attorney General because he will impede the Mueller investigation. Stupid is the perfect way to describe a president who does not even know how to use Google search to figure out that his pick to replace Jeff Sessions is biased against an investigation he is now charged with supervising. Phillips, a consummate and smooth professional, surely understands that she is in good company. Trump loves to attack Black women, especially those who oppose him (like Maxine Waters) for their intellectual acuity.

At the same press conference where he melted down on Jim Acosta, the president also attacked PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, describing a question she asked him about the term "nationalist" as a "racist question." Alcindor, who says she has interviewed several white supremacists that are "excited" by their leader, asked a perfectly legitimate question of the president who has been stoking racial fires since he announced his candidacy. In attacking both the questioner and the question, 45 again showed his biases and his hostility both to the press and to some of the individuals who cover him.

No president enjoys intense press scrutiny, especially when things are not going his way. But no president has been more rude, dismissive and offensive toward the press. No press secretary has been more rude and obnoxious than Sarah Huckabee Sanders. And none has attempted to curtail press freedoms with the vitriol that Trump has.

Mr. Trump says he will pull the press credential of any member of the press who is not "respectful" to him. In his tiny mind, disrespect is the same as merely asking difficult or uncomfortable questions. He and Sanders would undoubtedly feel better if there were no press questions, just syncopated fawning.

I don't expect decency from the president, but I am concerned that the press corps has not been more strongly supportive of their colleagues like April Ryan and Jim Acosta. What if, for just one day, every member of the press began her question with, I'm asking this in the name of Jim Acosta? What if they started a question with, “Let me say that my colleague April Ryan is not a loser," this administration would get some sense of press solidarity. Trump attacks because he can attack and because few are willing to stand up to him.

The President's hostility toward the press is bad enough. His particular antipathy toward African Americans is even worse. Who will stand up for April Ryan, Abby Phillips, and Yamiche Alcindor? Where, by the way, are the women of the #MeToo movement when Black women are being attacked?

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available via www.amazon.com for booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visitwww.juliannemalveaux.com