reproductive rights

Family Planning for the Planet a.k.a. Population Control–Disingenuous Patriarchy That Does Not Empower Women

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:21:12 -0500

by Lucinda Marshall

The U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)’s recent report, “Climate Change Connections: Gender and Population’s” linkage between access to family planning and reproductive healthcare and climate change has led to some troubling analysis regarding population control. According to the overview of the report,

The world’s population is forecast to grow from today’s 6.7 billion to between 8.0 and 10.5 billion by 2050.
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Religious Right Launches Fresh Assault on US Abortion Rights

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:56:16 -0500

by Chris McGreal in Washington

Catholic bishops and Protestant evangelists in the US have unleashed an intense lobbying campaign to force fresh limitations on access to abortion into healthcare legislation under debate in the Senate this week.

Pro-choice groups have described the religious ambush of health reform - which this month pressured the House of Representatives to effectively block women from using medical insurance to pay for abortions - as one of the most serious threats to abortion rights of recent years.

Health Bill Revives Abortion Groups

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:03:23 -0500

by David D. Kirkpatrick

WASHINGTON - Lobbying over abortion was turning into a sleepy business. But the health care debate has brought a new boom, and both sides are exploiting it with fund-raising appeals.

"The reaction has been phenomenal, like a match dropped on dry kindling," said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Media Ignores Women's Health Disparities in Shriver Report

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:04:15 -0400

by Wendy Norris

The "battle of the sexes is over" claims the much-heralded Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything on American work and family life. Go ahead, take a victory lap.

Unless, of course, you're among the millions of women who still earn 23 percent less on average in wages, pay 38 percent more for gender-rated health insurance or fear losing their jobs while trying to juggle disproportionate family responsibilities without flexible work schedules and reasonable family-leave policies.

Conservatives Sweeping 'Liberal Bias' From Bible

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:07:24 -0400

by Antonia Zerbisias

Lo, last week, when news of the Conservative Bible Project broke on Twitter, the Tweeple rang out with sarcasm.

Progressives fired off fake verses one might find rewritten by the "family values'' fundamentalists behind Conservapedia, the so-called "trustworthy'' online information source for all things right-wing.

Verily I say unto thee, these U.S. conservatives, led by Andy Schlafly, begat by Phyllis Schlafly, best known for stopping the equal rights for women amendment, consider modern translations of the Bible to contain too much "liberal bias.''

Don't Mess Around in Texas

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:00:55 -0400

by Suzanne Ehlers

When I graduated from high school in San Antonio, Texas, I can remember at least two dozen girls (out of a class of 600) pregnant or already with babies. It may seem astonishing now, but it was fairly normal in 1991: so normal, in fact, that our high school had responded with an academic track geared toward expectant and young mothers.

Sierra Leone Facing 'Human Rights Emergency', Says Amnesty International

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:56:43 -0400

by David Smith

Amnesty International is warning of a "human rights emergency" in Sierra Leone, which has one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. One in eight women in the west African country risk dying during pregnancy or childbirth, compared with one in 4,500 in the developed world, an Amnesty report says.

The Breakup of the Pro-Life Movement

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:16:36 -0400

by Cristina Page

Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) is, in many ways, a typical pro-life American. He opposes abortion and, because of that, supports every effort to prevent the need for it. Just like most pro-life Americans, Ryan supports contraception -- primarily because it is the most effective way to prevent unintended pregnancy, and thereby abortion. And yet because of this, Ryan no longer qualifies as "pro-life." He was recently banished from the board of a national pro-life group he served on for four years. Ryan, in return, has turned vocal.

Women’s Lives: The Misogynist Football In The Healthcare Debate

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:40:56 -0400

by Lucinda Marshall

One of the very real dangers in the debate on how to fix American healthcare is that women's health will become a bargaining chip, with the GOP and anti-abortion forces trying to frame healthcare reform as an endrun to government ‘interference' in our lives by ‘mandating' abortion and gasp, contraception. Amanda Marcotte has an excellent post here that deconstructs the root of why they are using this tactic and looks

Abortion Care Coverage and Health Care Reform: Getting the Facts Straight

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:45:13 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2009

Planned Parenthood

There has been a great deal of misinformation being spread about abortion care in health reform efforts. First, the majority of private insurance plans today cover abortion care. Second, a recent Mellman poll revealed that most Americans will NOT support health care reform if it doesn’t include comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion. And, third, Americans do not want to see benefits taken away under health care reform. In other words, people don't want women to be worse off under health reform than they are today.