“Where Are the Women?”
by Ali Tweedt, FMF Intern Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s (D-NY) now-infamous words have gone viral paired with a picture of last Thursday’s all-male panel at the hearing on contraception coverage by religious institutions. The hearing, “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” was...
Mandating Rape in Virginia
The new definition of rape, just approved by the FBI for the Uniform Crime Report is: “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” A bill passed by the Republican controlled Virginia...
HERvotes Blog Carnival: No Religious Exemption for Birth Control Coverage
Despite enormous pressure from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Obama Administration recently decided not to broaden the religious exemption for contraceptive coverage under the Preventive Care package of the Affordable Care Act. This demand for additional exemptions, would have denied millions of American women contraceptive coverage, including students, teachers, nurses, social workers, and...
One more time…
by Jill Morrison, National Women’s Law Center Abortion. [uh-bawr-shuhn] Contraception. [kon-truh-sep-shuhn] These are not the same. Yet I’ve repeatedly seen claims that the HHS decision on contraceptive coverage requires religious employers to cover “abortifacients.” Clearly, those opposed to the preventive services rule know they are on shaky ground when it comes to rallying their troops against...
It’s Trust Women Week—Join the Online March
2011 brought an unprecedented assault by anti-abortion and anti-contraception state legislatures on women’s reproductive health—135 reproductive rights laws were enacted in 36 states, 68 percent of which restrict access to abortion. Reproductive-rights groups are fighting back with a simple but powerful pro-choice message: Trust women. The Silver Ribbon Campaign to Trust Women, a coalition of 42...
Obama’s Deeply Paternalistic Statement on Plan B Decision
by Jon Walker This post originally appeared on Firedoglake. This is a pure expression of male paternalism regarding women being able to make their own reproductive decisions. From USA Today: President Obama said today that “as the father of two daughters,” he supports his health secretary’s decision to block over-the-counter sales of the Plan B...
Does China Have the Solution for the Population Crisis? Not Even Close
by Meghan Yee On October 31, the world population reached 7 billion. According to one Chinese demographer, however, if not for China’s one-child policy, the world population would have hit that number five years ago. China has the largest population on earth with 1.4 billion people. However, since 1979, the National Population and Family Planning...
In Mississippi, and in Every State, We ARE a Pro-Choice, Pro-Birth Control Nation
By duVergne Gaines I just returned from the front lines in Mississippi, where students on campuses across the state united and mobilized to defeat the so-called “personhood” amendment. In the beginning, many political pundits made it sound as though Initiative 26 was a fait accompli. From the day I landed in Jackson to stay...
The Real Story of Margaret Sanger
By Ellen Chesler Birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger is back in the news this week thanks to GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who claimed on national television that Planned Parenthood, the visionary global movement she founded nearly a century ago, is really about one thing only: “preventing black babies from being born.” Cain’s outrageous and...
The Staggering Facts of Seven Billion
We humans mark a milestone today—the world’s population reaches 7 billion. When I was born there were about 2.2 billion people on earth. When my assistant was born there were a little more than 5 billion people on earth. It took just 12 years to go from 6 billion to 7. As the population climbs...
Reflections on a Population Surging Beyond 7 Billion
6,998,460,833: the world’s current population, according to an estimate by Population Action International (PAI). In anticipation of October 31st, the day the world’s population is predicated to reach 7 billion, I’ve sat at my desk transfixed by PAI’s scrolling ticker, documenting the rapidly increasing population as it approaches a number troubling to reproductive rights activists,...
Let(ting) Her Die is NOT an Option
“I was pregnant, I was miscarrying, I was bleeding. If I had to go from one hospital to the next trying to find one emergency room that would take me in, who knows if I would even be here today. What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to do is...