Special Coverage: Reproductive Justice and Gender

From the blogs

Everyone's Talking About Stupak, But What About the Health Care Bill's More Insidious Features?

The current bill involves some quietly coercive (and racist) provisions that no one wants to mention.

Is Taxing Plastic Surgery Sexist?

Part of the funding for the Senate's health care bill will come from a 5 percent tax on cosmetic surgery, on procedures overwhelmingly obtained by women.

Utah Lawmaker: I Don't Mind "the Gays," but "I Don’t Want ‘Em Stuffing it Down My Throat all the Time"

by Zaid Jilani, Think Progress

"Certainly not in my kid's face."

Hmmm ... Why Do So Many Wingnuts Have Such an Obsessive Fear of Being Raped?

by Staff, Media Matters for America

It's all they can talk about in the right-wing media.

No Stupak Language in Senate Bill; Boxer "Couldn't Be Happier," Hatch Promises "Holy War"

by Adele Stan, AlterNet

Women's rights advocates have been holding their collective breath as the Senate hammered out its bill. So far, so good.

News Flash: Christians Still Not Victimized by Hate Crimes Legislation

by Steven D., Booman Tribune

Nor, obviously, hate crimes themselves.

Stupak Amendment Could End Abortion Coverage -- For Everyone

by Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet

An independent study predicts that the Stupak amendment could end insurance coverage of abortions -- for everyone -- in the long-run.

'Hit the Bitch': Domestic Violence PSA Goes Very, Very Wrong

by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet

Horrifying.

Priceless: Gay Rights Activists Take Over Christian Right Hate-Fest in DC

by Joshua Holland, AlterNet

A techie hired by a group of radical clerics who went to the capitol to denounce homosexuals decided not to risk the bad karma.

Video: Health-care Abortion Controversy No Joke

by AlterNet Staff, AlterNet

In a new video from the Center for Reproductive Rights, the House health care bill's revocation of abortion coverage is no joke.

47,000 Women Could Die As a Result of the New Mammogram Guidelines

George Lakoff, AlterNet. November 25, 2009.
Cost-benefit analysis can kill. Scaling back on mammograms, as a government task force suggested, could result in 47,000 unnecessary deaths.

Why Can't We Look Away From Sarah Palin?

Vanessa Richmond, AlterNet. November 24, 2009.
She's an incompetent has-been. Yet she keeps getting our attention. Is it that she embodies a set of contradictions that many women grapple with?

Why the New Breast Cancer Guidelines Are Racist

Devona Walker, The Loop. November 23, 2009.
Black women get breast cancer at younger ages, but the new breast-cancer guidelines entirely ignore that fact. This is the very definition of institutionalized racism.

When Sex Hurts, and No One Can Tell You Why: The Mysterious Condition Called Vulvodynia

Carey Purcell, AlterNet. November 22, 2009.
Imagine a choice between no intercourse or sex with unbearable pain. Then imagine that no doctor knows how to fix it. That's the world occupied by women with vulvodynia.

Hey Guys, Don't Want Kids? A Vasectomy Is Probably the Way to Go

Anna Clark, RH Reality Check. November 20, 2009.
Historically, the burden of family planning has almost always fallen on women. Isn't it about time for that to change?

Do Yearly Mammograms Save Women's Lives?

Naomi Freundlich, Health Beat. November 19, 2009.
Controversial new recommendations on breast cancer prevention have caused a stir in the women's health community. But do yearly mammograms really change death rates?

Is House Health Care Bill a Threat to Our Constitution?

Barry W. Lynn, Americans United for Separation of Church and State. November 18, 2009.
The House health-care bill isn't just a threat to women's rights; with the Stupak amendment, it's a breach of the Constitution.

Anti-Abortion Group to Protest Palin

Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones Online. November 18, 2009.
To liberals, she epitomizes the anti-choice far right of the GOP. But to American Right to Life, Sarah Palin is not pure enough.

U.S. Christian Right Activists Pushing Death Penalty for Homosexuals in Poor African State

Christi van der Westhuizen, IPS News. November 18, 2009.
Some believe a slew of new, homophobic laws are an attempt to preserve Uganda's shaky patriarchy.

Catholic Bishops Put Sex Obsession Ahead of Mission to the Sick and the Poor

Adele M. Stan, AlterNet. November 16, 2009.
First they threatened to take down health-care reform over abortion coverage. Now they're threatening services to the sick and poor of Washington, D.C., over same-sex marriage.

What Should a Feminist Man Look Like?

Courtney E. Martin, The American Prospect. November 14, 2009.
Many young men reject the trappings of traditional, sexist masculinity. But what's the alternative?

The Democratic Party: Whose Team Is It, Anyway?

Katha Pollitt, The Nation. November 14, 2009.
In the wake of the passage by Democrats of a radical anti-abortion measure, Democratic women are asking, "Whose party is this?"

Why the Catholic Bishops Who Pushed Through the Stupak Amendment Are Hypocrites

Jon O'Brien and Nancy Keenan, AlterNet. November 13, 2009.
The same language the bishops thought too weak to truly ban public funding for abortion maintains their charities' own access to public money.

How Abstinence-Only Programs Perpetuate Dangerous Stereotypes

Martha Kempner, RH Reality Check. November 12, 2009.
It's bad enough the media teaches my daughter harmful gender stereotypes. Does she have to get it at school, too?

How Catholic Bishops Threw the Health Care Debate into Turmoil with Anti-Abortion Maneuver

Adele M. Stan, AlterNet. November 12, 2009.
It took a virulently anti-choice measure to pass the House's health care reform legislation. Progressives are strategizing how to keep it from the final bill.

'Precious': How a Film About an Obese Harlem Teenager Turned the Tables on Hollywood

Emily Wilson, The Women's Media Center. November 10, 2009.
The success of this harrowing new movie undermines the conventional wisdom about what audiences want to watch.

9 Silly Things People Say When They Hear You Don't Want Kids (And Ways to Counter Them)

Liz Langley, AlterNet. November 10, 2009.
Wanting kids isn't just the social norm, it's said to be a biological imperative, the only supposed "duh" of evolution. But yet, some of us choose not to -- and for good reason.

How the Stupak Amendment Radically Undermines Women's Rights

Rachel Morris, Mother Jones Online. November 10, 2009.
Bart Stupak's last-minute amendment to the health care bill is even more dangerous than you think.

4 Ways the Stupak Amendment Deprives Women of Access to Abortion

Jessica Arons, The Wonk Room. November 9, 2009.
The health-care bill passed by the House will expand access to health care. But millions of women are about to lose coverage they currently have and need.

Fetus-Shaped Potatoes? Going Undercover Inside the Weird World of Right-Wing Abortion Foes

Ann Neumann, AlterNet. November 3, 2009.
I went undercover to a Pro-Life Federation conference. What I found there was not "middle America" or even conservative America. It was fringe America.

"Restless Vagina Syndrome": Big Pharma's Newest Fake Disease

Terry J. Allen, In These Times. November 3, 2009.
The pharmaceutical industry wants you to think that if you don't have sex like a porn star, you're in need of their drugs.

Why It's Not Smart to Call Women Conservatives 'Whores'

Tana Ganeva, AlterNet. November 2, 2009.
Conservative women should be strongly criticized. But using gendered language to attack them doesn't help progressives.

Boobs to Die For

Elisheva Wolfe, Nerve.com. November 1, 2009.
I love my boobs. I'm going to use them every day until they start to kill me.

How a Racist Judge Inadvertently Made the Case for Gay Marriage

Madison Shockley, Truthdig. October 30, 2009.
A bigoted justice of the peace in the backwoods of Louisiana accidentally got to the heart of the issue around a key argument in California's gay marriage debate.

There's No Hope for Afghanistan If Women Aren't Involved

Ann Jones, The Nation. October 28, 2009.
What happens to women in Afghanistan is not merely a "women's issue." It is the central issue of stability, development and durable peace.

Is the Catholic Leadership Trying to Silence Nuns?

Maureen Fiedler, Ms. Magazine. October 27, 2009.
The Vatican's secretive investigations of American nuns is seen by many as attempts to intimidate outspoken, liberal nuns into submission.

Is Sleeping With a Married Man Sexist?

Mandy Van Deven, RH Reality Check. October 27, 2009.
How does sleeping with a married man square with feminist politics?

Rape Is a Pre-Existing Condition? The Heartlessness of the Health Insurance Industry Exposed

Danielle Ivory, The Huffington Post Investigative Fund. October 21, 2009.
By taking anti-AIDS medicine after a rape, Christina Turner discovered that she had made herself all but uninsurable.

Why Do Men Catcall?

Ronnie Koenig, AlterNet. October 21, 2009.
Screaming at women about their appearances reinforces some men's sense of dominance -- but it's street harassment.

A National Treasure -- The Memoirs of Gay Rights Pioneer Martin Duberman

Doug Ireland, Gay City News. October 20, 2009.
Father of gay studies programs in universities, Duberman was early to embrace the nascent, post-Stonewall gay liberation movement and join its militant ranks.

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Rebecca Project for Human Rights

Raising the voices of vulnerable families by advocating reform of child welfare, criminal justice, and substance abuse policies that impact the lives of women and girls.

NFPRHA

Family planning services are critical to reducing the need for abortion and providing much-needed health care for low-income communities. Nearly 90 percent of the voting public favors family planning, yet the government routinely underfunds it. Find out how the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association is fighting to keep those services available, and learn how you can help.

ACRJ

The control and regulation of bodies, gender and sexuality is reproductive oppression. Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice organizes to increase the well-being of our families and communities through collective action. Learn more at reproductivejustice.org.