Special Coverage: Reproductive Justice and Gender

From the blogs

This Week in God

A round-up!

Rick Warren declares he's not "conspiring" to "rid the world of homosexuals"

Warren's bizarre protest, in otherwise welcome statement criticizing Uganda's notorious "kill the gays" bill, raises further questions.

Rachel Maddow Takes on Man Who Claims He Can Make Her Straight

by Jan Frel, AlterNet

Richard Cohen's teachings have been debunked by essentially all national psychological associations, and related peer-reviewed assessments.

Nelson's Stupak-like Amendment Expected to Fail

by Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet

Nelson threatens to filibuster the bill if it's not included -- Harry Reid is going to owe some favors.

Sen. Ben Nelson Asks Bishops' Blessing on His Anti-Choice Health-Care Amendment

by Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check

Nelson won't offer his amendment to the Senate's health-care reform legislation until the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops has time to review it.

What to Make of Feingold's Nay on the Women's Health Care Amendment

by Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet

Feingold votes against a successful amendment that provides women free mammograms and other preventive services.

DC Council Passes Marriage Equality, 11-2

by Adam Bink, Open Left

The two against were former Mayor Marion Barry and Yvette Alexander.

Why Do Mainstream Media Suck Up to Pastor Rick Warren?

by Adele Stan, AlterNet

On Meet the Press, David Gregory never asked about Warren's tacit support for Uganda's gay-execution law, or challenged Warren's description of abortion as a "holocaust."

Activists Strip Down to Their Birthday Suits to Protest Fur

by Staff, AlterNet

In Madrid, Spain.

Someone Is Finally Taking Our Busty Bikini-Clad Barista Crisis Seriously

by Joshua Holland, AlterNet

Apparently someone is thinking about the children.

"How Does Somebody Have a Baby in Jail Without Anybody Noticing?" The Awful Plight of Pregnant Prisoners

Rachel Roth, The Nation. December 14, 2009.
The lack of common sense and compassion with which imprisoned pregnant women are treated is chilling.

The Religious Right's Potty Paranoia

Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones Online. December 12, 2009.
Public restrooms: The final frontier of the right's war on queer folk?

There's More to Sex Than a Cum Shot to the Face: What Men Should Unlearn from Hardcore Porn

Vanessa Richmond, AlterNet. December 12, 2009.
No, porn does not turn men into crazed sex fiends. But it's clear that pornography has affected the way we view -- and have -- sex. Here's how to counter porn's effects.

Can Boob Jobs Serve the Public Good?

Alexandra Suich, The Nation. December 11, 2009.
A tax on plastic surgery may generate $6 billion in ten years. But feminist groups oppose it. Why?

Why Is the Federal Government Supporting Evangelism?

Eleanor J. Bader, RH Reality Check. December 9, 2009.
Why does Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, which teaches students to be "Champions for Christ," get tax-exempt status?

11 Dangerous Ingredients You Should Avoid at All Costs

Sarah Irani, EcoSalon. December 7, 2009.
Headaches, birth defects, allergies and even cancer can be caused by ingredients in common cosmetics. You don't need that junk to look good.

What Happened When an Anti-Choice Catholic Woman Needed an Abortion at Dr. Tiller's Clinic

Amanda Mueller, TruthOut.org. December 6, 2009.
The Andersons were devastated to learn their unborn child wouldn't live. Dr. Tiller showed them the compassion they so badly wished they had from their friends.

Going Undercover in the Crazy, Tragic World of Christian Gay-Conversion Therapy

Sena Christian, AlterNet. December 5, 2009.
Ted Cox posed as a gay man to infiltrate gay-to-straight therapy programs. What he found was equal parts shocking and tragic.

How Our Health System Screws Over Women

Barbara J. Berg, AlterNet. December 3, 2009.
It's time to tell to tell the medical establishment and our elected officials to stop playing Russian roulette with women's lives.

Ehrenreich: The Pink-Ribbon Breast Cancer Cult

Barbara Ehrenreich, Tomdispatch.com. December 2, 2009.
What feminists don't need, no matter how many "races for the cure" they run, is a ladies’ auxiliary to the cancer-industrial complex.

Have Women's Lives Improved Globally?

Laura Liswood, Women's Media Center. November 30, 2009.
The World Economic Forum reported some major progress in the lives of women and girls in some surprising places.

My Baby Would Have Died Under the Stupak Amendment

Tiffany Campbell, RH Reality Check. November 30, 2009.
The selective termination that saved my baby's life would not be covered under the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.

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.

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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.