Abortion

As the House and Senate sort out the final details of the final appropriations bill, it looks like there are not many surprises. Which is both great and bad news. Read more »

Recently, Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), and Karen Bass (D-CA) organized a briefing to highlight the state of reproductive justice for African American women. During this briefing, reproductive justice leaders came together to discuss recent legislative attacks on women’s reproductive rights generally, and challenges to African American women’s reproductive health specifically. Participants urged policy makers to provide full Medicaid coverage of abortion and support comprehensive sex education programs. Speakers also emphasized the importance of implementing policies that deal with the whole notion of “choice” as it relates to needs of black women. Such commitment, speakers highlighted, would entail working to remedy the compensation inequality, economic insecurity, barriers to housing and health care access, and barriers to education that severely impact black women’s choices and health outcomes. Ultimately, their message was clear—African American women need a stronger push for reproductive justice now more than ever.

It is no secret that reproductive rights took some major blows this year. From bans on private insurance for abortion to attempts to defund reproductive health services, our rights to live healthy reproductive lives have consistently been under assault. This has been especially true for African American women who have historically experienced disparities in access to health care, contraception, health education, and abortion care. In 2011 alone, African American women faced a number of reproductive rights challenges, including misleading and offensive billboard campaigns that targeted women in black communities with the apparent goal of “protecting” black women from themselves. Read more »

Welcome to December! As usual, we’ve got another end-of-the-week roundup for you. This week: stories on teen pregnancy rates in the U.S. and sex education, pondering whether or not Apple’s Siri is pro-choice or anti-choice, ways to find a mentor, some new videos in the NWLC library, and this week’s HERvotes blog carnival. 

Over the weekend, The Abortioneers published a blog post pointing out that Siri, the “personal assistant” feature in the new Apple iPhone 4s, doesn’t seem to be able to find information about abortion and abortion clinics. Siri even seems to have difficulty helping people find information about birth control and contraceptive services. What’s even more troubling to pro-choice advocates is that in some cases, Siri actually directs the iPhone user to anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers.

Many have noted that Siri was programmed with a sense of humor. That she’s meant to be a bit sassy. But now some are also asking, is Siri anti-choice? Read more »

So another Friday is here. In this week’s roundup, we’ve got some thoughts on Occupy Wall Street, new developments around the HPV vaccine, a TV show on abortion in the works, and more. Read more »

New jobs? Not yet. Improved economy? Debatable. Attacks on women's health? Non-stop.

Attacking women's ability to obtain reproductive health care services remains one of Speaker Boehner's top priorities. Tomorrow, Boehner and the House leadership will bring to a vote a dangerous bill that will undermine women's health and even put women's lives at risk.

Tell your Representative to protect women's health by voting NO on this harmful piece of legislation TODAY. Read more »

Tomorrow marks the 35^th anniversary of the original passage of the Hyde amendment. The Hyde amendment, as you may know, prohibits the use of federal funding for abortion services. This amendment has been attached as a rider to appropriations bills each year since its original passage. So while it is not permanent law, it has been the reality for 35 consecutive years, and has altered the landscape on which we battle for access to reproductive health care. Read more »

Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held its first business meeting of the year to consider H.R. Read more »

This week, a firestorm erupted  over efforts by anti-choice members of Congress to narrow the long-standing “rape” exception to the ban on the use of federal funds for abortion.  Hailed by Speaker John Boehner as one of the top priorities for the new Congress, H.R. Read more »

Rather than focusing on the economy and creating jobs, anti-choice politicians began the New Year by introducing bills that, if passed, will restrict women’s access to reproductive health care. Read more »