Reproductive Rights

They're Wrong

When you try to ban abortion in one state — you are hurting women in every state: join our Twitter campaign and stand with the women in North Dakota.

Last Friday, North Dakota's legislature passed a bill that bans almost all abortions in the state. This outrage comes on the heels of Arkansas politicians passing an extreme abortion ban in their state. These politicians don't think that people across the country will notice or care if they eliminate the rights of women in their state.

They're wrong. When you try to ban abortion in one state — you are hurting women in every state.

The abortion ban isn't the only harmful piece of legislation aimed at North Dakota women and families. In the next week, North Dakota politicians will work to push through a sweeping package of bills that also aim to close down women's health centers and could prevent couples from using in-vitro fertilization to build a family. In the face of such an assault, organizations across the country are joining together to remind North Dakota's women (and the politicians that are supposed to represent them) that we are watching.

Will you take two minutes to join our Twitter campaign and show your support for the women of North Dakota? It's simple:

• First, make sure you're signed in to your Twitter account(s)
• Visit our Thunderclap page at https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/1622-stop-the-bans and click "Support with Twitter"
• A pop-up will appear — click on the orange "Add my Support" button
• Another new pop-up will appear. Click the blue "Sign In" button on the left side of the pop-up
• Once you click the blue button the pop-up will close and you'll be set

On Tuesday, March 19 at 2:00 p.m. ET, everyone who joins the campaign will send the same tweet at the same time to send one loud and resounding message to the state's politicians: RT 2stand w/ #NorthDakota women. Tell Gov Dalrymple 2veto and shut down abortion bans. #NDleg #stopthebans http://thndr.it/WlP5kA Read more »

"Crisis pregnancy centers" (CPCs) around the country advertise free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and counseling—frequently appearing to be neutral medical providers. Women often mistakenly believe that CPCs will provide contraception, including emergency contraception and abortions or referrals to abortion providers. In reality, most are not clinics staffed by medical personnel that offer abortion and contraception. In fact, most CPCs refuse to provide accurate information about abortion or abortion providers. Instead, they offer false ‘facts’ about the safety, availability, and consequences of abortion and birth control. Women deserve better and that is why we are excited to announce the launch this week of Expose the Truth: A Toolkit on Using State Consumer Protection Laws to Document the Deceptive Practices of Crisis Pregnancy Centers.

All states have consumer protection laws that prohibit businesses from engaging in unfair and dishonest practices. The state Attorney General or consumer protection agency enforces the law by investigating complaints filed by people who think a business has broken these laws. Read more »

As I venture my way through my early twenties, I’ve come to realize that my generation has become a fish tank for our younger and older counterparts. We are viewed as entitled (You expect me to pay my cell phone bills?! Do you think groceries grow on trees?) yet we desperately yearn for what we imagined our independent twenties would be like (walking briskly with a cup of Starbucks, probably on our way from one world-changing meeting to the next) and to be taken seriously and trusted. There are countless articles, books, movies, TV shows written about our generation – but you really don’t know what it’s like to be in our shoes. (Shameless plug: Check out This is Personal’s Not in Her Shoes blog!)

We are truly in a state of transition, but that doesn’t make us any less of an adult, and that doesn’t make us any less capable of making our own decisions. We’re all learning and we need the freedom to be trusted to make decisions for our own private lives.

As a twenty something, on top of worrying about my career path, or grad school, or whether the fact that I texted somebody I’m dating means the downfall of courtship as we know it, I also have become increasingly worried about the growing threats to my right to make decisions about my future – issues that many think were settled ages ago. Read more »

The recent report that a majority of Americans under 30 don’t know what Roe v. Wade was about is not really shocking. But it is telling.

Today, the fight to protect Roe v. Wade isn’t about Roe. The fight isn’t even about winning society’s opinion on whether Roe should be overturned, because, as polls have consistently shown over the years, the majority of America thinks it should not be. 

No, instead, the fight has turned into a battle of which side is the most successful in capturing state governments. Unfortunately, the voice of those wanting to ban abortion has been quite successful in getting states to make it impossible to get an abortion even if Roe theoretically remains intact. This is the voice that is driving abortion facilities out of existence, forcing women to undergo unbelievably long waiting periods, make unnecessary, burdensome visits to “crisis pregnancy centers,” and receive medically unnecessary ultrasounds. This is the voice that wants to interfere with the physician-patient relationship and force doctors to lie to their patients. The voice that wants to shame, scare, or physically prevent women from getting abortions. This is the voice of a small minority who wants to impose its religious and moral beliefs on women’s lives they know nothing about. It’s the voice that hurts women and their families.

But things are changing. The voice of the majority is starting to be heard again. Read more »

won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.

When my coworker posed the question, why are you celebrating women being able to access preventative services without a copay, my answer was sure and simple, “Because women deserve it.”

Not everyone agrees with that statement. If the last months of public debate have shown anything, it’s that there are a wide variety of views on the women’s right to access reproductive healthcare. Some people think it is good public policy and long overdue; others think that it’s a gift or worse, immoral.

I’m personally inclined to side with Justice Ginsberg. In reflecting on Roe she said, “[In] the balance is a woman’s autonomous charge of her full life’s course, her ability to stand in relation to men, society and to stay as an independent, self-sustaining equal citizen.” As I celebrate the ACA and Roe, I celebrate women’s ability to build lives they lives they desire. I’m grateful that reproductive healthcare is one of the tools that expands rather than constrains women’s decisions.

born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself? Read more »

Roe v. Wade is important to me because no one should be allowed to force a woman to have a baby that she’s not ready to have. Not the man who got her pregnant. Not her family. And certainly not a bunch of politicians. But what’s more important, I think, is that the one out of three women who will have an abortion in her lifetime start to talk about it.

Advocates for Youth and their 1 in 3 Campaign are helping to make that conversation happen. But, still, when I posted on Facebook about my abortion, some people suggested it was TMI (too much information). Well, actually, it wasn’t enough, because context is everything when it comes to reproductive health. Read more »

Remember how Virginia became a national laughingstock last year and “transvaginal ultrasound” became a new buzz word? Remember how Virginia women let it be known that they didn’t want their legislators forcing them to undergo medically unnecessary and physically invasive ultrasounds? Remember how Virginia politicians didn’t listen – they passed a mandatory ultrasound law anyway? Well, Virginia politicians had a chance to right their wrong, and show that they listen to and respect women. A Virginia state senator introduced a bill last week to repeal the ultrasound requirement. And just a week later, a Republican committee has killed the bill. Read more »

Think the holidays were just a time for joy, merry making, and generosity? Think again. This holiday season, state politicians continued their attacks on women's reproductive health. Here's a wrap up of from the past 2 weeks.

• Michigan Governor Snyder signed into law unnecessary and burdensome requirements on clinics that provide abortions and a ban on the use of telemedicine for medication abortion, threatening access for women in rural areas.
• In Virginia, Governor McDonnell signed off on burdensome and unnecessary regulations on abortion clinics, which could shut down as many as half of the state's clinics and threaten access for thousands of Virginia women. 
• A state court judge ruled that Texas can exclude Planned Parenthood from its state health program for now, leaving 48,000 women without care.

Importantly, the holidays also brought a few victories for women's reproductive health:

• A Georgia judge temporarily blocked a state law that would criminalize virtually all abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy, with only an extremely narrow exception for the woman's health. 

Last Thursday, the full Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in two cases concerning laws that would require Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC) to disclose factual information about the services they offer.

Earlier this year, a divided three judge panel struck down a law in Baltimore, Maryland that required CPCs to post disclaimers in waiting rooms stating that they do not provide or make referrals for abortion or birth control services and a law in Montgomery County, Maryland that required CPCs to disclose that they do not have licensed medical professionals on staff and that the county encourages women who may be pregnant to consult with licensed medical personnel. Judge Robert King dissented in both cases. Read more »

Remember the terribly tragic story of Savita Halappanavar who was refused an abortion at a hospital in Ireland, and died because of it? Some legislators in Michigan evidently think refusing abortion in such cases is not only acceptable, but should not even bring any punishment on the hospital. 

Michigan Senate Bill 975 passed the Senate last week – when they locked the public out of the state capitol – and is scheduled to be considered in a House committee this morning. It would allow a hospital to let a pregnant woman die, without risking its license or a lawsuit or even a fine. Read more »