Many women have limited access to abortion. Several states allow non-physician clinicians to perform medication or aspiration abortions, and a new study recommends expanding the type of providers who can perform the procedure.

A new campaign started by actress and activist Martha Plimpton, Lizz Winstead of the Daily Show and others is taking its cue from Hester Prynne when it comes to women's reproductive rights. A Is For "is a campaign challenging the traditional meaning of the scarlet letter by encouraging women, and the men who support them, to wear the A proudly."

A new campaign from the Center for Reproductive Rights is causing quite a stir online. The Draw the Line campaign was created to help promote a Bill of Reproductive Rights, "a thundering statement...to the U.S. Congress and the President that they must guarantee and protect reproductive rights as fundamental human rights and stop the attacks by politicians who want to take those rights away." The campaign's videos and online tools feature celebrities like Meryl Streep, Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, Audra McDonald, and Amy Poehler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Soraya Chemaly

The Snatchel Project has a simple rallying cry: "Let's make a uterus or VJJ for each male rep in congress!" The point is to send the following message to anti-choice Congresspeople: "Hands off my uterus! Here's one of your own!" There are simple instructions for participation on the group's website. Learn how to knit (if you don't know how already), follow the patterns, and you too can send your government representatives a message they're unlikely to forget.

Last year, before the fight over health care coverage for contraception began, the Obama administration made the somewhat shocking decision to overrule an FDA panel recommendation that Emergency Contraception (EC) be available to young people under age 17 without a prescription. Now a new study has found that even 17 year-olds (who should have access EC over the counter), may have trouble getting it from their local pharmacy.

In Texas, a state where more than one-quarter of women are uninsured, the Women’s Health Program provides preventive health care, including birth control and lifesaving cancer screenings, to more than 130,000 low-income women each year. The federal government, which covers 90 percent of the cost of this program, has made clear to Texas — and to all 50 states — that a rule excluding a comprehensive women’s health care provider like Planned Parenthood restricts the rights of patients and will not be allowed in the Medicaid program. However, Governor Rick Perry and Texas lawmakers are moving forward to disallow Planned Parenthood from participating in the WHP, today.

What does it say about the state of our society when so many state legislators seem to make the passage of laws de-humanizing women their main priority, but newspapers are afraid of running comic strips satirizing these laws? Garry Trudeau, the brilliant political cartoonist, has produced a series on forced trans-vaginal sonogram laws in Texas, intended to run in all papers that syndicate his comic strip. The strip depicts a “shaming room” and counseling by ridiculous anti-choice legislators in an effort to drive home how harmful these laws are.

Even though the crop of candidates seeking the Republican nomination are mostly misogynist a-holes that make Chris Carter look like John Stuart Mill (no relation to comedian host), Rick Santorum's words and actions, both during his stint in the Senate and on the campaign trail, demonstrate total contempt for women. So it’s only natural that Foster Friess, Mr. Frothy’s chief political benefactor and main donor to the Super PAC backing Rick Santorum’s presidential bid, would have an even lower opinion of women.

Several anti-abortion bills have been making their way through the Virginia state legislature, and one lawmaker is fighting back. In response to the SB484 bill, which would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound and look at the fetal image, Democrat State Sen. Janet Howell "tried to amend it so men seeking prescriptions for erectile dysfunction medication such as Viagra would be required to undergo a rectal exam and cardiac stress test," the Virginian-Pilot reports.

"Many Catholic colleges decline to prescribe or cover birth control, citing religious reasons. Now they are under pressure to change," reports Denise Grady for the New York Times. This month, the Obama administration decided that insurance plans at Catholic institutions would have to cover contraception without a co-pay -- a rule that may be extended to students. Many Catholic institutions are pushing back against the decision, "saying it would force them to violate their beliefs and finance behavior that betrays Catholic teachings."

The following infographic from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation looks at the impact of family planning, noting that 215 million women around the world are in need of effective contraception. "Lack of access to effective contraceptives increases the number of unintended and high-risk pregnancies," the infographic notes. The societal benefits of widespread contraceptive access include reduced HIV transmission, reduced pressure on natural resources, improved education and employment opportunities for women, improved economic growth, and improved status for women.

Yesterday was Roe v. Wade’s 39th anniversary, and what should have been just a joyous date for feminists has instead become a time to reflect how well we’re doing against the backlash to women’s rights. Roe was about abortion, sure, but it was so much more. It was the culmination of years of feminist activism, legislation, and court decisions regarding contraception and abortion that sent a clear signal to the women of America that they were the rightful owners of their bodies. Not their fathers, not their husbands, not their ministers, not the clucking prudes down the street, and not even their doctors.

The Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, has taken issue with the fact that former U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies was asked to speak at the University of Scranton because of Margolies' views on abortion (she is pro-choice). As the Times Leader reports, Margolies "intends to stick to the topic [of women holding elected office] when she speaks at the University of Scranton later this month." Still, Bishop Joseph C. Bambera asked for her invitation to be rescinded -- a request that university president Rev. Kevin P. Quinn denied.