As the realities of Virginia's mandated trans-vaginal ultrasound legislation become clear, members of the far right rape apology squad have gone into action, claiming that coerced ultrasound can not be rape. A rape survivor sees the issue differently.
Popular distaste for "personhood" bills has been evidence in Colorado and Mississippi. So, Oklahoma legislators are seeking the same end result through a different strategy: legislation that lays the groundwork for potential prohibition of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, oral contraception, and IUDs, and the granting of fatherhood rights at conception.
Weekly global roundup: Saudi women left on the Olympics sidelines; Lebanese activists demand marital rape laws; WHO says injectables still safe to use; Ugandan women trafficked to Malaysia; and a fatal witchcraft accusation in Nepal.
Abortion stigma worldwide has remained largely undocumented and unaddressed for years. That is changing. A handful of women’s rights and research groups are embarking on what is conceivably the next frontier of global safe abortion efforts – tracking, documenting and studying abortion stigma around the world.
The image of five religious male officials testifying on women's health perfectly frames the assault on women's health. It is men dictating to women and deciding what's best. It is a particular religious view of conception imposing itself on women's health. And it needs to stop.
An unprecedented number of abortion restrictions have been introduced and eventually passed in state legislatures over the past two years, during a time when one might assume politicians’ focus would be on the economy. But there are real people behind the numbers and they are bearing the enormous toll of these laws.
The claim that mandatory ultrasounds are about information has no basis in research or common sense. Luckily, conservatives are beginning to abandon that argument and admit that it's all about punishing women for having sex.
Foster Friess, Rick Santorum’s chief political benefactor and main donor to the Super PAC backing Rick Santorum’s presidential bid told Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC that women should just “keep their legs shut.”
According to Virginia Delegate David Englin doctors will be turned into criminals and women victims of a sex crime under the "object sexual penetration" law if Governor Bob McDonnell signs the state sanctioned rape bill. Mr. Englin plans to bring his case to the floor next week when the house debates the senate version of the bill.
