Kathleen Reeves
RH Reality Check
Kathleen Reeves recently completed a master’s degree in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University.
All Work
Pope Benedict and Condoms: a Touchy Subject
The payoff for getting into debates with today's Catholic hierarchy seems pretty low.
Raped? An Immigrant or Woman of Color? Lesson of the DSK Case: Don’t Bother
When the next housekeeper is assaulted, she can look to the way the DSK case has played out for guidance.
Catholics Still Waiting for Justice in Sex Abuse Scandal
There may have been an official change in policy regarding clergy sex abuse, but practice and culture appear to be lagging. In practice, the leadership of the Catholic Church has plenty of tolerance for the sexual abuse of children.
Stacey Campfield’s Tennessee Gag Order on Gays
Tennessee's proposed ban on discussing homosexuality is, of course, more about the “homo” than the “sexuality.”
Planned Parenthood: Not Goldman Sachs
Foes are painting Planned Parenthood as an inflated corporation, dangerously powerful and drunk on profits. So the true kingpin of American corporate power is a group of community health clinics providing free and low-cost care?
Pro-Lifers Stand Up for… Murder?
Is murder a right-to-life issue?
USCCB Passes Over “Obama-Lover and Homosexualist” for “Strict Defender of Church Orthodoxy”
The USCCB elects the conservative Archbishop of New York, a "defender of church orthodoxy," over its current vice president, who was subject to a smear campaign.
UPDATED: Christine O’Donnell’s Crusade Against Masturbation
Christine O'Donnell's campaign against masturbation was only the beginning of a lifelong assault on human well-being.
A Pioneering Effort to Increase Rural Women’s Access to Safe Abortion in Iowa
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland deserves a medal for seeking to address the geographic (and often economic) disparity in access to abortion in a smart and safe way.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers Plague Canada, Too
Crisis pregnancy centers are an especially reprehensible tool of the pro-life movement, and an investigative piece in the Toronto Star reminds us why.
USCCB Clarifies: Only Some Lives Worth Saving
The Catholic Church on life-saving abortion: It's okay when we can pretend the fetus isn't there.
Why Do We Need a Prescription for Birth Control Pills?
The pill’s prescription status seems like a holdover from the days when contraception was forbidden: when women who wanted it were reprimanded and those who provided it were jailed.
Soldier Up, Feminists: SP’s in Town
Choice, freedom, and morality in the feminist language wars: If “choice” is problematic, then perhaps a better place to start is “freedom.”
On the Pill’s 50th Birthday, We’re Still Fighting for Sex Ed
Why, in a world of countless birth control pills, the ring, the patch, implants, and condoms for women and men, do people still get pregnant unintentionally? Because there are a lot of people rooting against them.
What to Do About Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice Messages on Public Transit
What do we do about advertising we find offensive, or even bigoted?
Sex: What Is It?
A survey from the Kinsey Institute tackles the murky, but vital, question of What Is Sex? and the answers underscore how changeable our definitions may be.
Anti-Choice Website Misleads on Connections Between Abortion and Maternal Mortality
A writer makes nonsensical arguments to connect criminalization of abortion in Ireland with low rates of maternal mortality. Ireland is abortion-free like America is drug-free.
Chris Smith Prays for Obama. I Am Praying for Smith.
Chris Smith is obsessed with abortion, and with thwarting women's rights. Smith, whose top campaign contributor is Right to Life’s PAC, has made it his mission to make both contraception and safe abortion inaccessible here and abroad.
Steven Mosher on Your Rights: Reproduce Whether You Like It or Not
Anti-choice "aid" organizations and people like Steve Mosher, believe the women they’re “serving” are meant to reproduce, even as their bodies give out, and they can’t feed the children they have.
Scott Brown and Choice: What’s the Real Story?
Brown’s amendment from 2005 has everything to do with rape victims, and his attitude towards these women has everything to do with the upcoming special election.
Catholic Hospitals Back Health Care; Bart Continues to Whine
A group representing America’s Catholic hospitals announced last week it would support the Senate health care bill, breaking rank with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Dark Ages Now: Robert George’s Plan for America
George argues that his view of "moral order" doesn't have to be connected to “divine revelation or biblical Scripture”—but can simply be defended as the most reasonable order.
Women, Listen to Your Mothers
Because of the tremendous work done in the 60s and 70s, my generation can sit around and have conversations about our feelings about abortion. But we need to remember that what matters politically is the legal right to have an abortion, without which these conversations are moot.
Religious Tyranny Shames Religion
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has debased itself by turning into a lobbying group of the most aggressive and inappropriate sort.
The “Born Alive” Myth: Tale Turned Political Tool
The myth of the born-alive fetus has long been a weapon in the pro-life arsenal, one "kept alive" by misleading language, and by efforts to pass laws that further obfuscate and mislead.
Live from Iowa: Latina Empowerment
A radio drama written and directed by an MFA student at the University of Iowa aims to empower Latina women about sexual health. The program, called “La Noche Te De Sorpresas,” or “The Night Gives You Surprises,” is broadcast in Spanish and is one of two culturally-specific radio shows being launched by the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Iowa Initiative to Reduce Unintended Pregnancies.
Is Natural Family Planning Really Holier Than Contraception?
To me, NFP seems, like annulment, to be a loophole created when the Catholic Church recognized that even its very faithful could not possibly live according to every aspect of the Church’s vision.
Survey of Catholics: Strong Support For Health Reform and Women’s Rights
Many Catholic bishops have voiced unconditional opposition to any health reform bill that “funds” abortion--though no current bill does. Catholics, many of whom self-identify as "pro-life," would support health reform even with abortion coverage.
Cardinal Rigali, Republican Lobbyist
Cardinal Rigali manipulates Catholic morality to bring it perfectly in line with Republican policy, though it doesn't reflect the “Catholic” line on war, poverty, and health care. But listen: those issues are just not that important.
Generic EC: Sleeper Story of the Summer
However contentious the EC debate remains, emergency contraception itself must not be ignored.
The Toll of Foster Care
Carrying the burden of childhood abuse and neglect, these girls and women present a greater, specific challenge to those who work to prevent teen pregnancy.
Catholic Hierarchy Forgets What “Catholic” Means
The recent trend of refusing Communion to pro-choice politicians is a prime example of how flawed leadership is weakening the Catholic Church.
HIV-Positive Inmates: The Neglected Population
There’s a sense—not always spoken, but implied—that a person in prison deserves to be there, and therefore doesn’t deserve health care, preventative or otherwise.
International Aid, Made Local
By using the peer-to-peer model, the Minnesota International Health Volunteers program avoids, or at least reduces, public health obstacles that arise when there’s a culture clash.
How to Bring the Virgin Mary Into Your (Sex) Life
There's a lot to laugh about in the Catholic sex prayer, but there's also something serious here.
Bishops Abandon “a Fundamental Issue of Human Life and Dignity”
While some Catholics have strongly supported health care reform, others are more interested in fighting for their own interests than in fighting for people’s lives.
Terry v. Newman
The dispute between Randall Terry and Troy Newman sheds light on the way that activism can satisfy a person’s hunger for attention and influence—how it can become a power trip.
Family Planning in the New Afghanistan
If the United States is serious about paving the way for a modern state, we need to invest in women’s empowerment.
Witnessing Abortion
Merely to be in the clinic — in the waiting room or procedure room — is not to understand the choice a woman makes.
Clinton’s Plan for Women, and the People Who Hope it Fails
Concern for women’s rights among many conservatives extends only as far as it can be used against our enemies.
Abortion is THE Issue for Bob McDonnell
Bob McDonnell’s position on abortion is not incidental to his career as a politician; it’s central, and it’s also extreme.
Catholics Support Health Care; LifeSiteNews Incensed
We shouldn’t be surprised when LifeSiteNews takes offense to a nun who claims that social and economic justice, including affordable health care, are part of God’s vision.
LifeSiteNews Lies to Women About Plan B and Abortion
This article, one of the worst examples of LifeSiteNews's consistent mischaracterization of EC, is truly negligent.
Conservatives Lean on Abortion to Distract from Health Care Crisis
Since “Save America’s Insurance Companies” is hardly a winning rallying cry, conservative groups are calling on their reliable foe/political friend, abortion.
When Sexism is Deadly
Indifference to maternal mortality is closely related to indifference to women’s reproductive rights.
The Message Muddle on IUDs
Doctors and nurses are confused about IUDs, and they send confusing messages to us.
Jill Stanek Doesn’t Want to Prevent Abortions
Steven Waldman proposes the following hypothetical situation: more premarital sex and fewer abortions. Would pro-lifers accept this trade-off?
Post-Abortion Syndrome: Anti-Choice “Researchers” Seek to Mislead and Intimidate Women
The “scientists” who pursue the myth of post-abortion syndrome are scientists of the most dangerous kind: those who use faulty, manipulated research as a means to a political end.
“My Sister’s Keeper” and Reproductive Rights
Lisa Belkin worries that the film paints an unrealistic, alarmist picture of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.
Sexual Health Ignorance Comes From Above
How long is sex education going to be marginalized, hindered, or just ignored?
