In North Carolina, Rep. Brad Miller’s (D-13) record of funding for health studies that could prevent the spread of AIDS, and foster better understanding of the sexual health of an aging population and marginalized communities are being portrayed as “paying for sex” by opponent Vernon Robinson (aka “Black Jesse Helms”). The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Political Fact Check.orgrefers to the ad as “sneering” and says its factual accuracy is “wanting” and “misleading on several counts.” In this ad we see how sexual and reproductive health issues are used to titillate and grab attention, all the while stigmatizing and degrading people and studies that are in the interest of public health by distorting their reality, all for political gain, power and control.
[img_assist|nid=892|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=97|height=150]Hats off to Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, who released a truly amazing Catholic voter guide called Voting for the Common Good last week, in anticipation of the upcoming congressional elections. The guide outlines 18 "issues important to Catholics," mentioning abortion side by side with poverty, human rights, the environment, the death penalty, minimum wage, and workers' rights - among other urgent social justice issues du jour. I may not agree with the guide's take on every single issue, but I like the way its authors think.
In taking such a balanced, thoughtful, and morally consistent approach, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good subtly calls out the deafeningly black and white directives on voting one's religious values that are all the rage among hard-line right-wing organizations like the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) these days.
The famous Chinese general, Sun Tzu, in his infamous military treatise, "The Art of War," wrote: "All warfare is based on deception." Common sense tells us, however, that for a deception to prove effective, the lie must ring true. That is where the enemies of reproductive choice fail in the newest stratagem in their war: the attack on contraception.
[img_assist|nid=598|title=Special Series|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]A couple of weeks ago, anti-choice activists gathered in Chicago for a conference entitled, "Contraception Is Not the Answer." You may have read about it in the Chicago Tribune, or in blogs like this one. The organizer of this attack on contraception was none other than Joe Scheidler and his Pro-Life Action League, the man who vowed to stop abortion "by any means necessary" and the group he called the "pro-life mafia" - the same group that proclaimed a "year of pain and fear" in the 1980s during a rash of violent attacks on abortion providers and clinics. Now it seems that our friend Joe has decided that contraception is the cause of most, if not all, of society's problems.
Gloria Feldt is the author of "The War on Choice," keynote speaker, and former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She is currently working on a book with Kathleen Turner called "Take the Lead, Lady!"
Part one of a small series in honor of the Oct. 16 anniversary of the first American birth control clinic, with the purpose of exploring why birth control is still at stake today and what we must do to secure the right and access to it:
I'm not much for remembering dates. Birthdays and anniversaries tend to escape me, even my own. Maybe especially my own--some people call that denial.
But I have been thinking about the upcoming 90th anniversary of the first American birth control movement on Oct. 16. And I've been wondering what Margaret Sanger would think if she could spend a day with me checking out the state of the movement that dates its beginning with the opening day of that clinic on Amboy Street near Pitkin Avenue in the Brownsville district of Brooklyn.
Frances Kissling is President of Catholics for a Free Choice. This article appears in the Winter 2006-2007 issue of Conscience and also on Salon.com.
If abortion is a morally neutral act and does not endanger women's health, why bother to prevent the need for it? After all, the cost of a first-trimester abortion is comparable to the cost of a year's supply of birth control pills-and abortion has fewer complications and less medical risk for women than some of the most effective methods of contraception. This question has plagued advocates of choice since abortion was legalized. It has intensified in the face of antiabortion moralism about sex and responsibility, in the continued stigmatization of women who have abortions and in the increasingly expressed mantra that "there are simply too many abortions in the U.S." Frustration has led some advocates of legal abortion to dig in their heels and insist that any talk about preventing abortions denigrates women as moral decision-makers, misunderstands the reasons women have abortions, retreats from principled support for the right of women to choose abortion without government interference and tacitly lends credence to the contention that abortion is almost always morally wrong.
I adore Katie Couric. There, I've said it. Why does life feel[img_assist|nid=870|title=Brian Rohrbough on CBS News|desc=(click to watch)|link=none|align=right|width=237|height=193] like one coming out process after another? I fell in love with her when I heard her speak at the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association Conference in 1999. There I saw the whip-smart journalist more than the excellent woman to wake up with. I Tivo the CBS News and love what she is doing with it, making complex information and ideas real for people, not over simplifying them. Using the medium of television, admittedly confining in a commercial setting, not to showcase one point of view, but to highlight diverse perspectives.
In this way she reminds us what it is to be American, to be able and willing to understand different points of view, imagine ourselves walking a mile in someone else's pumps (love the legs, love the shoes, love the seating areas away from the desk, the walk, the jeans in her online notebook, and ABSOLUTELY LOVE the sitting on the desk pose for lighter news).
Two nights ago during one of the nightly "Free Speech" segments, the father of a Columbine victim blamed the recent Pennsylvania Amish and Bailey, Colorado school shootings, on abortion.
[img_assist|nid=598|title=Special Series|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]If, as a conference held September 22nd-23rd stated, "Contraception Is Not the Answer," what on earth is the question? Surely it was not, "What is the best way to reduce abortion?" No, the focus of the conference was the evil of contraception throughout society. The speakers presented a comprehensive attack escalating a new political strategy of the far right.
The pro-life organizers of the conference called the decidedly middle-class, white audience "brave" for making history attacking the "golden calf of contraception." According to the Centers for Disease Control, most American women who have had sex have used at least one contraceptive method at some point in their lives. Fr. Thomas Euteneuer told the gathering, "When you sow contraception, you reap abortion." Holding the majority of women in this country responsible for abortion demonstrates the extremism of their agenda.
Dian Harrison is the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate. This is the first of a series of posts about California's Parental Notification Ballot Inititiative.
October is "Let's Talk Month." It's a great opportunity to let the young people in your life know that you are there for them and ready to help, even when they are facing issues that can be tough to talk about, like sexual health.
Research has shown that teens that have good communication with their families are more likely to delay becoming sexually active and are also more likely to be safe if they do become active. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, "Teens who are close to their parents and feel supported by them are more likely to abstain from sex, wait until they are older to begin having sex, have fewer sexual partners, and use contraception more consistently."
The Annenberg Public Policy Center's Political Fact Check.org reports that The Economic Freedom Fund (aka, front-group where the Texas real estate developer who sponsored the Swiftboat ads questioning Sen. John Kerry's patriotism, and for ads defending ex-Majority Leader Tom Delay is putting his money) is planning to spend even more money in this election cycle. Already they have been active with automated phone calls suggesting that Indiana House candidate Baron Hill "votes to allow the sale of a broad range of violent and sexually explicit materials to minors," according to Annenberg. The blog Taking Down Words, first reported (and offers a recording!) the calls.
Editor's note: Some of the links in this post are audio clips; click on them to listen to Allan Carlson in a new window.
[img_assist|nid=598|title=Special Series|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]Welcome back to Rewire's series about the emerging war on contraception. In this episode, I will analyze Allan Carlson's presentation on "The Emptied Quiver: The Protestant Embrace of Contraception." As the daughter of two Lutheran ministers, I found Carlson's narrow take on Christianity, Martin Luther and the burden of families on clergy particularly interesting. His anti-feminist lecture examined Protestant roots against contraception and celibacy and their departure from that position, ending with an appeal for Protestants to return to their original opinion.