The Administration's decision to block the funding for UNFPA for the fifth year in a row is descriptive of its overall attitude: set your course and don't ever change. The standard operating procedure seems to be: make a decision, and no matter what the evidence shows, stay your original course.
There isn't one, but maybe there is something like it... I subscribe to the RSS feeds for Family Research Council’s (FRC) “Alerts,” and I was struck recently by the 6 new ones that appeared in my inbox:
“Volunteers for Virginia Marriage Amendment needed”
“Volunteers need to help pass marriage amendment in Wisconsin”
“South Dakota faces ballot initiatives on marriage, abortion, and gambling”
“Tennessee marriage amendment needs your help”
“Effort to defend traditional marriage underway in Idaho”
“South Carolina elected officials need to support the marriage amendment”
This is not the FRC PAC sending out these messages.This is FRC’s main office for the 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is legally bound from engaging in partisan electoral activities.Ballot initiatives are technically apolitical — after all, it is not inherently Republican to want to ban gay marriage and abortion (wouldn’t both be an exercise of “big government” intrusion?).They have been the means for political engagements for non-profit organizations in the past, but I don’t know that I’ve seen such a clear example of this scale of activism until this one.
Every once in a while, a piece of writing comes along that truly connects the dots, challenging us to think beyond the traditional ways in which we tend to divide up issues. "We must act on the lessons learned during the Zuma rape trial," co-authored by South African gender activists Bafana Khumalo and Dean Peacock (both men, by the way) of Sonke Gender Justice Project, is just such an article. It weaves together analysis of the now-infamous Jacob Zuma rape trial (wherein former Deputy President of South Africa Jacob Zuma was acquitted of raping a 31-year-old family friend) with the story of a colleague of the authors who was raped in her home by a stranger while the trial was unfolding.
Rewire celebrates the life of a legendary woman, Gov. Ann Richards, with her family of origin and her ever expanding family of friends, especially noting her daughter Cecile Richards and the Planned Parenthood Federation community. She will be missed, but her unstoppable spirit will continue to guide us all.
Thanks for all the laughs, the leadership and one remarkable life!
The media images and descriptions of young girls being wed to much older men in places such as Afghanistan, India and Ethiopia have captured the public mind in recent months. These reports tell the story of young girls being sold off, often for a modest bride price, to a life of poverty, social isolation, early and frequent childbearing -- even domestic violence and early death due to higher risks of maternal mortality or HIV/AIDS. The New York Times, National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal,Glamour magazine, and mainstream America get the urgency of eradicating child marriage. But most U.S. policymakers are not reacting. Why?
In the midst of a global pandemic, HIV/AIDS, the Church of England has called an openly gay, and for the first time an openly HIV-positive priest to minister to a parish that has suffered many losses from the disease. Forty-plus million people are living with the disease, and countless clergy have died from it, most without acknowledging it publicly because of "official policy". The priest had been forced to resign from a previous parish because of his diagnosis. Maybe with this second calling, the world is also given an opportunity to learn from this one parish in the entire world where a ministry will be offered from the lessons AIDS has to teach us all.
I've just read a new article titled "Legislating Against Arousal" in the latest copy of the Guttmacher Institute's journal.
Cythnia Dailard reports that the federal government, nearly ten years since the start of the abstinence-only-until-marriage program has finally defined what they mean by abstinence. The new guidelines say that abstinence is "voluntarily choosing not to engage in sexual activity until marriage." They define sexual activity as "any type of genital activity or sexual stimulation between two persons."Sexual stimulation? Let's see, that could include flirting, hand holding, kissing, french kissing...watching someone in tight jeans bend over and pick up a fork on the floor of the middle school cafeteria. Come on...were these people ever teenagers?
Thanks to the ever-informative blogistas at Feministing for the following newsbit: according to the Khaleej Times, the UAE's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Justice took preliminary steps last week to introduce legal abortion in the United Arab Emirates. But hold on, frivolous female subjects: don't make your appointment just yet. According to Dr. Ali bin Shukar, the UAE's Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Health, "Abortion will be allowed in the country, but under tough conditions. Applicants must have valid reasons." And who gets to decide what constitutes a valid reason? Why, Dr. Shukar, of course!
It took bad poll numbers and a Senate hold on the nomination of the FDA nominee to get Plan B approved for women over 18, but had the FDA followed the scientific evidence, it would have been approved long ago with no age restriction. The obvious reason: the Bush Administration playing politics to appease social conservatives when scientific facts did not fit their agenda.
When it comes to disease prevention, something that isn't (or shouldn't be) tainted with ideology, they wouldn't play politics, would they? I mean, who could possibly be against disease prevention, right?
Apparently it's not good enough to give out false information about abortion. Nor are they satisfied with using taxpayer money to offer religiously-motivated "counseling." No, they are taking it further. So-called pregnancy resource centers (or crisis pregnancy centers) are also targeting inner-city neighborhoods, specifically to restrict the pregnancy options of poor women & girls of color. But wait - that's not all! The Washington Post reported Saturday that these offices are adding "health" services and locating their centers as close as possible to real medical clinics (even taking over their space when clinics move) in the hope that confused patients accidentally go to the wrong office.
That's right, folks - pregnancy resource centers have adopted a business plan similar to a certain fast food giant: set up next to competitors and try to steal their business.
