Parents rightfully want to be involved in their teens’ lives, but if my daughter feels that she cannot talk to me at a big turning point in her life, it is most important that she have a trusted adult by her side. That is why I am so concerned about HR 2299, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act of 2012.
In the motion, Planned Parenthood is attempting to force the prosecution to take into consideration standard care and best practice as viewed through the modern, professional lens of abortion care. This motion stands as a direct challenge to the anti-choice practice of habitually and flagrantly calling medical ideologues “experts” and pointing to two-bit, outdated, non-peer reviewed studies as “science”.
Last March, a landmark maternal health petition was filed in Uganda, aimed at holding the government accountable for the deaths of two women in childbirth. It garnered global media attention at the time, yet five months into the process momentum has stalled. When will it be time to women to take the front seat?
Concerned citizens of Miami County banded together to find a solution for the all male county commissions decision to strip low income women of that community of their access to low cost contraception. They independently raised $9,000 and presented one oversized check to the Miami County Commission.
The current backlash against women is falling under the creative new smokescreen of "religious liberty." Religious arguments against contraception have been used for 50 years, but women, public health officials, and legislators generally favored common sense and personal religious freedeom over ideology from an earlier century. In this election year, however, common sense seems a distant memory.
The current attacks on women’s health, sexuality, and self-determination — in states, GOP debates, on the airwaves, and beyond — are appalling enough. But it’s only part of the story.
Boycotts and harassment tactics have an impact, even if it’s not the impact the anti-choicers would like. When businesses submit to antiabortion browbeating, it forces clinicians to scramble to find new suppliers, diverts attention from the provision of care, and exacerbates tensions and anxieties.
