Politics should not stand in the way of women’s access to family planning. Investing in women’s health leads to a healthier, more prosperous society — this is the legacy we should be exporting. On International Women’s Day, let’s celebrate our success, not try to dismantle it.
Adolescents worldwide lack access to the sexuality education and the comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and services that play a critical role in their well-being and empowerment. The implementation of the full range of reproductive rights — as fundamental human rights — must be a priority for all countries.
When Virginia legislators first began considering a forced trans-vaginal ultrasound bill, progressives wondered: "What kind of world are we living in, when "informed consent" is tantamount to state-sanctioned rape?" Here's what kind of world: the kind wherein a mandatory ultrasound law scads worse than the proposed Virginia bill has already been in place for five months. In Texas. And right now there may be no feasible legal way to stop it.
In 2012, three years before the 2015 deadline the world set for itself to reduce preventable maternal deaths and new HIV infections, we must act more boldly than we have up until now. The global health community must work to bring family planning and HIV services together – and quickly – to save women’s lives.
Improving access to sexual and reproductive health services is necessary to advance the Millennium Development Goals. At this critical moment, however, funding priorities for family planning are being shifted away from Latin America and the Caribbean, which may undermine the substantial gains that have been made in the region and overlook the tremendous need that still remains.
Women Deliver, the maternal health advocacy group, today named its “Women Deliver 50,” a list not of individuals, but of solutions, focusing not on the "who" but the "how of change, and hopefully inspriing people to think bigger and crazier, and do better work.
Opponents of birth control don’t just want to limit access in the U.S., they want to slash U.S. support for international family planning programs. It’s a perennial debate, and it’s about to start all over again
