Planned Parenthood's Kathi DiNicola gives us the rundown on the situation in South Dakota. Florida legislators attack medical rights from a new, hypocritical perspective, and social conservatives continue not to do as they say.
It happens frequently when I meet someone new. We each say what work we do, and then he or she says, “You are a man. Why are you interested in family planning?”
A mom gives Botox injections to her eight-year-old daughter and a sneaker company markets butt-shaping shoes for young girls. What messages are we sending young girls?
Anti-choicers may have failed to defund Planned Parenthood on a federal level, but they sent a warning to conservative politicians to oppose access to contraception or else. And on a state and local level, politicians are listening.
Reproductive medicine has long been criticized for its commercial aspects — for being more like an industry than a medical practice. Run a Google search for "the baby business" and you will not only turn up Debora Spar's book, but some 954,000 exact matches. Now lawyers are getting in on the action: It's not just an industry, it's (allegedly) a cartel!
Abortion is morally defensible because women are the best arbiters of whether or not they are ready to bear a child, not because it is a way for society to prevent the births of babies perceived as undesirable.
