Given that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and organizations like the Catholic Health Association play a critical role in American politics, the question becomes: for how much longer are we going to permit religion to have a priority place in our political discourse over the health and safety of American women?
This week begins the major UN Rio+20 “Earth Summit,” and I’ll be covering women and reproductive health (RH) issues as relate to the official UN proceedings, the NGO perspectives, and global south women’s personal stories on how Rio+20 touches their lives.
When we hear about solitary confinement, we often imagine it as a form of extreme punishment inflicted on the most vicious and dangerous criminals in prison. The last thing you would expect is for this practice to be inflicted on children. But it is.
Even a cursory look at correctional and obesity statistics in the United States reveals deep-seated disparities which knee-jerk reactions—in particular those that blatantly ignore color and class—cannot fix.
From a tragic case in Massachusetts has emerged a rule affirming women’s fundamental personhood: “All births, regardless of venue, carry inherent risks; in the ordinary course, competent women who are pregnant may weigh these risks themselves and make decisions about the course of their own pregnancies and childbirths.”
