From the early 1900s up until the 1970’s, over 30 states had formal eugenics programs, that enforced compulsory sterilization of individuals deemed to be “unfit” and “promiscuous.” States sterilized people that were disabled, poor, people of color, and immigrants. North Carolina had a particularly aggressive program. Yet the silence from anti-choice groups on the issue is deafening.
South Carolina lawmakers are set to look at laws that make sexting between minors a crime and they are not alone; 21 states took up sexting laws in 2011. But in their rush to address this issue, too many states are punishing first and asking questions later.
In many ways, Latino views on reproductive health put us at the forefront of efforts to find a constructive public dialogue regarding abortion. Latinos want the conversation in the states and nationally to be less judgmental and less stigmatizing, both in our language and our treatment of a woman making the decision about whether or not to end a pregnancy.
What's chutzpah? Until December 2011, I would have deferred to the classic definition in Leo Rosten's The Joys of Yiddish: chutzpah is a man who kills his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court as a lonely orphan. But at the end of the year, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) introduced a bill to teach the world the real meaning of chutzpah: the "Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2011."
Medical Students for Choice were and are still literally putting their futures and lives on the line by taking on the medical establishment as well as the anti-abortion zealots to bring forward new generations of abortion providers.
Cervical cancer incidence rates vividly demonstrate inequities in our health care systems and in health outcomes. Women in rural areas, the elderly, those with less formal education, and women of color, for example, experience disproportionately high rates of cervical cancer. Meanwhile, in rural communities, uninsured white women have some of the poorest access to routine screening of any patient population.
