Kathleen Sebelius caves to anti-choicers on emergency contraception, and the USCCB looks to further restrict women's access to contraception. Jean Baker describes the long and wild career of Margaret Sanger.
In 1989, the historic bifurcation between abortion providers and political activists had finally begun to dissolve, and a powerful new alliance was beginning to form. Providers were now at the forefront of the abortion rights struggle, and patients themselves, in the midst of the most personal and intimate of decisions and life events, were thrust into a vortex of politics and passion. This is one story from that time.
Experts, who we count on for guidance and sound evidence-based medicine, have repeatedly shown Plan B to be not only extremely effective, but incredibly safe. Although the experts in the FDA agreed with the well-researched and well-presented data on Plan B, Secretary Sebelius and President Obama chose to ignore their expertise and base their decision on politics, not science.
In her bizarre statement announcing this decision, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius effectively blames young women for her own political cowardice, saying we can’t be sure that younger women will understand how to take Plan B One-Step effective. (HINT: It involves taking one pill. That’s why it’s called Plan B One-Step.)
Today’s news about our own Kathleen Sebelius’ overruling the FDA on EC for youth in need of pregnancy prevention is cause for a second continuous day for disappointment. This act serves as one more nail in the women’s rights coffin… jointly constructed by the Republican AND Democratic Party. As a lifelong, 3rd generation Democrat, I feel like a red-headed stepchild born of two blond parents, slightly out of place and wondering to whom I really belong.
Who bears the brunt of the increasingly steep costs of “global weirding” as the world’s weather goes haywire? Women and their children. And who may be the key to stopping global warming, and to helping communities around the world adapt to the damage that has already been done? Yes, women too.
