On Friday, the House passed an appropriations bill that once again proved it has become politically acceptable to throw the needs of adolescents under the bus. If passed, the bill will cut $10 million from the budget of CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health while resurrecting abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.
The Administration's decision to ignore medical and scientific evidence and deny increased access to Plan-B suggests a failure to understand and acknowledge the effects of this decision on Latinas, women of color, undocumented immigrants and low-income women.
We cannot let the Democrats, let our president, lose sight of what this decades-old debate about access to all forms of reproductive healthcare is really about; that is, for women to have any sort of autonomy and self-determination within our society.
With the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade a little over a month away, and the 2012 election right around the corner, I can’t help but think about the popularly speculated relationship between abortion rights and young people.
The war cry of the GOP (Grand Old Puritans) is that the HPV vaccine is a license for public fornication. This is how they rally their financial base. I get that, but the press doesn’t have to take the bait. It only becomes a story if the press makes it so.
