Concerned Women for America sent out a letter protesting abortion coverage for raped service women. In their estimation, since you can't go back in time and un-rape the victim, there's no reason to offer post-rape care to mitigate the damage.
Governor Brownback has established the Office of the Repealer to help rid Kansas of “unreasonable, unduly burdensome, duplicative, onerous or conflicting laws.” My organization was able to think of just a few recent laws that are extremely unreasonable, duplicative, and overly burdensome to hard-working women and families.
This week, Senators Leahy and Crapo introduced a bill to reauthorize and amend the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The bad news is that the proposed bill substantively slashes funding by almost 20 percent.
This year, the theme of World AIDS Day is "Getting to Zero: Zero New HIV Infections. Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS Related Deaths." In order to get to zero, we must be clear that now is not the time to cut back on essential services, even in the face of fiscal austerity.
HIV-positive women—like all women worldwide—have the right to decide when and if to have children. At a minimum, non-biased pregnancy options counseling and referrals to safe abortion and/or post-abortion care services should be part of comprehensive SRH services provided to HIV-positive (and all) women.
December 1st marks World AIDS Day and this year’s theme is “Getting to Zero.” Much of this day will be focused on a celebration of new technology and science that can help prevent HIV through daily treatment and male circumcision. And we should celebrate those advances – but we should also not lose sight of women who need both family planning and HIV services.
In an outrageous demonstration of just how little they know about sexual violence and rape, Concerned Women for America sent Senators a letter asserting raped servicewomen should not be offered abortion care as a "cure-all." Saying abortion is a "cure-all" for rape is like saying a band aid is a cure-all for cancer. Tell CWA that there is no "cure-all" for rape and send them a band aid.
Senegal provides a fascinating case study in how to work simultaneously to prevent the spread of HIV and meet the family planning needs of women and families. The country's successes also reveal why now, more than ever, U.S. investments in family planning are critical to empowering women, reducing poverty, reducing transmission of HIV and deaths from AIDS, and saving lives.
