After a year of unsuccessful lawsuits, a woman living with HIV and sterilized without her consent filed a complaint against Chile before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
U.S. support for an Inter-American Convention on Sexual and Reproductive Rights would restore America's leadership role in promoting women's health abroad.
Until 2007, Colombians believed that female genital mutilation was a practice unique to some African countries. But last year we learned that it has long been practiced by one of Colombia's aboriginal groups.
Google "black genocide" and a multitude of web sites indicting Planned Parenthood and other health providers for perpetrating genocide on black people fill the computer screen. It's tempting to scoff at such claims as the delusional ranting of the lunatic fringe, but that wouldn't be wise.
The Hyde Amendment makes reproductive decisions privileges instead of rights. Before the legislation, Medicaid paid for nearly one-third of all abortions. Since the Amendment was enacted, federal Medicaid has paid for less than one percent.
The division of America into red states and blue states misleadingly suggests that states are split into two camps, but along most dimensions, like political orientation, states are on a continuum. By historical standards, the number of swing states is not particularly low, and America’s cultural divisions are not increasing. But despite the flaws of the red state/blue state framework, it does contain two profound truths. First, the heterogeneity of beliefs and attitudes across the United States is enormous and has always been so. Second, political divisions are becoming increasingly religious and cultural. The rise of religious politics is not without precedent, but rather returns us to the pre-New Deal norm. Religious political divisions are so common because religious groups provide politicians the opportunity to send targeted messages that excite their base.
