The Obama Administration is right to require insurance companies to cover contraception for public employees. The bishops are wrong to seek to use the government to limit the decision-making power of American women. And they are surely wrong to call what they are trying to do freedom.
The Obama administration has powerful new statistics in its corner: the National Center for Health Statistics released a report on Wednesday finding that both pregnancy and abortion rates have dropped for women in their 20s since 1990. An author of the study attributes both these trends to effective use of birth control methods.
In mid-July, world leaders will gather in London to discuss a real and urgent need: increased funding for family planning. The summit documents link the dearth of contraceptives and health services to poverty. This vision is not so much wrong as it is incomplete.
Board members faced with “legal advice” from the AG’s office that is clearly informed more by political objectives than legal principles should decline to follow it and take whatever action is necessary to see that the regulations that they believe are in the best interests of Virginians are published and implemented.
Today I participated in an extraordinary side-event on “Rio+20 and Women’s lives: A Cross-General Dialogue” at the Ford Foundation Pavilion. This event was very intimate, it drew you in, with women’s personal stories for Rio+20 and beyond.
By censoring Rep. Lisa Brown's use of the word "vagina," lawmakers in Michigan are sending a powerful message to young people that certain things (and body parts) are so shameful adults can't even hear about them. It is just this attitude that creates environments where years of abuse - like what is being alleged in the trial of Jerry Sandusky - can go on in silence.
Today, here at the BEMFAM clinic in Cachoeirinha Favela in Rio de Janeiro, youth were having a very animated discussion about how they viewed sexuality, reproductive health, being young, and their feelings and emotions about this period in their life.
During meetings to finalize the Rio+20 document, Heads of State will adopt in the next few days at Rio+20, delegates agreed on a plan short on vision and big on compromises, including trading away women's rights to placate the Vatican, Egypt, and Syria.
