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Reproductive Rights
The Sound of Silence: Where Is the Anti-Choice Outcry Over North Carolina’s Forced Sterilization of Women of Color?
by Pamela Merritt · January 27, 2012 · 1 comment
A task force in North Carolina recently ruled that survivors of that state’s eugenics program should be paid $50,000 each in financial compensation. Eugenics is often defined as the science of “improving” a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of “desirable” heritable characteristics. The practice of eugenics was not limited to Nazi Germany nor is it a well kept secret that’s been waiting to be discovered by organizations opposed to reproductive justice. In America, state ...Read More
Global
Do Restrictive Abortion Laws Actually Reduce Abortion Rates?
by Gwen Sharp · January 26, 2012 · 1 comment
Andrew S. let us know that The Lancet has just released a study on global trends in abortion, focusing on overall rates, access to safe vs. unsafe abortions, and how the legal status of abortion impacts abortion rates. The results shed some interesting light on the effects of efforts to reduce abortion by outlawing or restricting access to it. Looking at data from 1995 to 2008, the authors found that abortion rates were actually lower in areas of the world with less restrictive abortion laws: [Via ThinkProgress.] The ...Read More
Reproductive Health
Ask an Abortion Provider: Roe v. Wade Edition
by Lola McClure · January 25, 2012 · 3 comments
It’s Trust Women Week! Nearly 40 years ago, abortion was legalized in the United States. To mark the occasion, Lola McClure, a registered nurse, interviewed Dr. Nancy Stanwood, an obstetrician/gynecologist, abortion provider, mother, and board member with the Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. Here is an excerpt of that interview: Hello Dr. Stanwood, it’s wonderful to meet you today! I knew I would like you instantly when I saw that you were wearing a zebra print shirt under your lab coat; I thought, ...Read More
Military
The Invisible War of Military Women
by Holly Kearl · January 25, 2012 · 2 comments
On Sunday I attended the Sundance premiere of The Invisible War, Kirby Dick’s heartbreaking documentary about sexual assault in the military. The 90-minute documentary opens with vintage military recruitment ads aimed at women from as early as the 1940s. They’re followed by clips of women military members talking about what drew them to a career in the military. Quickly, the interviews turn serious, and we learn that each woman is a survivor of rape at the hands of another military member. Even though all ...Read More
Activism
Ai-jen Poo: Organizing Labor—with Love
by Mark Engler · January 19, 2012 · no comments
Talk to Ai-jen Poo about her work and it won’t be long before you hear language you don’t often hear in the midst of intense social movement campaigning. For one, she does not shy away from talking about “organizing with love.” A 37-year-old organizer based in New York City, Poo is founder of Domestic Workers United (DWU), a group that waged a successful campaign for landmark legislation in New York state recognizing the labor rights of nannies and housekeepers. Now, as director of the National Domestic Workers ...Read More
What We Left Behind: Girdles, Silence and Illegal Abortion
by Suzanne Braun Levine · January 18, 2012 · 7 comments
When I went to work at Ms. in 1972, I wore a matching pink skirt and blouse—and a girdle. I had just gotten married and was, therefore, not able to get a bank loan without my husband’s approval. I had given up playing basketball (half-court for girls) in college because no coach or court could be found. And I had had an illegal abortion. Actually it was having had that abortion that was my first tie to Ms. and the women’s movement. The Preview Issue of the magazine, which was excerpted in New York magazine, ...Read More
Ms.cellany
Victory! Obama Stands Up to Bishops and Protects Birth Control Coverage
by Annie Shields · January 20, 2012 · 18 comments
Great news! Despite months of fierce lobbying by the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Obama administration announced today that it would not exempt Catholic hospitals from the Affordable Care Act requirement for insurance plans to cover employees’ birth control. ...Read More
It’s Trust Women Week—Join the Online March
by Annie Shields · January 20, 2012 · 6 comments
2011 brought an unprecedented assault by anti-abortion and anti-contraception state legislatures on women’s reproductive health—135 reproductive rights laws were enacted in 36 states, 68 percent of which restrict access to abortion. Reproductive-rights groups are ...Read More
Roe at 39: Where Women Stand
by Martha Burk · January 14, 2012 · 3 comments
Sarah Weddington was a 27-year-old, inexperienced lawyer when she argued one of the most important cases of the 20th century before the Supreme Court. She ended up having to argue it twice, because the first time the court had two vacancies, and the justices wanted to rehear ...Read More
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Life
If the Clothes Fit: A Feminist Takes on Fashion
“My passion for fashion can sometimes seem a shameful secret life,” wrote Princeton ...
Women vs. People
It’s time for a round-up of all the reader submissions illustrating the annoying habit ...
Beauty and the New LEGO Line for Girls
A few years back we published this fantastic ad for LEGOs as an example of gender-neutral ...
Marketing by Masculinizing the Feminine
Elliott J. sent in a comic by Kris Straub, who posts at chainsawsuit, making fun of the ...
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National
The Sound of Silence: Where Is the Anti-Choice Outcry Over North Carolina’s Forced Sterilization of Women of Color?
A task force in North Carolina recently ruled that survivors of that state’s eugenics ...
The Invisible War of Military Women
On Sunday I attended the Sundance premiere of The Invisible War, Kirby Dick’s heartbreaking ...
Ai-jen Poo: Organizing Labor—with Love
Talk to Ai-jen Poo about her work and it won’t be long before you hear language you ...
If You Were Raped in the Military, Would You Turn to a Fundamentalist Chaplain for Help?
The cliché tells us that war is hell, but for female enlistees, the war on the domestic ...
More Posts From National
Media
What We Left Behind: Girdles, Silence and Illegal Abortion
When I went to work at Ms. in 1972, I wore a matching pink skirt and blouse—and a ...
“Work It” and the “Man-cession”
“Work It,” an ABC sitcom about two unemployed buddies (a car salesman and a mechanic), ...
“Baby Lips”: Thanks for the Infantilization, Maybelline
Maybelline’s brand of lip gloss, “baby lips,” is a straightforward example of the ...
ABC’s “Work It” Only Works at Hurting Trans People
If you’ve watched ABC lately, you have probably been bombarded with ads for its ...
More Posts From Media
Global
Do Restrictive Abortion Laws Actually Reduce Abortion Rates?
Andrew S. let us know that The Lancet has just released a study on global trends in abortion, ...
Percentage of Unsafe Abortions On The Rise Worldwide
Almost half of all abortions performed globally are done so without trained clinical assistance. ...
Sierra Leone: Only a New Government Can Bring Equality for Women
It was the great 19th century American social campaigner Lucretia Mott who stated: “The ...
Women Farmers Feed the World
It’s harvest season in Burkina Faso. Throughout the West African nation’s ...
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