Sarah Diehl’s documentary Abortion Democracy: Poland/South Africa contrasts two countries that made big decisions about abortion rights in the 1990s. Poland criminalized abortion in 1993; South Africa legalized it in 1997. Yet, strangely enough, in Poland where the procedure is illegal, it is very easy to find abortion doctors, who even advertise in newspapers. In South Africa, though, […]
Author: Alexandra Tweten
Alexandra was a 2010 editorial intern at Ms. who helped launch the Ms. Blog. She is from Climax, Minnesota and has written for the Grand Forks Herald, the University Chronicle, the St. Cloud Times and Ms. She is now copy-editing for Live Nation/Ticketmaster, and is looking for employment in nonprofits, journalism/PR and/or women's rights. Check out her resume at www.wix.com/msatweet/portfolio!
From the Stacks: Keep Her Where She Belongs
This ad for shoes was featured in Playboy magazine and reprinted in the No Comment section of Ms., December 1974. Aside from the fact that the footwear looks curiously androgynous and fit for a Pilgrim, what can we make of the slogan, “Keep her where she belongs…”? She belongs naked on the floor admiring your […]
Newsflash: Stupak to Retire
Anti-choice Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan has announced he will not run for re-election. Stupak was responsible for negotiating with President Obama to sign an executive order banning federal funds for abortion in exchange for his vote for health care reform. In the original House vote on reform, he sided with Catholic bishops in […]
Students Fight CPC on Public Campus
A religious, anti-choice crisis pregnancy center (CPC) has set up shop on the publicly-owned property of Cal Poly Pomona university in California, directly across from a student apartment building. Misleadingly named the “Women’s Pregnancy Center,” the CPC has been there since November, says Jaclyn Lara of student feminist group Female Sexuality Society (FSS), which has […]
We Heart: Women Astronauts
Hooray! Women are one small step closer to achieving gender parity in space. A record four women are now in space and will soon orbit Earth on the International Space Station. One woman is already at the station and the other three are on their way after NASA launched them this morning. The three are: […]
Is the Archbishop Warming Up to Contraception?
Though it’s likely to be overshadowed by today’s outrageous statement by a Vatican bishop comparing the uproar over priest abuse to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, we’d like to note an interesting answer the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols gave in an interview with the BBC yesterday. When asked how Catholic […]