This morning, House Speaker John Boehner vowed in a House floor speech to overturn the provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that would require faith-affiliated hospitals and universities to include birth-control coverage in their employee health benefits. The provision, Boehner argued, “constitutes an unambiguous attack on religious freedom in our country.”
Author: Leah Berkenwald
Leah Berkenwald is the online communications and social media specialist at the Jewish Women's Archive and editor of the Jewesses with Attitude blog.
With a background in American Studies and Journalism, Leah is currently studying Health Communication at Emerson College in Boston, MA. She is particularly passionate about sexual health issues, despite her father’s plea that she do something less controversial like "save the whales."
And the Pawnee Goddess Spirit Award Goes to … the Trans-Friendly Girl Scouts of Colorado!
For their recent stance against gender injustice, I hereby nominate the Girl Scouts of Colorado for a Pawnee Goddess Spirit Award. What’s that, you ask? On October 13, Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation warmed feminist hearts with an episode about the Pawnee Goddesses, a fictional girls’ scouting group so popular that the towns’ boys petition to […]
Queer History Month: A Chat With Author Lesléa “Heather Has Two Mommies” Newman
In honor of Queer History Month, I want to give a shout out to Lesléa Newman, an iconic yet under-recognized gay Jewish writer whose work continues to inform the changing landscape of GLBT rights in the U.S. I first met Lesléa at a writing workshop sponsored by my mom’s Sisterhood group at our synagogue nearly […]
Have a Hunk Remind You to Feel Yourself Up
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that usually manifests in the bombardment of sexist and demeaning awareness campaigns like “Save the Ta-tas.” Don’t even get me started on the useless and idiotic Facebook memes. But there’s one surprising and, er, “exciting” new breast cancer awareness campaign this season. Rethink Breast Cancer, a Canadian […]
Hot Chicks, Cold Sexists and Occupy Wall Street
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, students of magic battle a boggart, a creature that manifests itself as your worst nightmare. With a flick of their wand and the word “Riddikulus,” students disarm the boggart by turning it into a joke, thus rendering it powerless and nonthreatening. This is exactly what Steven Greenstreet, […]
A Zero-Cost Way to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy
Today is World Contraception Day and many are writing about the challenges to birth control access, which are numerous, complex and vary from nation to nation. But researchers have recently identified a simple change that could make a significant difference in preventing unintended pregnancy here in the U.S. Most U.S. health insurance plans limit the […]
Sex and the City: Imagine it Today!
According to Entertainment Weekly, the CW television network is about to close the deal on a prequel series to Sex and the City, based on Candace Bushnell’s The Carrie Diaries. While it’s painful to watch Hollywood destroy memories of a once-clever show in order to squeeze every last drop out of a dying franchise (the […]
Texas Sonogram Law Is Half-Blocked
In what I’m calling a “half-win,” U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks has blocked certain parts of a law recently passed in Texas requiring doctors to perform pre-abortion sonograms. The law still requires the sonogram, but no longer requires doctors to describe the images to their patients or requires women to hear the descriptions since this, […]
Birth Control Pills … Or a Frappuccino?
As the Ms. Blog reported yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will require all health insurers to fully cover women’s preventative health services, including birth control. With birth control costing some women hundreds of dollars each year, this measure slightly reduces the financial burden of being a woman. It may surprise some […]
Fail to the V
“Hail to the V,” the new Summer’s Eve ad campaign, is trying to sell us their line of feminine washes by telling us just how great the vagina is. As Christie Thompson explains, whether or not the ads are actually empowering is up for debate. But even if Summer’s Eve had managed to put together the most incredible, […]