Parenting

In their groundbreaking new book, Framed: Women in the Family Court Underworld, Dr. Christine M. Cocchiola and Amy Polacko expose the gender biased injustice in family courts. Through the stories of 22 real women from the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia the authors shine a light on how women are accused, arrested, abused and can even lose custody of their children—to their abusers. 

“Most people have no idea what really happens when you get divorced—until they find themselves entering the world of family court. It is an abuser’s playground,” said Polacko.

A 6-year-old boy faces life without his mother, Amber Nicole Thurman, because of an abortion ban. Candi Miller died at home with her 3-year-old daughter beside her, after her teenage son watched her suffer for days, because she was too scared to seek follow-up abortion and miscarriage care. And in Indiana, Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, a 26-year-old mom of one, died after she could not access timely reproductive healthcare for an ectopic pregnancy.

As someone who lost my mother as a teenager and who worked with grieving children as a volunteer, I implore you to imagine the powerless feeling of watching your mother’s last moments, wishing you could save her. Imagine the rage you would feel if you knew she could have been saved, but some politician did not care enough about her life to write a clear, evidence-based law that protected it.

Over 90 percent of Americans view themselves as caregivers—whether child, parent or neighbor.

We need public investment in the care economy to build a culture rooted in rest, mental health, and caring for a neighbor without risking your income. There is already an action plan for policies that can improve the quality of life for parents and the overall community.

People are hurting in so many ways that I no longer expect kindness or joy. The U.S. demonstrates what we care about through the policies it enacts and retracts, and we don’t seem to have the capacity to invest in care. 

Parenting is stressful—so stressful, in fact, that earlier this month Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an official advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents.

Single parents represent 30 percent of households in the United States—and 4 out of 5 of these single parents are single moms, who tend to be more stressed, lonelier and feel less supported than other parents.

Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins was jailed for objecting to court ordered “reunification therapy” that sought to mend the relationship between her children and their father, a man charged with sexually assaulting three of their daughters and physically abusing their son.

As a divorce coach and coercive control expert, who are both domestic abuse survivors, we see these mind boggling, trauma-inducing decisions by family courts every day. This Colorado mom could be any mom. That’s why it’s time that America deals with our family court crisis head on.

Title X, the federally funded family planning program that provides confidential family planning services to teens has once again come under attack. In separate lawsuits, two Texas parents have alleged that by allowing their daughters to obtain contraceptives in the absence of their consent, the program has effectively divested them of their “God-given right to ensure their daughters remain virgins until marriage.”

This attack is on Title X is nothing new. The rights of parents to control the upbringing of their children has long been a rallying cry of Christian conservatives as they battle against the ostensible indoctrination of their children “with a secular worldview that amount[s] to a godless religion.” As they see it, a particularly pernicious aspect of this “godless religion” is the belief that  “’teen promiscuity is … normal and acceptable conduct.”

Over the course of four decades, courts have consistently held that although Title X encourages parental involvement, it does not require it based on the recognition that “confidentiality [is] a crucial factor in attracting teenagers to Title X clinics and reducing incidence of teenage pregnancies.”

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris had their first and only debate on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. According to CNN, Trump spoke for about 42 minutes and 52 seconds, while Harris spoke for 37 minutes and 36 seconds. Trump spoke 39 times to Harris’ 23 times.

Here’s what each candidate said on some of the issues feminists care about—including access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare, the Affordable Care Act, childcare, immigration, racial unity and the economy.