Feminism in the News

There is a lot of good stuff that has been written recently and I fail at getting all the information into this one post. Here is my best shot. Enjoy.

From the widely successful Blog for Choice Day, the Undomestic Goddess writes why she is Pro-Choice.

Because women's bodies are not government property.
Because abortion is health care.
Because 1/3 of women under the age of 40 will have an abortion.
Because I value the life of the mother.
Because every child should be a wanted child.

Sharkfu from Feministing.com has a great post about health care legislation and who deserves what.

All of us have the right to have coverage for and access to the full range of reproductive health care services.

Not just rich people...or folks who happen to live in a certain state...or those who are able to gather up funds from supportive family and friends...or people with health care coverage through one of those big companies that gives real coverage to all employees even if they happen to work in one of the branch offices located in an unfortunate anti-choice state.

All of us...and that means transgender people, lesbian and bi-sexual and gay and queer people...people of color...disabled people...people who are blessed with multiple identities (wink)...women who are serving in the military and the women who have served...undocumented people...incarcerated people...sex workers and all the other people I failed to mention.

All of us.

Truly an under reported part of this whole debacle is that there still isn't any real coverage for non-hetero-normative humans in the US. Very disappointing.

Change.Org has a great group of writers and researchers. Not to mention they have thousands of petitioners and members. That site is an excellent resource and I recommend it as daily reading for anyone who is concerned about the state of human rights.

With that being said, here is a great piece highlighting a new Catholic Archbishop who equates homosexuality with anorexia; calling both "disordered".

Speaking to his flock via Belgian television, Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard said that LGBT people and people suffering from anorexia have something in common: both are disordered.

"Homosexuality is not the same as normal sex in the same way that anorexia is not a normal appetite," the Archbishop said, showing both an immature understanding of human sexuality and of the biology behind eating disorders like anorexia.

Another great piece from the Change.Org Women's Rights Blog; Ruth Fertig Reports:

Judge equates fantasies with consent in rape case.

Since when does entertaining the idea of a sexual scenario equate to giving sexual consent?

It seems that in the wise world of a U.K. prosecutor and his judge, not only does maybe mean yes, but yes once means yes always. The duo were at the trial of an alleged rape victim who claimed she had gone to the house of someone she met online, wanting to have sex with only him, but that he and five other men had proceeded to gang rape her. When the prosecutor revealed that the alleged victim had once had online discussions about engaging in group sex, the judge cleared all six men of their rape and conspiracy to rape charges -- before hearing any actual evidence.

From the National Organization of Women : Celebrating 37 Years of Roe v. Wade.

From the press release of NOW President Terry O'Neal.

Today we celebrate the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which recognized a woman's constitutional right to legal abortion. However, we recognize that in 2010 women's ability to exercise this basic right is under attack as never before, not only by domestic terrorism but also in the halls of Congress. Just last summer, Wichita physician Dr. George Tiller was murdered as he attended church services, and today his admitted killer is being allowed to make the novel argument that his heinous act was not murder because he was driven by religious zeal. In Washington, after months of debate over health care reform, we find ourselves wondering whether the leadership in Congress and the president we worked so hard to elect in 2008 will ultimately stand up to the Catholic Bishops and other extremists bent on dismantling Roe and reject their demands for sweeping anti-abortion provisions in the reform bill. More than ever, we must fight for women's fundamental human right to have access to safe and legal abortion

Even though studies show that abstinence only education doesn't work, funding for such programs in the past 15 years has increased and remained at steady levels. The notion that young men and women can be "taught" to not have sex in lieu of a more pragmatic approach to things like HIV or unplanned pregnancy has now caused the rate of teen pregnancy and abortion to rise for the first time in a decade.

Feministe has more:

After a decade-long decline, teen pregnancy rates rose in 2006. When the teen pregnancy rate dropped in the 1990s, it was largely because of increased contraception use. With the Bush administration in power, though, Congress directed a whole lot of money towards abstinence-only education — telling kids just to keep it in their pants until marriage (because we all know how well that works as a life-long “don’t get pregnant” plan). The result? A four percent rise in teen births, and a one percent rise in abortion.

The United States also has the highest rate of teen pregnancy, birth and abortion of any industrialized, Western nation. Seven percent of all teenage girls here get pregnant.

Awesome.


LaPrincipessa | Twitter: @sophiabiabia | sophiabiabia@gmail.com

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