Elisabeth Garber-Paul is a recent graduate from The New School's Eugene Lang College, where she was the Editor in Chief of the New School Free Press. She now interns at The Nation magazine in New York, and has been published in OMMA, Media, and The Nation.
It’s a far cry from the days when pregnant teens were packed up and sent away. Just a few decades ago, early pregnancy was seen as a stain on a family that was often elaborately hidden. But when reality television meets teen pregnancy, have we gone too far?
The right to choose, to me, has always meant that a woman can have
access to abortion for any reason she wants. Not just for circumstances
of rape and incest, but for her own, personal reasons that she is at no
obligation to disclose. Sometimes it’s the health of the mother, or the
health of the fetus. But what if it’s for a more superficial
reason—like the gender?
North Dakota’s House Bill 1371 requires doctors to show an ultrasound to a pregnant
woman before she is allowed to go through with the procedure.
Infantilizing towards the woman? Sure. Assuming that a woman doesn’t
have long conversations and ambivalent thoughts about making this hard
decision? This is nothing new.
Of course Bristol Palin is pro-abstinence. She got pregnant, and now her son if four months old. And she realizes that if she hadn’t had sex, she wouldn’t have to deal with this.
A male birth control product comes closer to approval for use in the United States.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the “Iron Lady” of Liberia, made a
visit to Jon Stewart’s show this week to promote her new book, This Child Will Be Great, a memoir about her life of abuse, imprisonment, and ultimately her role as the first female president in Africa.
In 2003, Savana Redding, a 13-year-old honor student at Safford Middle
School in Arizona, was suspected by school administrators of carrying
and distributing illegal drugs after a fellow student alleged that she
was guilty.
My mother used to say that children take you places you didn’t know you wanted to go. For me, it’s required classes. Who knew political policy could be so enthralling?
Lately it seems like many of us in the United States are in a tizzy over abstinence-only programs.
As a Law and Order: SVU junkie of sorts, I always assumed that there would be a sassy female detective pestering the crime lab to ensure that any sexual offender would be tracked down and reprimanded for their crime, making sure that every bit of evidence is tested. But when it comes to the handling of rape kits, life doesn’t always imitate television.
