Oklahoma’s governor has signed into law a bill that will make getting an abortion much more difficult for teens, while in Louisiana a new bill would make it possible to charge parents with child abuse for “coercing” daughters into abortion.
Mirror Mirror on the wall, who’s the “most protective” state of all?
Reproductive health and rights were once again the subject of extensive debate in state capitols in 2012. Over the course of the year, 42 states and the District of Columbia enacted 122 provisions related to reproductive health and rights. One-third of these new provisions, 43 in 19 states, sought to restrict access to abortion services.
Recent press about the death of Savita Halappanavar, admitted to a hospital in Ireland with medical complications in a 17 week pregnancy, is a grim reminder about the impact of abortion restrictions on women’s lives.
Natural disasters tend to make low income and poor people—the majority of whom are women—even more vulnerable to physical assault as well as to greater economic challenges in the years that follow.
If we still need more evidence that reproductive freedom is an economic issue, the challenge of affording child care is ripe for discussion.
How can we encourage youth to take control of their sexual health? Here’s one example: school-based STD screening.
Forced pregnancy testing in schools is a gross violation of young women’s fundamental human rights. It is a shock to see a practice I’ve come to associate with schools in the developing world being replicated in the United States.
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Politicians claim they “didn’t intend” to shut down a clinic with their new law, as activists harass another doctor until she quits.
This week all eyes turned to the Delhi Charter School, which rescinded a policy that grossly discriminated against female students. This situation underscores how ineffective we are at supporting pregnant and parenting teens.
