Many U.S. rabbis and ministers have long recognized the moral wisdom of ensuring wide availability of safe and effective birth control.
Last month, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a final ruling in favor of the right to access in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Costa Rica. This is a win for women and Catholics and a blow to the bishops and conservatives who want to deny individuals the right to decide whether and when to have children.
Political Research Associates’ latest report documents efforts by the U.S Christian Right to push an ideology hostile to reproductive and LGBT rights on sub-Saharan African countries.
At a Vatican conference on infertility last week, Pope Benedict XVI railed against reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization. This attack on reproductive technologies is yet another display of the Vatican’s lack of empathy and understanding and a vain attempt to hold back scientific development as well as impede access to reproductive technologies for couples around the world.
I’ve been on both sides of the reproductive rights debate – the side that thinks reproduction is not a right or a decision but a God-given duty; and the side that thinks birth control and abortions ought to be available to whoever the hell wants ‘em, regardless of age (within reason) or reason (within reason). I’ve spent my entire adult life on the latter side of the issue.
Republicans denouncing the requirement that female employees have access to birth control as part of their health benefits use “religious freedom” as their focal point, but completely ignore the church teachings they don’t agree with. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich both wear their faith on their sleeves, but are hypocritical in picking and choosing when they wish to listen to the bishops.
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear said January 9, 2012 for the second time in two weeks that he was rejecting a hospital merger of the publicly-funded University Hospital with a Catholic-oriented consortium, Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI).
Rick and Karen Santorum seek a transmogrification of democracy in the USA in favor of a theocracy.
As a young twenty-something, I welcomed two very wanted, well-loved babies into the world. Once things began to deteriorate between their father and I, I knew without a doubt that any future pregnancy we faced would be terminated. In October 2010, I had an abortion.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) discusses why he confronts elementary, middle and high school students with the question: Where do you stand on the issue of abortion?
