Gosnell’s clinic is an extreme version of what I call “rogue clinics,” facilities that today prey on women, primarily women of color and often immigrants, in low-income communities.
Unable to muster actual compassion for Gosnell’s victims, anti-choicers got right to work seeking ways to exploit his crimes to further reduce access to safe, legal abortion, and to create more Gosnells in the future.
Richard Mourdock argued in a debate that women who have been raped should not have access to abortion services because their pregnancies are a “gift from god.” As a survivor of childhood sexual violence, I disagree with him completely.
If you work in reproductive health or public health you often hear people talking about the “unmet need for contraception” in a certain country or region. But here’s an unmet need that never gets discussed outside of small circles: second-trimester abortion.
![Opening of a health hut in Senegal [img src]](http://rhrealitycheck.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/../../files/teaser-images/opening-187x125.jpg)
Millions of women in Africa and throughout the developing world suffer and die needlessly from unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion. But even the best contraceptive and postabortion services are not enough to prevent this. A third component that is often stigmatized and neglected even in the context of reproductive health programs is safe, legal abortion.
Despite draconian laws and a culture of blame, women in Dubai and other states of the United Arab Emirates are increasingly turning to “do-it-yourself” abortions and endangering their lives in the process.
Rachel Sabbath honors the biblical matriarch who died in childbirth. As Rachel Sabbath approaches, a rabbi underscores the moral and human dimensions of reproductive health and rights, and urges every one of us to act.
For centuries Nepal banned abortion under any circumstance. Women were imprisoned and many more died in the process. Now the highest legal authority in the country has explicitly recognized a woman as the master of her own body.
Stigmatizing abortion is inherently harmful to women’s health. When abortion is inaccessible either legally, financially or physically, women are more likely to turn to the back alley.
Today’s bully, or let’s say one of them because there are so many to deal with each day, is Representative Bob Latta, Republican from the 5th District in Ohio. Mr. Latta has introduced an amendment to the GOP’s proposed Continuing Resolution that would eliminate all funding for international family planning. It could be voted on today.
