Category Archives: Rundowns

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • Another day, another moronic member of the GOP telling us that rape, in some way or another, isn’t all that bad for women. Maybe a pregnancy resulting from it was even “intended by God.” #Facepalm (HuffPo)
  • Joe Walsh, yet another imbecilic dunce from the GOP (they just keep crawling out of the woodwork, don’t they? Like termites!) says that advances in medicine have made pregnancy-related deaths obsolete and, thus, there’s never a need for abortions solely for the health of the mother. (Jezebel)
  • And if you thought it couldn’t get any worse than that, you’re sadly mistaken. Pennsylvania is considering a bill that would reduce welfare benefits for women who cannot prove their child was conceived from a rape. Nothing like dooming a woman and her offspring to abject poverty if she can’t prove her child was conceived without her consent. #GOPValues (Think Progress)
  • A sobering, fact-filled piece on rape being used as a political tool by Republican men in the debate over reproductive rights. (RH Reality Check)
  • President Obama wishes politicians would stay out of women’s health care. So do we, sir. (Politico)
  • Texas has won a court battle to exclude Planned Parenthood from the state health care program that provides services to low-income women. (Business Week)
  • Arizona and Indiana can forget about defunding Planned Parenthood, though, says the judicial system. (AP)
  • Meanwhile, in France, lawmakers passed a bill allowing free abortions for all women and free contraception for girls ages 15 to 18. (Global Post)
  • Somebody alert the rest of the media and call a press conference: Free birth control leads to fewer abortions. (South Florida Times)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • News that should surprise no one: Abortions in Arizona are up 25 percent this year. Thank you, Jan Brewer and our craptastic legislators. (AZ Daily Sun)
  • Oh, but the Center for Arizona Policy (aka big time anti-choice lobby) disagrees with these facts. (East Valley Tribune)
  • Women are befuddled about birth control and I can’t help but wonder why. It’s not like our education system focuses mostly on only teaching abstinence, or that most parents don’t take the time to talk about sex and reproductive health with their children! #Sarcasm (Toronto Sun)
  • Speaking of parents failing their children with regard to sex ed … (Think Progress)
  • Dear anti-choicers: All of the roadblocks you put in front of women seeking abortions — mandatory ultrasounds, various arbitrary waiting periods, forcing them to listen to propaganda prior to having an abortion — ultimately have no effect on abortion rates. Know why? Because they don’t get to the core of why women have abortions. These obstacles are rooted in the false assumption that women are ignorant and not fully capable of making proper decisions about their bodies, and thus need to be educated about abortion. Because none of those things is true, your tactics, predictably, are failing to do what you intended them to do — reduce abortions. Feel free to try again, but only with tactics that are considerably less stupid. For instance, access to affordable contraception and comprehensive sex ed. That’d be a good start! (Salon)
  • Ann Romney does not wish to discuss serious world issues like birth control or same-sex marriage because those topics are not what this election is about. She’d much rather talk about what kind of husband and father Mitt is. After all, that’s what is on the minds of Americans. Is Mitt a nice dad? Is he good to his wife? Then obviously he’s qualified to lead the nation and serve as commander in chief. Duh. She also says those issues distract from the real issues: jobs and the economy. (WaPo)
  • Uh, Earth to Ann: Birth control is an economic issue. A woman’s ability to control her own fertility will be the most important factor in dictating her professional and socio-economic status. (Jezebel)
  • “Forcible rape” language is still all the rage among the anti-choice crowd. This time it’s New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, who proposes the state needs proof of “forcible rape” in applications for childcare assistance. I wish this were some kind of a joke. (RH Reality Check)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • Planned Parenthood’s fearless leader, Cecile Richards, put the verbal smackdown on Todd Akin and the rest of the anti-choice clowns of the GOP at the Democratic National Convention last night. (HuffPo)
  • And then Sandra Fluke chimed in with her own takedown of Mitt Romney! (ABC News)
  • Remember how Arizona (specifically Jan Brewer) passed legislation stipulating that only licensed physicians can provide abortion care? Well, new research concludes nurses and midwives can perform abortions just as safely as doctors. The study echoes research last year that found care delivered by advanced practice nurses is just as safe and effective, if not more so, than care provided by physicians. (Fierce Healthcare)
  • Karen Handel, former exec at the Susan G. Komen foundation, has written a book called “Planned Bullyhood” (haha @ that asinine title) in which she whines incessantly about the fallout from Komen’s ill-fated decision to pull its annual grant for breast cancer screenings from Planned Parenthood. Handel has the nerve to compare us to a “schoolyard thug.” Is that LOL-worthy or what?! She blatantly disregards the fact that it was Komen who decided to prioritize politics over women’s health. She fails to acknowledge it was Komen who was soooo eager to jump on the “Attack Planned Parenthood” bandwagon that they were just fine with ceasing funding for potentially life-saving breast exams to women simply for being patients at Planned Parenthood. Oh, and it was Komen who’d known for-freaking-ever that 3 percent of our services go toward abortion care, but only decided to pull the grant because of a highly charged political climate — without regard for the health of the women we both have a responsibility to serve. But we’re the bullies for fighting on behalf of the women who depend on us for their preventive care??? #YeahRight #NotGonnaFlyLady #TryAgain (The Daily Beast)
  • Fox News is making stuff up (shocking, I know) about the Affordable Care Act and pretending like there isn’t a GOP war on women. In other words, it’s business as usual at Fox News. (Newshound)
  • The prognosis for women in four southern states with high rates of maternal mortality — Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi — could be getting even worse thanks to their Republican-led governments trying to decline federal aid to expand Medicaid. (Forbes)
  • The male birth control pill we’ve been waiting 50 years for might finally be on the horizon in the not-so-distant future. (Science 2.0)
  • A new animal study has found that an anti-HIV vaginal ring can prevent virus transmission. Yay science! (Science Daily)
  • Texas continues its fight against Planned Parenthood, and as per usual, it’s women who’ll have to deal with the negative consequences. (CBS News)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • Because Planned Parenthood is so committed to women’s health and providing the best preventive care possible, we’ve just pledged to dedicate $3 million to launch an initiative to fight breast cancer with expanded screenings and education! Woo hoo! (MSNBC)
  • Dear Todd Akin, Your assertion that a woman’s body can “shut the whole thing down” to prevent herself from being impregnated by her rapist is the biggest crock of $&*% we’ve ever heard. Sincerely, Legitimate Ob/gyn Professionals (NYT)
  • You know who’s more extreme on abortion than Todd Akin? Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan! Boom. (The Daily Beast)
  • Please take a look at this fantabulous video extolling a myriad of benefits of contraception. It is so worth your time. (Guttmacher)
  • The tone deaf GOP is going all in on a plan to abolish abortion, and they could give a friggin’ crap if you were “legitimately raped” or molested. (Jezebel)
  • Remember that one time when Paul Ryan co-sponsored legislation with Todd Akin using the language “forcible rape” instead of just plain “rape” — as if there were different categories and classifications of rape? Well, he now insists “rape is rape” and pretends like this is just basic common sense that he’s always embraced! HA! It’s unfortunate that rape wasn’t “rape” when he insisted upon using the “forcible rape” phrase in the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. (RH Reality Check)
  • The Daily Beast has an epic slideshow detailing the history of abortion rights in America. (Daily Beast)
  • It’s time to panic: Gonorrhea is becoming resistant to the only medical treatment left. (The Grio)
  • Isn’t it interesting that anti-choicers have taken extreme interest in a black woman’s death following an abortion (which is extremely rare), rather than the much higher rate of mortality among black women after childbirth? (Double X)
  • The Catholic Church: a long legacy of protecting the pre-born from not being born, but not protecting post-born children — from rape. (Gawker)
  • In related religious news, the Christian right’s affinity for the notion of fetal personhood has absolutely no scriptural basis. Whatsoever. (Role Reboot)
  • The scary world that awaits us if the GOP wins their war on a woman’s right to choose. (Mother Jones)
  • Medical science has proved that circumcision has significant health benefits, including decreasing the risk of cancer and lowering HIV transmission rates. However, circumcision rates are plummeting, which is probably going to cost the United States billions in health care costs. (USA Today)
  • Sadly, a young pregnant leukemia patient has died due to the failure of the Dominican Republic to allow her timely access to chemotherapy — all because because abortion is illegal in the DR and life-saving chemotherapy treatments are likely to terminate a pregnancy. (CNN)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • What Arizona’s asinine abortion ban means for Roe v. Wade (Salon)
  • Well, this is depressing — in less than a decade, Arizona has gone from a state that abortion-rights groups viewed as friendly to one that’s hailed by abortion foes as a national model in their fight to protect the unborn. (Bloomberg)
  • Teen Cancer Patient Can’t Get Chemo Because She’s Nine Weeks Pregnant — But She Can’t Get an Abortion, Either (Jezebel)
  • The good news: Risky sexual behavior is down among black teens. The bad news: The rates of these sexual risk behaviors are still higher than desired, despite the progress made. (The Grio)
  • South Dakota doctors must warn women seeking abortions of suicide risk associated with the procedure — even though no reputable scientific evidence shows a cause-and-effect relationship between abortion and suicide. Like, none. (Star Tribune)
  • House Majority Speaker John Boehner has a message for the GOP: Chill out on all the debt talk and temporarily suspend “Operation Keep Birth Control out of the Hands of Women Because Their Rightful Station in Life Should Be Perpetual Pregnancy” until the election is over. Then we can resume where we left off. (TPM)
  • The United States is one of 23 countries where maternal mortality is on the rise. (Women’s eNews)
  • American teen births at a historic low, but still higher than in the rest of the developed world. If you’re guessing that’s due to our prudish attitudes about talking to teens about sex and empowering them with birth control and knowledge, you’d be correct! (WBEZ)
  • A vaginal ring designed to protect women against HIV infection is undergoing a large, multinational trial. Cross your fingers!!! (Toronto Sun)
  • Careful, ladies! Women who shack up before marriage have more unintended pregnancies. (USA Today)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic is at risk for closure thanks to their staunchly anti-choice governor. (CNN)
  • The FBI is investigating fires set at Georgia Women’s Clinics — hope they catch the sadist! (HuffPo)
  • Think carefully about this before you get knocked up, ladies: A fear of childbirth has been linked to longer labor. (Time Healthland)
  • Catholic bishops in Calgary have banned the HPV vaccine in Catholic schools due to their irrational, ignorant fears that it will cause promiscuity. (National Post)
  • Wow, this never happens: California actually wants to give women more access to birth control. (NC Times)
  • The National Organization for Women is firmly in the corner of President Obama for reelection. (Politico)
  • The FDA recently approved the first rapid, take-home HIV test. (USA Today)
  • Good news for those who are truly pro-life and genuinely care about the lives of women: Meeting Contraception Needs Could Cut Maternal Deaths by a Third. (NYT)
  • The public sharing of abortion stories — a meaningful way to de-stigmatize the procedure and connect women. (RH Reality Check)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • Unwelcome news for anti-choicers: Remember how the FDA and everyone else thought the “morning after pill” (aka Plan B) might prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a uterus? Well, turns out that’s totally and completely wrong. Emergency contraception simply makes it harder for sperm to reach the egg by stalling an egg’s release until sperm can no longer fertilize it. What it doesn’t do is stop a pregnancy from occurring if the egg has already been fertilized. (NYT)
  • Despite Lila Rose’s latest anti-choice “sting” here in Arizona, the facts remain unchanged on the rarity of sex-selective abortion. Nice try, though. (Media Matters)
  • More on Lila’s foolery and how much she and Live Action suck. (RH Reality Check)
  • Sperm cell genes may be the key to male birth control. (MSNBC)
  • Bad news for all you sex-havers: Gonorrhea is growing resistant to drugs and could soon be untreatable. (ABC News)
  • Think about this for a sec: If you believe sex is sinful, the policies that increase teen pregnancy and STD rates are a success. Makes sense to me! (Double X)
  • Michigan’s trying to best Arizona in the anti-choice state championships. (Jezebel)
  • Montana’s trying their hand at a personhood initiative — despite the fact that similar measures in other states have failed spectacularly. (Ms. Magazine)
  • If you or anyone you know is taking the birth control pill Introvale, beware — it’s been recalled! (CBS News)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • Exactly How Much Money Have “Fiscal Conservatives” Wasted Defending Unconstitutional Abortion Laws? Hint: LOTS! (Jezebel)
  • Abortion fund hotline volunteer talks about the economics of stigma. (RH Reality Check)
  • Rather than comply with a federal mandate that its insurance plan provide free birth control, the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio has dickishly decided to drop health insurance coverage for students. (MSNBC)
  • In case you hadn’t heard, horrendously craptastic Arizona Rep. Trent Franks is pushing a bill to ban abortion care at 20 weeks in D.C. — even though he’s an Arizona congressman and has no constituents outside of Arizona. Well, his Republican cronies in the House are silencing the voice of Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, an elected official actually serving the District of Columbia, by denying her the right to testify at the hearing. That’s our democracy for ya. If you’re not an old, wealthy white guy with no uterus, your concerns about women’s health and rights are clearly not welcome. (NARAL Blog for Choice)
  • Undecided Women Voters, Don’t Be Fooled: Your Control of Birth IS ABOUT Jobs (Fem 2.0)
  • Do pregnant black women receive worse medical treatment than whites? (The Grio)
  • According to a new Gallup poll, the number of Americans who identify as “pro-choice” is at a record low. (ABC News)
  • When Access to Abortion Is Too Difficult, Women Turn to Do-It-Yourself Means (RH Reality Check)
  • Pro-choice trailblazer and women’s health advocate Jean Pakter has passed away. (NYT)