from Talk to Action

In last Sunday's New York Times Magazine, Russell Shorto sounded a long-delayed alarm in Contra-Contraception, a comprehensive overview of the religious right's war on birth control. It was past time for a publication of influence to "discover" what many of us have known for years.

The wheels of history have a tendency to roll back over the same ground. For the past 33 years '

from Talk to Action

Women all across the country continue to walk into pharmacies, present prescriptions for emergency contraception, common birth control pills, or even medications such as antibiotics, and find themselves at the mercy of a growing number of graduates of the Faith-Based School of Pharmacology.

In most states besides Illinois '

from Talk to Action

From last Saturday's New York Times:

Kiss-and-Tell No More

A federal judge in Kansas has dealt another blow to the crusade by the state's attorney general, Phill Kline, to restrict abortions under the phony banner of combating child abuse.

In February, the Kansas Supreme Court blocked Mr. Kline from invading the medical privacy of 90 women and girls who were treated at two abortion clinics. This week, a federal trial judge in Wichita killed Mr. Kline's daft idea to require doctors, school counselors and psychotherapists, among others, to report all sexual activity by people under 16, from kissing to sexual intercourse.
:::
It seems too much to hope that this will end the matter, since Mr. Kline is likely to appeal, and anti-abortion groups are eager to expand the use of child-abuse reporting laws. But for the moment, the thoughtful new ruling gives supporters of medical privacy and reproductive freedom a victory.

Just about no one in Kansas would expect Phill Kline to give up now '

Blogging for awareness about Sexual Violence is a good idea. There are many types of violence, some not so obvious as others. If we compare women in Muslim countries to women in the West, you'd say it's obvious that the Muslim women are subjected to violence constantly - war, genocide, systematic rape; punishment for learning to read or wearing anything other than a burka; being sold into marriage or sexual servitude as young children; and the horrible practice of female genital mutilation. Men in those countries won't even shake hands with women sent to represent our government. Women can't leave their homes unescorted because of the possibility they'll be abducted, raped and killed. A woman's own family may murder her if they feel she has dishonored them in some way. A woman's in-laws may murder her if her dowry isn't large enough. No human should live in these conditions for any reason.

Femivist

Today, women bloggers all over the web are blogging to raise awareness about Sexual Violence. I'll be doing what I can on as many of my blogs as I can, and I invite the other women in the blogosphere to do the same. Keep checking in, and make sure you go to Femivist at the link above to see a list of the amazing posts as they hit the web!

Technorati tags: women, femi

from Talk to Action

Talk to Action's dogemperor has documented extensively, and Ethics Daily concurs, that the Religious Right has an increasingly dangerous tendency to confuse medical mortality and morbidity with divine punishment for what they believe to be sexual impurity -- a moral blindness evident in their response to the cervical cancer vaccine that, when administered to girls under age 16, promises to confer near total immunity in later life. But the cancer in question is cervical cancer, its precursor is Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), and HPV is contracted through having ... uh ... sex.