Posts Categorized: Guest Post
On Privacy and Reproductive Health: California’s Confidential Health Information Act
Elizabeth McElvein is a member of the Choice USA chapter at Scripps College The federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires health plans and insurers to offer coverage to dependent children up to age 26. While the expansion of health care coverage is a momentous step forward, the ACA leaves matters of patient privacy relatively ambiguous; consequently, it is up to state lawmakers to mediate the conflict between maintaining appropriate health plan and insurer communication and protecting patient confidentiality. This tension is of concrete significance to women and young people for whom patient confidentiality translates into freedom to pursue sexual and reproductive health care services. Imagine a high school senior sitting by herself in a doctor’s waiting room. She contemplates telling her doctor that she is sexually active and dreads the… Read more »
Expanding Access to Abortion in California Could Be a Model for the Country
By Katherine Sheldon, Co-Vice President of Choice USA at Sacramento State Let us start by taking a moment on behalf of uteruses everywhere to give thanks to Roe v. Wade for allowing us to do what we want, when we want, with our bodies. Forty years after becoming law, there are still people fighting to take our rights to our own bodies away from us. Over the last two years, 135 laws have been passed across the nation restricting abortion access. This is not only physically dangerous for women, but it shows them that the government doesn’t take their health seriously. AB 154 is a bill that will allow more medical professionals, including nurses and midwives, the ability to perform first-trimester abortions. Allowing these professionals to perform abortions increases the… Read more »
Abortion Stigma is Global
By Leila Hessini, Director of Community Mobilization & Youth Leadership at Ipas Abortions have existed since time immemorial and are one of the most common and safest medical procedures. But the stigma that often surrounds abortion and anyone associated with it—women, providers, pharmacists and advocates—contributes to abortion’s social, medical and legal marginalization. At Ipas, we know that stigmatizing abortion is inherently harmful to women’s health — preventing them from getting the care they deserve. When abortion is inaccessible either legally, financially or physically, women are more likely to delay receiving care, suffer from trying to pull together the resources needed or turn to unsafe methods of pregnancy termination. Abortion stigma plays out on so many levels. Women who need abortions face stigma and may even perpetuate it, as do providers of abortion… Read more »
The Problem With Grey Rape
Written by Danielle Paradis and cross-posted with permission from Fem2pt0. Recently, in an article for the Good Men Project , I referred to “grey rape” a term popularized by Cosmopolitan in a 2007 article titled “The New Kind of Date Rape.” I continue to place scare quotes around the term because while it does the work of communicating the issue that I am trying to talk about, it is also a term that can lead to victim-blaming—and that is not something I ever want to do. “Grey rape” implies that rape occurs on a spectrum. In order to discuss the problematic issue of rape being on a sliding scale, some key terms and ideas need to be identified and expanded upon. This idea of ‘grey rape’ is surrounded by context…. Read more »
Even at the Catholic University of America, We Need Birth Control
By Callie Otto, Catholic University Students for Choice co-founder & Choice USA intern As a reproductive justice advocate at one of the most conservative colleges in the country (that is The Catholic University of America) the last few years have been nothing short of challenging. Figuring out how to get around the no condoms policy, being slut-shamed by a doctor at my campus health center, getting my favorite professor in deep shit for allowing me to talk about my pro-choice views in class, volunteering as a clinic escort at the same clinic my some of my peers sit and pray outside of — yes, I’d say it has been a challenge. These challenges have made me bitter. Bitter about the fact that I’m consistently denied my right to do or… Read more »
Artistic Allyship: Considering Social Implications of Hollywood, Broadway, and Mainstream Art
By Sarah Bernstein, Chapter Member, Oberlin College Last week my family went to see The Book of Mormon, the latest Broadway musical hit. Mormon is a sing-song baby born from the creators South Park. It parodies religion, sexuality, race, other musicals, comedy, capitalism, Disney— it pokes fun at everything there is to make fun of. It does so pretty successfully. Rolling Stone Magazine deemed Mormon a “new gold standard for Broadway… marching into legend,” The New York Times called it “the best musical of the century.” While I am a big-time showtune lover, my infatuation with “the Broadway musical” started to fade-fast somewhere around my junior year of high school. Call me a cynic, but I think the shows are overbudgeted, overpriced, overproduced, and tell mediocre-at-best stories. Still. The Book… Read more »
Anti-Choice Ohio: Stalled But Not Stopped
By Sarah Bernstein, Oberlin College Agh. Ohio! What are you doinggg? In my past four years of living here, I’ve asked this question a lot, particularly about the state’s attacks on reproductive justice. In the past month, Ohio’s state congress has pushed some extremist conservative legislation. Of course. Ohio just played a huge role in reelecting a president who made birth control about a million times more accessible. No wonder anti-choice bills have been rolling in. You might have heard whispers (or shouts) about “The Heartbeat Bill” and a bill that could “defund planned parenthood.” If not, here’s an overview & my two-cents about the damage they could do: HB125 (aka “The Heartbeat Bill”): Like the title implies, this bill threatens to make abortion illegal after a fetal heartbeat can… Read more »
Domestic Violence, Reproductive Justice & Young People Writing Their Own Narrative
“He refuses to use a condom. I’ve bought them and he throws them out.” –Survivor on the National Domestic Violence Hotline “He threatened me when I asked to use birth control, and always refused to use condoms after we became exclusive. When we decided to continue the pregnancy and marry, the overt abuse started within days of our wedding.” –Jessica’s Story The stories above are an everyday reality for women who are in unhealthy and abusive relationships. For those who don’t know, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Each October, national and local domestic violence organizations and activists work to mourn those who have died, celebrate those who have survived, and connect those who work to end violence. The statistics around domestic and dating violence are staggering: 1 in 4… Read more »
The Virginity Complex: Where do I fit in?
Las month was the first time I had seen a movie in about a year. Why would I pay upwards of $15 to see a movie when I could wait six months for Netflix? The movie that I chose to use my precious paycheck on was Magic Mike. If you haven’t heard about the movie, you obviously aren’t one that views Channing Tatum’s abs as a more precious work of art than the Mona Lisa. The movie had little plot line and subpar acting, but it did have one thing that I was craving: sex. The gyrating bodies of the A-list actors dripping in sweat were pleasing to all of my senses. When I left the theatre, I couldn’t help but think of that stupid question, “If I ever got… Read more »
One Less Tough Decision: What Birth Control Without Co-Pays Means for College Women
Being pro-choice means trusting women to make their own decisions about their reproductive healthcare. But there are some reproductive healthcare decisions I don’t think women should have to make. I don’t think a woman should have to decide whether to keep taking a birth control pill that gives her terrible side effects, because it’s the only brand whose copay she can afford. I don’t think a woman should have to decide whether to enroll in a birth control study and rely on a pill that isn’t on the market yet, not because the compensation is great, but because it’s the only way to get contraception for free. I don’t think a woman who lives with Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder should have to choose whether to suffer every month because the pill that gives… Read more »
