Posts Categorized: Uncategorized
The Kids Will Be All Right
Earlier this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) approved for the first time the use of long-acting contraceptive methods (LARCs) as the first recommended choice for teens. These devices, the intrauterine device (IUD) and the implant, offer the best of protection against unwanted pregnancies for at least three and up to twelve years (ten FDA-approved). This is especially good news considering that Skyla, the newest IUD on the market, was designed explicitly for young people and/or those who haven’t given birth. Two of the biggest reasons why it’s been difficult for those groups to find a gynecologist who would be willing to prescribe them IUDs were the slight risk of expulsion from the uterus before pregnancy has occurred, it was something that doctors used to discourage or outright deny… Read more »
Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Memoir by Charles M. Blow
The past two weeks have been rough to say the least. It was one of these weeks when your world is turned upside down by unsettling news. I had to readjust my life and face new “normals.” I sought help from close friends and family. I deem the past two weeks and exercise in mental health. I often find that we speak of a physical health often unconnected from mental health. While going through my struggles in the last few weeks, I came across an op-ed article entitled “Up from Pain” from one my favorite columnists, Charles M. Blow. Charles M. Blow is an opinion columnist for the New York Times. His article “Up from Pain” in the The New York Times reads like an excerpt from his recently released… Read more »
Should Men Have a Say in Abortion?
Over the past few years, I’ve had a lot of conversations about abortion. In fact, a large portion of my life has revolved around abortion issues because of the people in my life and the organizations I work with. As a result of all of these conversations, I’ve heard a lot of different and nuanced opinions on how this issue should be handled. One of these opinions that I think is particularly dangerous is the argument that in order to get an abortion, a woman should have to get the consent of the biological father. Before I get any farther, I would like to acknowledge that women in heterosexual relationships aren’t the only people who seek abortions. People that identify with any gender along the spectrum might seek abortions. Women… Read more »
The People’s Climate March: Bringing Movements Together
On Sunday, September 21, 2014, the People’s Climate March was held in New York City. Organizers estimated that over 400,000 people from across the globe gathered to protest climate destabilization. The rally was devised in response to the United Nation’s Climate Summit as a strategy for international environmental justice advocates. Many people in attendance of the march voiced their encouragement of governments to put sanctions on domestic industries and corporations that will decrease pollution, and called for divestment from corporations that thrive off of the exploitation of people and the environment. The People’s Climate March was the largest climate march in history, and with “2808 solidarity events in 166 countries,” it is clear that the degradation of the environmental is tied to many social justice issues. As advocates for reproductive… Read more »
The Voices of the Unshackled
On a pleasant fall Saturday afternoon, September 20, 2014 to be exact, I made my way from Barnard College to the breath taking Brooklyn Museum located in Eastern Parkway. I regrettably did not get to wander the museum because I came to the museum for a specific purpose. I attended the event, Unshackled: Women Speak Out on Mass Incarceration and Reproductive Justice, the third event in the “States of Denial” Panel Series. The term, shackled, resonates with because it represents a physical practice to be discussed later in this blog post as well as a mental shackling. The event was a well-attended collaboration between the Correctional Association of New York and the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The room buzzed with soft smooth jazzy beats as we prepared… Read more »
Net Neutrality: What It Is and Why It’s Important
Net Neutrality. Two terms that have been popping up in debates on the Internet and elsewhere for a while, but I can almost guarantee that although you’ve heard the words before, you don’t know what they mean. Allow me to clarify it for you. John Oliver, on his HBO news re-cap Last Week Tonight cleared things up for me back in June after I watched his 13-minute video on the topic. Oliver’s exactly right when he points out that the reason net neutrality is being overlooked by the people it effects the most is because it’s being presented in a language that doesn’t engage them. The term net neutrality is actually a good thing. In its most simplistic explanation it means that the Internet is neutral. It’s a level playing… Read more »
College students need sex ed, too
I would guess that most students who arrive on a college campus as freshman did not receive comprehensive sex education in middle or high school. While most of us learned about sexually-transmitted infections in the classroom, it’s also the case that for most of us, our sex education was either abstinence-only or at least elevated abstinence from sex as the universal best choice. There are lots of other numbers to throw around: about a third of people in their late teens don’t receive any formal education about birth control, and even if they do, only a fourth of them know anything substantial about the Pill. In a standard high school sex ed course ̶ if you get one at all, and considering that less than half of all states mandate… Read more »
Sometimes I’m not a feminist
When Beyoncé ended her performance at last month’s Video Music Awards last month with her song “***Flawless” and the giant screen flashing the key phrase from Chimamanda Adiche’s TED Talk, book-ended with the word “feminist” in giant capitalized letters, I teared up a little. There was a moment of surrealism when I felt validated and affirmed in some of the most fundamental of ways. There’s power in a black woman, one who has found power and fulfillment in her life’s work as much as she has in her family, claiming feminism. There’s power when a black woman, who is vulnerable and complicated and has forced the world to acknowledge those things about herself, claims the title of “feminist” for herself and dares the world to disagree, to take it away… Read more »
Should athletes be role models?
Throughout the years, we’ve had a lot of conversations centered around whether professional athletes should be considered role models. From Charles Barkley famously saying, “I am not a role model” to many examples of athletes being involved in criminal activity, there is a clear argument for moving to separate athletes from the idea of being a role model. But, many argue that the discussion is much more complicated than that. Athletes, they say, are going to be viewed as role models whether or not they choose to act like one, simply by virtue of their celebrity status. There are plenty of examples for why professional athletes make terrible role models. Criminal behavior ranges from DUI’s and speeding tickets to murder, rape, and domestic violence. Integrity is questioned when players test… Read more »
WTF Ohio? A Guide to Current Legislation and Activism
Right now, there are no clinics in Ohio with active licenses to terminate pregnancies. Every single clinic is currently out of compliance with Ohio legislation. RH Reality Check just released a run-down on Ohio’s newly renewed anti-abortion budget yesterday. Over the past few months anti-choice legislators and activists have been engaging in attempts to shut down clinics one by one, without much interference from local lawmakers. Recent Ohio legislation has constructed a terrifying model for shutting down clinics — and it could get used by states across the country. Texas, Alabama, Louisiana and other states have seen their fair share of Targeted Regulation of Abortion Provider, also known as TRAP, laws that are designed specifically to shut down provider service facilities. Fortunately for women’s health advocates, many judges have ruled… Read more »
