By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Sex-selective abortions on the rise in India

According to new study published this week in the medical journal The Lancet, the number of sex-selective abortions being performed in India has been rising and continues to rise. The researchers estimate that between 4 million and 12 million sex-selective abortions have been performed in India in the last three decades. And in the past decade, the study found, the problem has worsened.

Despite legal restrictions making it illegal to use ultrasounds to determine the sex of a fetus, the practice has continued; it seems that these laws are rarely enforced and that private medical practices are largely unregulated. The result is that there are now 914 girls for every 1000 boys under the age of six. In 1961, the ratio ...

According to new study published this week in the medical journal The Lancet, the number of sex-selective abortions being performed in India has been rising and continues to rise. The researchers estimate that between 4 million and ...
By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Traditionally red district goes blue in NY State

And not just any blue – pro-choice, woman-represented blue!

Democratic candidate Kathy Hochul won a special election in New York’s 26th District yesterday. Until recently, the district was represented by a “family values” Republican by the name of Chris Lee. But then this happened, and Lee resigned, resulting in a special election to fill the seat. The district has been a Republican stronghold for years, but no more.

So what made the difference for Hochul? Was it her backing from EMILYs List? That helped, I’m sure, but the prevailing wisdom seems to be that it was Republican candidate Jane Corwin’s embrace of the GOP Ryan budget plan – and Hochul’s repudiation of it – that swung what should ...

And not just any blue – pro-choice, woman-represented blue!

Democratic candidate Kathy Hochul won a special election in New York’s 26th District yesterday. Until recently, the district was represented by a “family values” Republican by the name ...
By Samhita • 12 years ago

Behind every strong man, there is an even stronger Beyonce.

Beyonce’s new faux-feminist empowerment track and video, “Run the World (Girls)” has got a lot of people talking and I am here to join the cavalcade of analysis. I should probably state up front that I’m a pretty big fan of Beyonce’s music; it is some of the best stuff to shake your booty to, at the gym or the club, in a world where Madonna and Janet Jackson aren’t on the radio anymore (hey, I’m 33). But, I don’t really like this song. Maybe it is the way overplayed Major Lazer sample, the track of 2010 that is most associated with daggering (you can google, but you have been warned), or because I just don’t think it is one of ...

Beyonce’s new faux-feminist empowerment track and video, “Run the World (Girls)” has got a lot of people talking and I am here to join the cavalcade of analysis. I should probably state up front that I’m a pretty ...
By Vanessa • 12 years ago

Do-Good of the Day: Give 10 for SPARK Reproductive Justice Now

SPARK Reproductive Justice Now, one of the few reproductive justice organizations in the South, have launched a 30-day fundraising campaign to raise enough money to send their members and staff to some super important events coming up: SisterSong‘s Let’s Talk About Sex, the Allied Media Conference and the 10th Annual Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.

If they just got 100 people to donate 10 bucks each, they’d raise their $1,000 goal and be able to participate in these events and further propel the incredibly important work they’re doing in Georgia and beyond. So what are you waiting for?

SPARK Reproductive Justice Now, one of the few reproductive justice organizations in the South, have launched a 30-day fundraising campaign to raise enough money to send their members and staff to some ...
By Samhita • 12 years ago

The very real cost of unintended pregnancies.

A series of studies released by the imitable Guttmacher Institute, looking at everything from rates of unintended pregnancy to who gets abortions, shows us that abortion rates for women overall have gone down 8 percent from 2000-2008. Yay, except there has been an 18 percent increase among poor women in that same time. This suggests what activists have long claimed: access to reproductive health technologies and information about contraception impacts rates of unintended pregnancies.

A state-by-state breakdown tells us even more. The states that appear to have the highest rate of unintended pregnancies carried to term also just happen to be the anti-choice, forced child birth movement hotspots.

Via the actual study by Guttmacher by way of Jezebel,

A series of studies released by the imitable Guttmacher Institute, looking at everything from rates of unintended pregnancy to who gets abortions, shows us that abortion rates for women overall have gone down 8 percent from ...
By Vanessa • 12 years ago

Beyonce’s “Run the World” (Not So Much)

While the Feministing crew has been discussing exactly how to approach the new Beyonce track and music video on Feministing (livechat? blog series? feminist interpretive dance video?), we came across this awesome woman and are a wee obsessed — and not just because she gives us a shout out at the end. Check it.

h/t to Jay Smooth for finding this gem of a vlogger.

If anyone could find a transcript, it’d be awesome!

While the Feministing crew has been discussing exactly how to approach the new Beyonce track and music video on Feministing (livechat? blog series? feminist interpretive dance video?), we came across this awesome woman and are ...
By Samhita • 12 years ago

Reel Grrls and Comcast: What one tweet can show us.

As corporate takeover of media continues to infringe on our ability to have a free and objective press, last week one tweet from the amazing organization Reel Grrls, gave us a taste of just how vulnerable public dialogue and dissent can be to corporate media interests. Reel Grrls is a Seattle based group that builds the confidence and story-telling abilities of young and generally disenfranchised women through teaching them how to shoot and produce films. What was their beef? That Comcast-NBC Universal’s latest hire for VP of governmental affairs just happens to be a former FCC commissioner, Meredith Attwell Baker. Any onlooker would observe this with suspect.

The big nefarious tweet that caused the problem? “OMG! @FCC Commissioner Baker voted ...

As corporate takeover of media continues to infringe on our ability to have a free and objective press, last week one tweet from the amazing organization Reel Grrls, gave us a taste of just how vulnerable ...

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