Tag Archive for "Policy"

Posts Tagged Policy

Celebrating the 2nd Annual Black Women’s History Week

For the second year in a row, African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and several of their partners—including the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, and Planned Parenthood—have been celebrating the last week in March as Black Women’s History Week.

By Lori Adelman • 10 years ago

“All she is is a host for a fetus”: Brain-dead pregnant woman forced to stay on life support in Texas

You’re likely already familiar with the harsh reality of abortion restrictions in Texas. In particular, we’ve covered the ordeal of the Munoz family, who are being forced to keep Marlise Munoz alive even though she was declared brain dead before Thanksgiving when she was 14 weeks pregnant and despite her clearly expressed wishes to her husband, Erick Munoz, that she did not want this to happen. The New York Times has delved more deeply into their story. The results, compounding an already heartbreaking situation, are infuriating. It’s only 10am where I live but I’m already putting money on this piece as the feminist must-read of the day:

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

Comic of the day: ACLU publishes “Stealth Attack” illustrating sneaky new abortion laws

It’s no secret that anti-choice radicals have been using disingenuous laws and misleading language to force a decline in abortion access across the country. To expose this trend, the ACLU enlisted the talented Jen Sorensen to create a comic highlighting these coordinated, decetiful national attacks on abortion rights. Check out the full comic after the jump, and if this particular comic happens to elicit rage rather than lols from you, click here to sign the ACLU’s petition to fight back against these attacks.

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

Chart(s) of the day: Americans consistently support abortion rights, but attitudes vary by region

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you might have the impression that everyone and their mama, no pun intended, wants to slash abortion rights.

Not true, according to recent data collected by the Pew Research Center. In fact, according to a national survey conducted July17-21 among 1,480 adults (that’s sound methodology, folks!), over half of all Americans (54%) say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But as Pew researchers explain it, “while the balance of opinion toward abortion nationwide has remained largely steady over the past 20 years, there are widening disparities in public attitudes on the issue across different regions of the country.”

The researchers ...

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you might have the impression that everyone and their mama, no pun intended, wants to slash abortion rights.

Not true, according ...

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

Thank You Thursdays: The Supreme Court strikes down harmful anti-prostitution pledge

For years, the United States has endorsed an explicitly discriminatory policy against sex workers. PEPFAR, our international HIV/AIDS aid policy, contains an anti-prostitution pledge requirement stating that no funds “may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.” In practice, this means that life-saving materials like condoms, contraceptives, and even information about sex and sexuality can’t legally be distributed to sex workers by any international agencies that accept US funding. Domestic agencies have to make no such pledge, although prostitution is obviously not legal in most of the US.

This, despite the fact that female sex workers are the ones who could most benefit from ...

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

Prominent women’s colleges unwilling to open doors to trans women

Last summer, Calliope Wong, then a high school senior, began an open-letter campaign regarding the admissions policies of Smith College. Calliope had hoped to apply for admission to their undergraduate program. But as a trans woman, Calliope encountered an admissions policy at Smith with such prohibitively high demands and so many inconsistencies that her application was ultimately denied consideration, even after following instructions given to her through repeated, direct communication with members of the Smith College administration in which they encouraged her to apply. (Here’s a photo of the rejection letter she received, courtesy Transwomen@Smith Tumblr)

The actions of the Smith College administration constitute a discriminatory bar against trans women. But after reaching out to over ...

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

Friday Roundup: How the sequester cuts will affect women, access to reproductive health

There’s not much to say about the sequester that hasn’t already been said (except, maybe, “Don’t ask me, I’m no sequexpert.” Ok, now that’s taken care of.) But hey, I’m just a blogger on a Friday afternoon trying to meet you where you’re at. And where you’re at is in sequester hell, whether you know it or not, if lots of Washington Post and Politico bloggers are to be believed. If you’re wondering what, exactly, I’m referring to when I talk about the sequester, well then we’ve come to the part of the post where you pick your sequester breakdown:

Here’s a sequester breakdown in cute animal images.

Here’s a sequester breakdown in GIFs (a “gifquester”)

Here’s a ...

By Samhita • 11 years ago

Senate proposes bipartisan plan for immigration

Launching a ramped up effort to prioritize immigration reform under the Obama administration–8 Senators (4 Republican and 4 Democrat) have proposed bipartisan plan to reform immigration law in this country. After four years of disastrous immigration law enforcement and border patrolling splitting up thousands of families, leaving children orphaned and subjecting undocumented immigrants to a slue of human rights violations–is there hope in sight?

Yes and no. The proposed law does propose pathways to citizenship, but only after there has been an increase patrolling on the border and in places of work.

Seth Freed Wessler writes at Colorlines:

The plan is a mix of legal immigration programs for undocumented immigrants and additional immigration enforcement measures. The path to citizenship will kick in only ...