About Us

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Our Partners: Past & Present

*In alphabetical order.*

Advocates for Youth, SIECUS, Isis, Inc. – We worked in tandem with these organizations on Fresh Focus: Sex Ed Digital Video Contest. In addition, we presented at Isis, Inc.’s inaugural conference, Sex::Tech, on technology and sexual health education for youth in San Francisco. Our very own Martha Kempner was previously the SIECUS vice president for communications and information.

Alternet, Daily Kos and Firedoglake – Every day, we cross-post our favorite or most relevant posts on each one of these blogging platforms. Click here for our posts on Daily Kos, here for our posts on Alternet, and here for our posts on Firedoglake! And when in doubt, just search our name (RH Reality Check) using any of these three sites' search engines and they should direct you to our posts. 

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)  – When it comes to many of the hot topics we're reporting on, we need to get a sharpened legal perspective out to our readers; that's where the ACLU comes in! The ACLU writes about the issues with which its members are involved (potential or impending legal cases, for example) right here on our site.

Americans for UNFPA – We have previously published a weekly or semi-weekly post from Anika Rahman on women’s global health issues.

Catholics for Choice – The Catholics for Choice help us incorporate a religious perspective on reproductive health into our work, and help us to support the facts using their unique angle. We support each other by working together on articles to change themistaken belief that religion and reproductive health are somehow contradictory to one another. They're of immeasurable value to us, and to the causes that we both support!

Choice USA – In collaboration with Choice USA, RH Reality Check brings young women's voices front and center to the reproductive justice dialogue. Previously, we published "Youth Voices" posts, which you can spot via the "Youth Voices" icon inside a post!

Caucus for Evidence-Based Prevention leading up to the Int’l AIDS Conference – We partnered with the Caucus of leading HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations to publish consistent content leading up to the IAC (International AIDS Conference) in 2008.

Gender Across Borders (GAB) – As an organization focused on gender, the issues GAB bloggers post about tend to be relevant to those of reproductive health and justice. We work with GAB to coordinate our efforts towards creating awareness about and providing education for these issues, often using each other's sites as platforms by which to accomplish this. 

Joint Action Committee For Political Affairs (JAC) – As a mobilizing agent for political action, JAC oftentimes has to address increasingly politicized reproductive rights issues. They employ our site to write about these issues, and JAC assists our efforts to keep raising awareness about the very same issues – a win-win situation!

 Kansas NOW – We work closely with Kansas NOW's State Coordinator, Kari Ann Rinker, to cover an array of reproductive and women's issues stemming from Kansas and oftentimes affecting the status of reproductive rights and health care on a regional or even national level. Kari Ann serves as our reporter – our "eyes and ears," so to speak – of the midwestern United States region. 

Media Consortium – This is a consortium of independent, progressive publications. We are a participating member.

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) – We work together with the NLIRH to raise awareness about and publicize reproductive health issues disproportionately affect Latina women. We have worked in conjunction with the NLIRH – and often with other organizations as well – various times to publish articles or article series that will help us with our cooperative mission. 

On The Issues Magazine – We partner up with On The Issues Magazine mainly to mutually to help promote each others' coverage of abortion. Merle Hoffman, the Editor-in-Chief of On The Issues Magazine, is a former abortion provider and she (and her publications) and we make great efforts to serve as great resources to each other when it comes to abortion and reproductive health news and perspectives. 

Oneworld.net – OneWorld U.S. members provide international perspectives on global issues gathered from OneWorld partners worldwide. We are one of these partners. RH Reality Check has been featured in their information products including on their site, in their weekly emails to global partners and on their yahoo news site.

Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health (PRCH) and the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP)  – These medical experts provide the scoop for RHRC on the issues they are involved in. They pass on the word, and we serve as the platform by which spread it!

Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAct) – We and PPAct want the same things, and together we work to achieve them. PPAct points their readers towards important issues that we have covered (just take a peek at their blog roll, on the right of your screen if you click here!), and we post the articles they write about these issues whenever they need a platform to use to do it. Any time PPAct calls reproductive health activists to action, they can count on us to spread the word to our readers in the hopes that support for that action grows! 

Scarleteen – Heather Corinna is the executive director of and lead educator at Scarleteen.com, and one of our regular writers. Each week, Heather posts on our site about real-world sex-related issues, providing our readers with a snippet of sex education (something we at RHRC prize very highly!).

Women Deliver Conference – We partnered with the Women Deliver Conference to publish a monthly article on our site from Jill Scheffield, director of Family Care International, one of the conference sponsors.

Youtube – Some of our original videos have been viewed over 10,000 times (!), and so we have partnered with Youtube on these videos to allow advertising on them on Youtube's site in exchange for some pocket-change for each viewing. Pretty awesome! We also use Youtube to find many of our "Videos of the Day."  

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For Writers and Reporters

We know how difficult it can be when you need to research, write and fact-check an article in only a few hours. Take a little time to look through our site each day. Our top stories of the day and week are right at the top of our front page, to the right of our featured stories. Every day, our front page is where you'll find investigative and opinion pieces that cover the most important reproductive and sexual health issues of the day and week - usually from around the world.

We'll work with you to find those top stories, breaking news and critical commentary and we'll help you to disseminate the message. If you need to reach us, please email: editor@rhrealitycheck.org or jodi@rhrealitycheck.org.

WRITING GUIDELINES

Are you a freelance writer interested in sexual and reproductive health issues? We'd love to read your story or pitch for a special series, investigative report, opinion piece or interesting interview. Our readers are savvy about sexual and reproductive health issues and are interested in a full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health news and information.

Before submitting, please familiarize yourself with the kind of stories we post. If you have questions, please email our editor (editor@rhrealitycheck.org or jodi@rhrealitycheck.org).

We will consider payment for stories with an investigative or original reporting angle.

RH Reality Check is comprised of very few staff members, so we are not always able to put a lot of time into editing submissions. If you'd like us to consider an article for posting, please send us the piece in final draft form.

We will publish stories that have been posted elsewhere with a note of permission and credit to the original publisher or site at the top of the post (if you do not own the rights to the story).

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For Reproductive Health Advocates

We hope you will look at RH Reality Check as a consistent source of breaking news, in-depth analyses and spot-on commentary for all issues of sexual and reproductive health and justice.

We hope you also see us as a key partner and ally in your work! Since 2006, RH Reality Check has served as a vehicle to help bring important stories to the mainstream media - stories framed and analyzed by you, the leading voices in the sexual and reproductive health landscape.

RH Reality Check's coverage of these issues has been widely circulated among top political, feminist, progressive, and other blogs including (but not limited to) Salon, In These Times, Care2, Feministing, The Economist, The Maddow Blog, and even the New York Times, helping to educate and inform people about the issues for which we – and you! – advocate. In addition, top reporters including (but not limited to) Nicolas Kristoff, Irin Carmon and Rachel Maddow have featured information and key findings from RH Reality Check articles to generate their own coverage of the issues. Comprehensive sexuality education advocates like our partners Advocates for Youth and SIECUS use RH Reality Check to highlight the ethical lapses and questionable tactics of the supporters of abstinence-only programs. AIDS Prevention advocates have used RH Reality Check to debut new advocacy campaigns that have generated extensive coverage for their causes.

RH Reality Check also partners with international conferences on reproductive health and justice issues to produce editorial content, generate interest in the conference and highlighting these crucial causes about which we all care deeply.

We are always available to speak with reporters or editors about any of our stories. Any blogger or media source interested in being included on our media mailing list should contact our media director (Brady Swenson, brady@rhrealitycheck.org) to make that happen. We will also serve as a conduit if you would like to connect directly with one of our guest bloggers!

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How to Submit Articles

Please send unsolicited pitches in the text of an email and unsolicited articles as a Word document attachment (.doc) or a link (if the submission has been posted on another site), and be sure to embed all of the links you would like to be included in your article.

Submissions should run approximately 700-800 words. You can send them to jodi@rhrealitycheck.org or editor@rhrealitycheck.org. Please include the word "submission" in the subject line. Any article submitted in text form that is cross-posted from another site should include the link to the original post.

Those of you who would prefer start up an RH Reality Check reader diary and set your submission up on our site rather than sending it through email should follow these instructions. Please note that submitting an article through our site does not guarantee a front-page publication. We wish we could publish everyone's material, but we have to prioritize our coverage! 

We will contact you if we decide to publish your article, so please include your name and contact information in your submission. If we choose to publish your story, we will ask you for a short bio and a digital photo.

Thank you for your interest in RH Reality Check!

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Journalistic Code of Ethics

This code of ethics is taken from the Center for Independent Media's News Journalist Fellow Program's web site and adapted for RH Reality Check.

Journalists should:

• Ensure the accuracy of all information, regardless of where it comes from. Review facts and stories. Never knowingly publish false information.
• Give all the public the chance to respond to news stories, particularly those who might be accused of wrongdoing. Keep an open dialogue with the public.
• Identify sources when possible. The public must be able to know how reliable sources are.
• Take special care with anonymous sources, keeping their motives in mind. Do not become beholden to sources; keep agreements with them clear and honest.
• Never misrepresent events in an attempt to oversimplify or take events out of context.
• Maintain the integrity and clarity of visual and audio content in keeping with the standards for written content.
• Only use undercover and surreptitious methods of gathering information in extreme situations when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Do not compromise personal or professional integrity for any reason.
• Never plagiarize.
• Never limit their reporting to information that people want to hear. Write stories regardless of whether a subject is popular or whether people want to read about it.
• Seek to improve the public discourse by never stereotyping based on race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status. Avoid imposing cultural values on others and keep in mind the growing diversity of modern society.
• Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
• Use both official and unofficial sources to acknowledge and give voice to those without traditional power.
• Acknowledge the difference between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be understood as such.
• Distinguish news from advertising and never allow the latter to take precedence over the former.
• Recognize their role in maintaining an open society by ensuring that the public's business and government records are open to inspection.
• Be sensitive to those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use care and courtesy when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
• Recognize the possible negative effects of their news stories, and remain humble in the pursuit of gathering and reporting information.
• Be aware of the differences between private people and public figures, and remember that that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone's privacy.
• Show good taste in the stories they run.
• Be judicious about naming criminal suspects before the formal filing of charges. Use caution about identifying juvenile suspects or victims of sex crimes. Balance a criminal suspect's fair trial rights with the public's right to be informed.
• Always be fair, but always favor truth over balance.
• Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived, and disclose unavoidable conflicts.
• Remain active, interested, and involved members of society without letting their activities unduly influence their duties to their readers and the public.
• Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun employment or engagement in organizations that would compromise professional integrity.
• Hold the powerful accountable without exception.
• Maintain integrity by resisting pressure from advertisers and special interests to influence news coverage.
• Keep a clear-eyed sense of distrust of sources offering information for favors or money.
• Keep an open dialogue with the public in an effort to maintain and improve standards.
• Encourage the public to use the information they have to question and analyze news stories on their own, and voice grievances when they feel stories are wrong.
• Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.
• Expose unethical practices among each other and wherever they are found to maintain professional standards.
• Keep the same high standards to which they hold others.

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Election Endorsement Disclaimer

RH Reality Check does not endorse or lobby on behalf of any one candidate or political party. RH Reality Check has and continues to work hard to reach out to all of the candidates and both major political parties to ensure that all perspectives and voices on the issues central to our focus are represented.

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Creative Commons Content License

All content on RH Reality Check is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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Our Commenting Policy