Where's the Religious Right? Christian conservatives and their core issues were everywhere in 2000 and 2004 during George W. Bush's two runs to the White House. This election cycle, as the Politico reports, the religious right is feeling left out. “In 2004, there was great emphasis on marriage, on value voters,” said Tony Perkins, president of the influential Family Research Council in the Politico story. “And now you see [Republicans] running from those values issues." While members of the GOP continue to assure leaders of the Christian conservative political movement that their issues, including gay marriage and abortion rights, will garner more attention in the general election Politico compares the 2006 GOP agenda to the 2008 version and finds a different story:
Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) pushed several items out of the 2006 agenda in the wake of the Terri Schiavo euthanasia imbroglio: a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, prohibitions on gambling and human cloning, and a law requiring that women seeking abortions be told that the procedures can cause fetal pain. Among the items on the 2008 agenda: lower gas prices, a family-friendly workweek, health care for all, reductions in college tuition and better care for troops and veterans.
While the national platform moves to a more "pragmatic" set of issues conservative members of the GOP are still fighting on the moral values fronts at the state level, some at all costs. Conservative Missouri governor Matt Blunt is considering calling a special session to force the state's legislature to consider an anti-abortion bill that did not garner enough support to reach a vote during four months of debate. Gov. Blut did the same thing in 2005 "largely to force consideration of an anti-abortion proposal that had not passed in the regular session. It cost taxpayers more than $90,000 and lasted over a week."
Catching Up on Contraception The debate over access to contraception is being fought all over the globe as rising population pressure and questions about its morality and a person's right to reproductive freedom, choice and planning bring increasing attention to the issue.
Proposed legislation in Michigan would require insurance coverage of contraception, require pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception despite personal or religious views and require hospitals to make emergency contraception available to rape victims.
In the Philipines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, historically a staunch opponent of contraception, said last week that the country will have to turn to "birth control at home and friendly ties with the world’s top rice exporters" to avert its food crisis.
In Canada the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities ruled last week that emergency contraception will be available over-the-counter. The decision makes Canada the fifth country in the world that allows women to purchase a single dose of Plan B without speaking to a pharmacist first, joining Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and India.
More Hagee Last week McCain endorser Pastor John Hagee apologized to Catholics for calling their church "the great whore" and "the false cult system." Yesterday The Carpetbagger Report highlighted a You Tube video of a radio sermon given by Hagee in the late 1990's in which he stated that God sent Hitler as a tool of force to fulfill his will that the Jews move back to the land of Isreal. Carpetbagger concludes with this thought:
I’m trying to imagine what the reaction would be if Obama sought out a pastor, accepted his endorsement, campaigned alongside him, defended him from criticism, and then we learned that this same pastor thought Hitler was fulfilling God’s will. I have a hunch reporters might ask Obama if he’d be willing to repudiate such a person.
Check out the video, at the end is series of other controversial and misleading statements from Hagee including, "Your daughter can get an abortion at public school without telling you but she can't get an asprin without your approval."
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Abortion Limit Remains Same in UK Last night members of parliament rejected amendments to lower the time period for a legal abortion from 24 weeks to 12, 16, 20 and 22 weeks. On the amendment for a 22 week limit the pro-choice majority had a slim margin of 71 votes meaning the time limit could be adjusted downward if conservatives win seats in the next election as many in the UK believe will happen. Other European nations such as France, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Spain enforce a 12 week limit. Philip Cowley, a professor of politics at the University of Nottingham, said "One of the problems for the Tories' position is that once you state the argument for viability of the child and science, the abortion time limit will only go down. It's never going to go up again."
Virginia Abortion Law Overturned, Again Meanwhile in Virginia the state's abortion law was declared unconstitutional with the federal appeals court saying "it is more restrictive than the federal ban on late-term abortion that the U.S. Supreme Court approved last year." The Virginia decision is causing the usual blathering of misinfomration and demands for right-wing judicial activism, aka legislating from the bench, on far-right blogs. As opposed to understanding that Carhart II opened up a vast gray zone of interpretation, anti-choice bloggers are seizing on the term "accidentally" in the decision to make it sound like the woman or the doctor don't know what they are doing. They repeat a patently false statement suggesting these procedures are never needed for the life or health of the mother, when in fact that is the only time they are needed, and their disgust at our democracy and the judiciary continues to seethe, not to subside, and seems that it will until they impose their values on the rest of us, by way of an "independent judiciary," of course.
Clinton Speaks Out on Misogyny On Tapped Dana Goldstein comments on an audio interview the Washington Post did with Hillary Clinton in which she speaks candidly about the pervasive misogyny in our world. Please read Dana's post as it quotes Clinton more extensively, or listen to the interview in its entirety, but Dana highlights this bit:
The treatment of women is the single biggest problem we have politically and socially in the world. If you look at the extremism and the fundamentalism, it is all about controlling women, at it's base.
Dana goes on to say that it is
frustrating that Clinton insists upon comparing sexism to racism instead of acknowledging that both continue to be major problems worldwide. But some of what she's saying here is quite important and, coming from the lips of a presidential candidate and U.S. Senator, almost unprecedented.
I know Clinton would agree that both racism and misogyny are ongoing, pervasive problems in the world despite her not saying so explicitly in this interview and no thinking person could deny that she has been subjected to sexism from myriad sources throughout this campaign. Check out this CNN clip from just last night in which a GOP strategist defends the use of the word "bitch" to describe Hillary Clinton:
Guttmacher Study on Teen Sex Yesterday Amie wrote about the study released by Guttmacher yesterday that "breaks the myth that teens are substituting oral or anal sex for vaginal intercourse in order to continue to claim they are still virgins." Dr. Karen Rayne takes issue with some aspects of the study's conclusions.
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Big Vote Tonight in UK As voting in the Kentucky and Oregon primaries wraps up tonight MPs in London will be voting on restricting the time limit on pregnancy terminations to as little as 12 weeks. The current limit of 24 weeks has been in effect since 1990. June Bentley, Cheif Executive of the Family Planning Association in the UK said yesterday:
If the time limit is reduced on Tuesday, abortion law in Britain will have reached the historic moment when it's cut loose from common consensus and medical opinion.
Those defending further cuts in the time limit on legal abortion say the opposite, that public opinion is coalescing around a 20 week, or even earlier, limit as the survivial rate for births after this mark in the pregnancy is increasing. However, health minister Dawn Primarolo insisted that there had been no improvement in survival rates since the current limit was set in 1990:
There is no science that shows us that the survival rates have changed since we took the decision to have the time limit at 24 weeks. That is supported by the BMA (British Medical Association) and the Royal College of Obstetricians.
Cherie Blair Defends Contraception In the wake of the abortion debate in the UK Cherie Blair, the wife of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and life-long Catholic defended the right of women to use contraception to control pregnancy despite her church's opposition. In her recently released book a passage mentions that Ms. Blair forgot her "contraceptive equipment" on a vacation which resulted in her pregnancy with her youngest son Leo. Ms. Blair responded:
People seem to be quite shocked that perhaps a Catholic girl even uses contraception but it is really an important thing for women because one of the things about the book is about how women's lives have changed.
Time to Reexamine Our Criteria for Manhood Jay Smooth has been bringing his well versed thoughts to You Tube for a while now via his hip hop blog, ill doctrine. Check out his latest vid in which he addresses the issue of being gay in the hip hop world. He leaves us with wisdom that sounds like it came straight from the mouth of Common's Pops on the last track of Be, check it out:
GOP Family Values Parade I think it was just last Thursday that I linked to a Politico piece that said the GOP is dominating the Dems in at least one aspect right now: humiliating sex scandals. And today we get word that Rep. Vito Fossella of New York will not be running for re-election in New York "after admitting to an extramarital affair with a former Air Force official, which came after a drunken-driving arrest in Alexandria three weeks ago." Pam at Pandagon also points out that Fosella is homophobic as evidenced by his refusal to attend any family functions at which his lesbian sister is present.
And the next float to pass by in the GOP Family Values Parade down Main Street USA is bearing Nashville resident Bob Pope (with about 142 guns). The Nashville Post writes that Bob Pope, who appeared in a popular You Tube video for TenneseeGOP declaring his pride in America in reponse to Michelle Obama's statement that she is proud of her country for the first time in her adult life, is a strip club owner.
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Successful politicians know how to attract attention, and how to avoid it, so it’s worth noting that John McCain chose to give his speech about the future of the judiciary on May 6th, a day when the political world was preoccupied with the Democratic primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.
Indeed McCain's tactic worked for the most part as the important discussion that should have ensued for several days afterward was drowned by what has turned out to be, finally, something like a decisive win in the Democratic primary. Toobin continues by meticulously and very usefully decoding the language of McCain's seemingly vague speech to find substantial hints as to what a McCain presidency would look for in what could be the several Supreme Court appointments it makes. The article's conclusion is begun by quoting Justice Stephen Breyer:
It’s difficult to quarrel with Justice Stephen Breyer’s assessment of his new colleagues: “It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much.”
And it's true, talk about 'activist judges.' And, making its point very clear, the New Yorker sums it all up:
For all the elisions in John McCain’s speech, one unmistakable truth emerged: that the stakes in the election, for the Supreme Court and all who live by its rulings, are very, very high.
Simply Wrong on Sex Education Cristina Page has a letter to the editor printed in The Progress-Index (and may appear elsewhere as well). The letter is a clear and concise indictment of failed federally funded abstinence-only sex education programs in our nation's schools and I highly encourage a read.
90% of Teenage Girls Report Harassment A University of Kentucky study (via Feministing) of 600 girls between the ages of 12 and 18 released late last week reveals that:
Ninety percent of girls reported experiencing sexual harassment at least once. Specifically, 67 percent of girls reported receiving unwanted romantic attention, 62 percent were exposed to demeaning gender-related comments, 58 percent were teased because of their appearance, 52 percent received unwanted physical contact and 25 percent were bullied or threatened with harm by a male. 52 percent of girls also reported receiving discouraging gender-based comments on the math, science and computer abilities, usually from male peers, and 76 percent of girls reported sexist comments on their athletic abilities, again predominantly from male peers.
Legal Gay Marriage Stregthens the Institution Bruce Wilson at talk2action.org has a great post that, complete with extensive evidence, charts and a Daily Show clip to assist in making his case, sucessfully counters the right's argument that legalizing gay marriage will destory the institution of marriage and the family. Wilson points out that, four years after leagalizing gay marriage in Massachusetts, the state ranks 49th in average number of divorces and 50th in teen pregnancy rates. Whereas,
gay marriage-unfriendly, abstinence-only sex-ed reliant Texas now leads the nation in both teen pregnancy and repeat teen pregnancy, and Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Chlamydia in Texas have continued a multi-year rise according to official TX 2007 statistics.
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“Has it been in the past? Yes. Do I think the face of the choice movement is different today and do I hope Naral plays a role in that? You bet.”
Ain't I a Woman? Rev. Valda Jean Combs writes a firece and forthright take on the issues of race and gender in the Democratic primary in today's edition of Women's eNews. Rev. Combs writes that
Rather than challenge racism, the Clintons have affirmed those for whom race is a barrier to supporting a black Democratic nominee. In their quest for the White House, the Clintons have sacrificed the black vote and the black loyalty that helped to put Bill Clinton in office.
She then invokes the story of Sojourner Truth and the suffrage movement to parallel the black woman's role in the feminist movement of the 20th century: "Women of color fought alongside white feminists in the 1970s and 1980s, but found our perspective elbowed aside; our loyalty taken for granted." She then asks if it is any wonder that black women are supporting Barack Obama by huge margins. She concludes:
My support for Obama is a repudiation of the politics that have reigned supreme since Sojourner Truth, a politics that says my dream must wait until someone else's has been realized.
Catcalls Not Compliments Amanda has a short but sweet take on a recent CNN article asking whether or not catcalls are compliments. Amanda says the headline "reads like something from the Reader's Digest circa 1970 wedged between articles on why kids don’t appreciate waltzing anymore and how smoking marijuana cigarettes will cause your daughter to become a streetwalker: 'Catcalling: creepy or a compliment?'"
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Cut the crap: Republicans are dominating Democrats in one area right now: humiliating sex scandals. If former Rep. Mark Foley isn’t e-mailing young male pages or Sen. Larry Craig isn’t playing footsie in the bathroom, then Rep. Vito J. Fossella’s getting busted driving drunk and then admitting he fathered a love child. You can’t run on family values when you don’t practice them.
The Broader Purpose Yesterday's NARAL Pro-choice America endorsement of Barack Obama for president revealed what Jennifer Skalka called "festering friction" in the pro-choice community. Ellen Malcom, founder of Emily's List and national co-chair of Hilalry Clinton's campaign, was the first to express her feeling that the endorsement was "tremendously disrespectful to Sen. Clinton." Karen Cooper, Executive Director of NARAL Washington (state) added a media release saying her organization is not endorsing either candidate, that both have a 100% record on choice and, further, that "to endorse Obama at this point in the race is an unconscionable slap in the face to Senator Hillary Clinton." Dems in the house also weighed in. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said "we feel abandoned by this organization today." Rep. Shelley Berkeley called the endorsement "extremely unnecessary" and "inappropriate." Rep. Jane Harmon called it "a betrayal." The Washington Post does a good job of rounding up the reactions.
Skalka goes on to say that this friction could be dangerous for the choice cause:
Dividing the Dems on the choice issue for the sake of Clinton's doomed candidacy is terribly dangerous. Women voters deserve the truth about Obama's views on choice and his record. Muddying that conversation and sparking an intra-party feud at just the moment the two camps need to unite women, in particular, for the sake of the party come November can only be described as startlingly myopic, a Kamikaze mission.
There's a broader mission at hand and that's ensuring a pro-choice candididate occupies the White House come January 20, 2009.
Polichicks wins the award for best line in this kerfuffle, "NARAL is like, Whatev! Endorsing a Clinton is so '96!" They also point here where you can submit questions for a NARAL Pro-choice America web chat on the endorsement to be held tomorrow.
Fertility Films Be sure to check out a great piece by Alyssa Quart in Mother Jones about the many "fertility films" of late. You should read Alyssa first but be sure to check out Courtney's followup at Feministing.
HIV/AIDS Stifling Africa In a must-read opinion piece in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Cesar Cheala writes that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is "reversing decades of slow improvement in child survival, life expectancy, educational progress and economic growth."
Transgender Care Be sure to check out Erin Wilkins' post on the care needs of transgendered people on the site today. Also take a look at an article published in mag DiversityInc on the, albeit slow, progress hospitals are making in the care of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
]]>But really, I think people pay attention to things like this because they get to look at a teenage girl’s body. We are, as a culture, both obsessed and repelled by teenage girls ‘bodies. We want them to be shown off and considered sexy in the right ways (like your standard prom dress or a bikini on the beach) but not in the wrong ways (like Marche or Miley). But teenage girls are never really given a good, solid list of guidelines and what’s appropriate can change far too quickly for the average teenage girl to be expected to keep up.
Hagee and Donohue Kiss and Make Up John McCain has been the recipient of some heat for Pastor John Hagee's criticisms of the Catholic church since McCain accepted Hagee's endorsement two months ago. Bill Donohue, leader of the Catholic League, has been leading the charge against Hagee and calling for McCain to denounce Hagee's endorsement. Donohue also refused to speak with Hagee until he apologized for his anto-Catholic sentiments. Yesterday Hagee issued the apology and now the two are scheduled to meet next week for a (politically expedient) reconciliation. Does this apology mean Hagee is now also off the hook for asserting that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for the decadence of New Orleaners?
Sex, Drugs and Alcohol The latest edition of the Midwest Teen Sex Show is available for download on the show's RSS feed. As always, making time for viewing is highly reccomended.
Special Dems Democrats have now won three congressional special elections in Republican stronghold districts.
UK Abortion Limits The debate in the UK over amending the 1967 Abortion Rights Act to create a 20 week limitation on all abortion procedures is heating up.
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Northern Ireland's Women Want Choice I mentioned in yesterday's roundup that, for the first time ever, all four major political parties in Northern Ireland agreed on a major issue, they stand united against abortion rights. In today's online edition of the Guardian Laura Canning comments in response to this action:
According to our party leaders, abortion not being available here is just the way we want it. Not so. Contrary to what our MLAs would have us believe, women in Northern Ireland do actually have abortions - 40 a week at the last count - and around 80,000 in total since the 1967 Act. Preventing access to abortion here does not stop abortion, it just means that it restricts it to those women who are lucky enough to be able to find up to £1,000 in a hurry.
Family Planning is Green Paul Hanley of Canadian newspaper The Star-Phoenix writes a great article on the importance of women's rights around the globe to creating a sustainable world. Time Magazine tells us once again (for the slow learners) What Condoms Have to Do with Climate Change.
Thousands of Pregnant Women HIV Positive The Reproductive Health Group of Sierra Leone conducted a two-day, nationwide HIV testing and education drive for pregnant women. The results showed that 2,181 pregnant women who did not previously know their HIV status tested positive for the virus. Gladys Gassema of the Reproductive Health Group reiterated that HIV/AIDS related stigma was one of the major factors that continue to discourage people from going for the test.
Happy Anniversary Feministe turned three yesterday. Thanks to one of the leading feminist voices on the web for three years of great work.
]]>I had a state senator, who is one of Obama's friends from Illinois, say to me the other day, 'If indeed Hillary is the candidate, Obama's supporters, the blacks and the young kids, are gonna stay home. But with women, women will go out and vote for Obama because they are worried about the Supreme Court and choice.'
I pointed out to him that there are some things all of us old folks, Catholics, the ethnics, all of us, are worried about other things besides the Supreme Court.
I talked about the Supreme Court in 1980 and in 1984 and people's eyes glazed over. It's a little too late to worry about that now. The voters that she has are going to stick with her all the way through.
Northern Ireland United Against Choice The four main party leaders in Norther Ireland have written to Westminster members of parliment to state their opposition to plans to extend the 1967 Abortion Act. It is the first time all four parties have taken a united stand on a major issue.
Who's Catholic Enough? Right Wing Watch writes about the right's continuing efforts to drive a wedge between liberal politicians and religion with the issue of choice, specifically by picking at the Pope for giving communion to pro-choice politicians.
Pope Reaffirms Prohibition of Contraception This morning the Pope stressed again that the Catholic church's 40-year prohibition of contraception use is still a "truth."
Condom Class The National AIDS Trust, a UK based non-profit organization, released a study today that found 49% of British people do not use a condom with a new sexual partner. NAT wants to air commercials about safe sex and condom use on primetime television and also wants condom use to become "an essential part of comprehensive, compulsory sex and relationships education in all schools."
Anti-sex Blog The Abstinence Clearinghouse has started a blog. Check out Amanda's review over at Pandagon.
Hagee: New Orleaners' Sin = Katrina While Barack Obama was being pummeled for remarks his pastor was making, John McCain has skated by the media smiling while Pastor John Hagee, whose endorsement McCain sought, stated that New Orleans' sinful, homosexual-loving ways brought about the deserved punishment from God that was Hurricane Katrina. Yesterday McCain finally started feeling the deserved heat for John Hagee's radical views.
Reassesing HIV Prevention Science Centric reports on a study released in today's edition of the journal Science (subscription required): "According to a new policy analysis led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of California, Berkeley, the most common HIV prevention strategies - condom promotion, HIV testing, treatment of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vaccine and microbicide research, and abstinence - are having a limited impact on the predominantly heterosexual epidemics found in Africa. Furthermore, some of the assumptions underlying such strategies - such as poverty or war being major causes of AIDS in Africa - are unsupported by rigourous scientific evidence. The researchers argue that two interventions currently getting less attention and resources - male circumcision and reducing multiple sexual partnerships - would have a greater impact on the AIDS pandemic and should become the cornerstone of HIV prevention efforts in the high-HIV-prevalence parts of Africa."
V-Day for Mother's Day Joan Lipkin writes a great post today on thevitalvoice.com about her alternative celebration of Mother's Day this year. She went to New Orleans to participate in V-Day, one of the largest international gatherings about violence against women.
]]>Courtney at Feministing has a post (with video) of McCain on the Daily Show yesterday. McCain talked about a "very attractive young detractor" who showed up at a rally and the issues of discrimination against women and gender equality arose, check out the clip and Courtney's comments.
"Will you lick my swizzle stick?" It's the latest euphemism dredged up by a TV personality to harass a co-worker. Rachel at Broadsheet has this one.
Everyday my Google Reader has an article from some campus newspaper decrying the ever-rising prices of birth control due to a glitch in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Today it was Boise State.
The head of the UNFPA called Monday for an increase in investment to train and support midwives around the world. “Every day, midwives are saving women’s lives by making delivery safe. Their essential care before, during and after delivery ensures that no woman dies giving life,” UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said in a message marking the International Day of the Midwife, observed on May 5th.
There's a great post at SchizoFrenetic that continues the discussion about the American Life League's "The Pill Kills" campaign. She writes that it would make sense for both sides to get together on contraception to empower women and men to make reproductive choices, thus reducing the number of abortions. She goes on to debunk the campaign's talking points.
]]>On Broadsheet Tracy Clark-Flory writes a good summary of a bizzare murder case in Fort Worth, TX. A woman who was caught by her husband having an affair cried that she was actually being raped. Her husband shot his wife's lover in the head and a grand jury convicted her of involuntary manslaughter; meanwhile her husband, who pulled the trigger, walks free. Shakesville's Melissa McEwan wrote that "the argument is that he never would have pulled that trigger without her lie, but why does that mean he should be exempt from punishment? If she had been telling the truth, and he had killed an actual rapist, it's still wrong."
The Montreal Gazette reports that a new rapid HIV saliva test is being field-tested in India. Results show that the knowlege of HIV infection has been "highly effective in preventing transmission of the virus from HIV-positive mothers to their children."
A coalition of 80 conservative groups have sent a letter to President Bush asking him to ban federal funding for "family planning groups that provide abortion referrals or share facilities with abortion providers."
Lack of fact-based, comprehensive sex education in schools is not just a concern for a majority of parents in the United States. A recent survey of 72 school districts in Goa, India shows that a majority of parents in the Eastern coastal state want sex education as part of their children's curriculum.
Breast feeding is on the rise in the US, according to a survey by the CDC, writes the New York Times. About 77 percent of new mothers breast-feed their infants at least briefly while only 60 percent did so in 1993.
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Jessica at Feministing has a good followup on Cristina Page's announcement that the American Life League will be launching a campaign against contraception called "The Pill Kills." Jessica writes that she is "actually kind of relieved by this campaign, because at least the anti-choice movement is showing its true colors."
Men's News Daily has a post up entitled "Obama Hitches Wagon to the Radical Feminist Agenda." Carey Roberts lumps Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers in with feminists calling all "flamethrowers who espouse radical causes." What have feminsts advocated to be labeled thus? Roberts goes on to list all the radical causes feminists work toward, and that Obama backs, including access to contraception, eliminating the gender wage gap and domestic violence and even (nooo!) women-owned businesses. I think could go on for quite a while but Jess McCabe at the f word has a great response that will more than suffice.
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It has been a long time since Americans have been this engaged in the electoral process. It has been a long time since Americans have been this excited to exercise their individual right to have their voice heard. Voter apathy arises for many reasons but it seems to me the greatest cause of this recent spell of apathy has been an overwhelming sense that government has lost sight of its purpose to serve all the people of this country. For decades now the government has seemed to be much more responsive to the demands of big corporations, lobbyists and resource-rich foreign nations than it has to those of the 47 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance or the 34 million Americans who live in poverty and can no longer afford to climb the rungs up the ladder of the American dream. It is ironic, then, that the administration that is more than partially responsible for pushing Americans out of their political apathy has lifted the art of ignoring popular demand in favor of its own ideas to a glorious new level.
It is thoroughly heartening for my young soul to see America so hopeful about this country's capacity to change because hope means votes. Democracy is the responsibility of every citizen and when we take up that responsibility in mass the everyday American becomes an unstoppable political force. Please join the millions of Americans who will smash voter-turnout records today. Please add your voice to the vast chorus who will cast a ballot or stand and caucus on this historic day for our country.
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These sections of our site were launched earlier this year and up until recently the entries had been authored by RH Reality Check staff. But they have always been publicly open to editing and new submissions. Our hope is that our very appreciated community of reproductive health professionals, activists, and informed citizens will take ownership of this content, to help us counter misinformation with a mountain of evidence-based research and facts. In order to build momentum toward this goal, we realized that we needed a core group of dedicated volunteers to get the ball rolling.
We put out the call for volunteer Wiki editors and six highly-qualified, wonderful people answered; each of whom we are proud to welcome to the RH Reality Check team:
Cristin McArdle currently leads a research team working on an adoption study that assesses birth parent adjustment following the placement of a child for adoption. Her team also consults and publishes on other psychological related reproductive issues.
Sumita Thapar lives and works in India. She works for a non-profit media and communications research group. Her research focus has been on gender and HIV. She has a journalism background with experience as a writer and an editor.
Stacey Burns currently directs Minnesota’s Abortion Provider Expansion Project, a collaborative program jointly administered by Pro-Choice Resources and the NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota Foundation that seeks to address the significant barriers to reproductive health care access in the Midwest.
Laura Hautala is a feminist, pro-choice activist and avid blog reader. She says she is “thrilled to help counter such restrictions by editing factual, accurate Web documents on these topics.”
Masimba Biriwasha is a children's writer, poet, playwright, journalist, social activitist and publisher. He has experience working with HIV and AIDS issues in Zimbabwe and Thailand. He is currently working for Health & Development Networks, an HIV/AIDS advocacy organization based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Masimba also writes for RH Reality Check's Global Perspectives team.
This team has hit the ground running with new and edited Wiki entries including a backgrounder in About the Right on Operation Rescue, glossary entries for Manual Vaccum Aspiration and Selective Reduction and an update to the Issue Briefs entry Access to Abortion.
If you are interested in joining this worthy effort click here to read about how easy it is to start adding and editing content. And be sure to request to join our RHRC Wiki Editors Google Group to participate in some valuable collaboration. Please contact me, brady [at] rhrealitycheck [dot] org, with any questions about our reproductive health Wiki project.
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