Need a fun activity for a summertime Saturday? Consider hitting the street in front of your local family planning clinic to defend access to birth control. Tomorrow, marking the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that extended to married couples the right to use contraception, anti-choicers will be out en masse to protest not abortion but contraception, promoting their deluded assertion that "the pill kills." The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association puts things in perspective:
Today, 98 percent of all U.S. women between ages 15 and 44 who have had sex, have used at least one method of contraception. But the American Life League claims that Griswold was, "the first of many decisions that led to the culture of death we live in today."
Cristina Page has more.
From the "We Should Have Reported This Yesterday" File: The CDC has released a study on a wide variety of teen health behaviors, including information about sexual risk-taking. Apparently, condom use -- 61% of sexually active teens, or their partners, use condoms -- has decreased slightly. Advocates for Youth's James Wagoner's reaction: teens just aren't getting the sexual health facts they need.
I can't say it any better than Jill at Feministe: "Pro-life concern for life really does end at birth." Outrageously, the American Life League has forced the shut-down of an affordable housing project being developed by Habitat for Humanity in Sarasota, Florida. Why on earth would this pro-life organization stand in the way of housing access for low-income Florida residents? Because Planned Parenthood sold the land to Habitat. For $10. Apparently, any association with Planned Parenthood, at all, is enough for ALL. The truly egregious part is that Planned Parenthood could have sold their land to anyone, and won't have any trouble finding another buyer. They had "wanted to donate the land so Habitat could build more attainable housing," said local PP president Barbara Zdravecky. No good deed...
You can never have enough feminists writing about Sex and the City! Fans of the long-running comic serial "Dykes to Watch Out For" were delighted to learn that creator (and feminist) Alison Bechdel is a fan of SATC. So are our own Amanda Marcotte and Sarah Seltzer! Read Amanda's analysis of why the backlash to SATC is political at Pandagon.
