Americans view U.S. assistance for global women's heath programs as important, but not necessary to our own interests but these issues must form a core part of our foreign policy as much as oil, war and trade. The next administration can change that.
Neither Presidential candidate has yet pledged to restore funding to UNFPA. Both should -- because when women are healthy, more economically stable and better able to participate in society, society evolves to benefit all of us.
How can we trigger passion for social justice in young people? Nothing touches people like personal connection. That's why last year Americans for UNFPA started the Student Award for the Health and Dignity of Women.
No matter what the framers intended, we now follow a system of government that is heavily weighed toward the executive branch. So more than ever we need a President who understands the importance of global women's health.
Where would the world be without the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? What body would have the moral authority to set the standard for nations everywhere? The answer: The United Nations.
Societies are living, evolving entities just like the people who comprise them. And when one or a few decide to change things - if they are very passionate, persistent and, one might argue, extraordinary - societies do change.
Motherhood is not fundamental to women. But even childless women have a stake in childbirth being safe because it's such a strong indicator of the value a society places on women.
This week Americans for UNFPA launches Lifelines, a new online community. We ask women all over the world to share their stories and then compare them with the stories of others. We believe it is these shared experiences that engage people in these global challenges, create lasting relationships and lead people to action.
Senate Democrats fight for global women's health today by urging Bush to restore the long withheld funding for crucial family planning funds around the world.
Last week, Abby Johnson, the director of a Texas Planned Parenthood health center that provides abortions, resigned citing a "conversion". But a radio interview just weeks earlier leaves many questions unanswered.
"I would never have sex with an HIV-positive guy," a friend told me. But rather than promoting real risk reduction, such statements reinforce and reproduce harmful stigma against HIV-positive people.
“How would you like it if your mother had an abortion?” ask anti-choicers, without realizing that’s like asking, “How would you like it if the night you were conceived, your dad decided to go to bed early while your mom watched Johnny Carson?”
What some are really doing in the health reform debate is projecting their own vision of what is moral onto those who will be most affected by distorted views and limited coverage: the taxpayers who will fund and use whatever system emerges.
This past weekend the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops instructed pastors at parishes across the country to distribute material urging Catholics to oppose the health reform bills they say allow public funding for abortion.
Not even nine months after President Obama, with much fanfare, signed into law a five year, $33 billion reauthorization of the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, House Democrats have proposed to dismantle it.
The peculiarities on Personhood Colorado campaign's recent financial disclosure form may be an oversight by fledgling activists...or a much more cynical attempt to thwart public accountability by a well-oiled theocratic political machine.
The myth of the born-alive fetus has long been a weapon in the pro-life arsenal, one "kept alive" by misleading language, and by efforts to pass laws that further obfuscate and mislead.
As someone who was all but completely celibate throughout high school--not at all by conscious choice--I found the lack of information among sexually active teens, and the politicization of teen sex very frustrating.
Last month, over 8000 ob-gyns from around the world, gathered in South Africa to discuss how physicians living in countries with restrictive abortion laws can best face the challenge of caring for women suffering from complications of unsafe abortion.
One part of readiness for sexual partnership -- and it's a biggie -- is being able to hear, accept and respect another person's limits and boundaries, not just using someone else to get your rocks off.
Congressman Bart Stupak says that while he is leading the charge to eliminate abortion care from both private and public insurance policies, he will support health care reform legislation even if he loses.
A new version of the anti-choice initiative soundly defeated by Colorado voters in 2008 is making its way to the 2010 ballot. The intention? To grant cells the full spectrum of citizen rights.
Far, far right television and radio talk show hosts provide an echo chamber for a very far out statement by Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx that health reform is more dangerous than terrorism.
The Chicago Tribune reports today that enforcement of Illinois' parental consent law has been delayed until a meeting this Wednesday of the medical disciplinary board for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation meets.
Poor and uninsured Kansans are likely to be most affected by a proposed Kansas law that would, if passed, likely prevent Kansas from participating in a public health insurance option.
