Childbirth

Childbirth can be a deadly matter in the U.S., especially if you are middle or working class. But it was when looking at race and income together that one civil rights organization decided it needed a new lens.

What could be controversial about First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign to improve infant health by promoting breastfeeding? For Rep. Michele Bachmann, everything.

HR 358, the bill which does anything but protect life, is on its way to a full vote in the House of Representatives where legislators can vote on whether a pregnant woman has more of a right to life than a provider has to his or her religious belief.

The first FDA approved drug to reduce the risk of preterm birth; Egyptian women are empowered by the protests; the abortion statistics controversy that isn't; more anti-choice maneuvering in Minnesota.

Republican anti-choice legislators continue to introduce time and money wasting measures like the "Life At Conception Act" which have no chance of passing; lady health workers in Pakistan; another study which finds abortion does not carry a higher risk of mental health problems; and sexual violence against Native American women on reservations.

According to a hospital watchdog group, too many pregnant women in the United States are induced early, unnecessarily endangering their own health and that of their newborns.

It's been said that in an unequal world, women are the most unequal among equals.  Obstetric fistula is a living example of this statement.

Washington may become first in the nation to establish statewide regulation of "Limited Service Pregnancy Centers," ensuring women know exactly what they will - and won't - get when seeking care.

In a less well-known but no less controversial effort to find "common ground" a Home Birth Consensus summit seeks to bridge a divide between those who support and those who oppose expanded access to homebirth.

Porn actors should wear condoms as a rule; pushing personhood for fetuses in Florida doesn't seem to be a winning idea; the number of premature infants being born in the U.S is decreasing; and a safe-sex flash mob?