Chris Smith

One House Republican calls pro-choice advocates part of the "movement of death."

Just weeks after publication of a major report underscoring the benefits of robust U.S. investment in family planning worldwide, the GOP-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee voted in the early hours of the morning today to reinstate the Global Gag Rule with broader and more damaging implications than ever before.

Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson

Rep. Chris Smith, sponsor of H.R. 3, says now the unborn child can be "re-enfranchised" and protected.

House Judiciary Committee moves H.R. 3 to the full House, three abortion bills survive Iowa's bill funnel, the governor of South Dakota says he's likely to sign bill requiring CPC counseling, an elected official is surprised at the reaction when he says women belong at home raisin' babies, and a Kenyan official suggests banishment for those with HIV.

Foes are painting Planned Parenthood as an inflated corporation, dangerously powerful and drunk on profits. So the true kingpin of American corporate power is a group of community health clinics providing free and low-cost care?

Have votes in the House of Representatives to defund Planned Parenthood finally woken media up to the fact that the anti-choice movement opposes contraception as well as abortion?

Follow Amanda Marcotte on Twitter, @amandamarcotte

Writing more on this is not necessary.  You just have to watch the video in which California Congresswoman Jackie Speier takes on New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith on abortion....her own...and the GOP vendetta against Planned Parenthood.

Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson

Attacks on reproductive rights on multiple fronts, from attempts to cut off insurance coverage for abortion to attempts to stop contraception funding. Also, Kate Bornstein talks about transgendered rights.

Follow Amanda Marcotte on Twitter, @amandamarcotte

From the “guerrilla activists” trying to take down Planned Parenthood to the state and federal legislators (from both parties) further restricting women’s access to abortion, 2011 has seen more assaults on women’s most fundamental rights yet – even more even under the Bush years. There are 3 anti-abortion federal bills and more than 200 state level bills restricting access to abortion (and cutting funds for birth control, cancer screenings and other basic care for women into the attacks for good measure). Many of the state-level bills pose fundamental challenges to Roe v. Wade, paving the way for Supreme Court challenges down the line.  What we need is an outpouring of resistance to this assault on the humanity of women!

A New Jersey writer speaks out for the first time about her own rape and her reaction to Congressman Chris Smith's bill which, she argues, is designed to demolish long-established American freedoms and to undermine the health and rights of poor and middle class women.