Contraception

The Administration's decision to ignore medical and scientific evidence and deny increased access to Plan-B suggests a failure to understand and acknowledge the effects of this decision on Latinas, women of color, undocumented immigrants and low-income women.

In Colorado, some of the highest-ranking GOP politicians in the state are personhood backers, even though the measure was shot down badly both here in 2008 and again in 2010. Will the same politicians who backed the personhood amendment last year jump on board again, now that personhood backers have announced plans to place the measure on the 2012 election ballot in Colorado?

Have a partner who wants to step away from sex with you or take a break? If you're wondering what to do to change that, the only right answer is nothing at all. We need to always respect a person's sexual limits and boundaries, whatever their gender.

How can you tell Mom you've become a sexual adult without disappointing her?  How can you ask her for birth control? How can you disclose being sexually active?  And is it okay to use her sex toy eithout asking?

A federal judge has blocked a new Kansas law that would strip federal family planning funding from a Planned Parenthood chapter in the state, reports the Associated Press.

Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson

The Department of Health and Human Services has adopted guidelines for insurance coverage on women's preventive health services that include all the recommendations recently made by the Institute of Medicine and require new health insurance plans to cover women’s preventive services such as well-woman visits, breastfeeding support, domestic violence screening, and contraception without charging a co-payment, co-insurance or a deductible.

Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson

What’s at stake in the HHS decision around the IOM recommendations on contraception?  First, the health and rights of women who will benefit from easier access to contraception. And second, the IOM’s action draws attention to the extent to which contraception  has become yet another front in the nation’s unending culture war.

When my mom knew my birth control was not only preventing "changes in my mood" but also the chance that I could get pregnant, she stopped paying for my birth control; she said, “I am not supporting your habit.”

If you had any lingering hope that the Institute of Medicine could recommend including contraception in the list of preventive services that should be offered without co-pay and not have a hysterical reaction from anti-choicers, I’m afraid I’ll have to dash those hopes.

Follow Amanda Marcotte on Twitter, @amandamarcotte

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