Although state legislatures are heavily focused on responding to the current economic crisis, numerous bills on reproductive health have also been the subject of debate and action.
Public policy on sex, sexuality and reproduction in a pluralistic society must be based on evidence, science, justice, reason and civil discourse. So when the Catholic Bishops or others throw a political tantrum, we must never reward them.
Despite international attention to the issue of maternal mortality worldwide, little progress has been made in reducing maternal deaths. In some countries, such as Zimbabwe, the situation is getting worse rather than better.
An analysis of the criteria originally set out by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops as priorities for health reform finds that the Bishops have moved the goal posts on their original insistence that reform be "abortion-neutral."
Like bills now moving through Congress, health care reform in Massachusetts sought to reduce the number of uninsured. But recent research shows that many of those now "insured" still can't access care or afford essential prescriptions.
The old adage, think globally and act locally, is key to addressing climate change. Community-based, integrated approaches and solutions are essential to adaptation.
One unintended consequence of Massachusetts’ innovative 2007 reform legislation is reduced contraceptive access for low-income women. We can't repeat this mistake nationally.
The primary care physician leading the Montana "personhood" campaign is under multiple investigations for Medicaid fraud: She allegedly insisted that patients pray with her.
The misuse of bio-terrorism laws to prosecute an HIV positive man is but one example of how efforts to criminalize HIV stigmatize individuals and simultaneously threaten public health.
Integrating reproductive and sexual health services with HIV prevention is essential to ending the AIDS epidemic. Yet US policies continue to hamper effective strategies.
Telemundo 52 recently reported on Alma Minerva Chacon, a woman who was terrorized by Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio by being forced to give birth in chains despite the pleading of nurses and other medical staff.
Just in case you had any doubt about the direct--and I mean direct--intervention of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in curtailing women's rights in US health reform legislation, here is the latest evidence of how some representatives are working at what appears to be the behest of the bishops. Ben Nelson is holding a Senate Stupak Amendment until the Bishops "have time to review it."
Today, the Senate passed the Mikulski Amendment ensuring that women's preventive health services like pelvic exams and STI testing are covered by all private insurers, at little or no additional costs to women.
Posing as a 34 year-old woman whose COBRA insurance was running out, this reporter went in search of an individual insurance plan that included maternity coverage in case of a future pregnancy and found not one, single plan in the entire state of Colorado that would cover maternity care.
