unintended pregnancy

The world's largest, most comprehensive and systematic review of mental health outcomes and abortion care shows abortion does not increase the risk of mental health problems, but unwanted pregnancy does. The results led to a British medical journal calling for reversal of the recent HHS decision to deny young women access to emergency contraception.

Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson

"Dr." Kathleen Sebelius prescribed us a bitter pill when she ignored overwhelming evidence on the safety and effectiveness of emergency contraception to prohibit its sale over-the-counter.  Is this change we can believe in?  It’s certainly not a “common sense” solution. President Obama and Secretary Sebelius should listen to real doctors and the FDA Commissioner, and make this decision based on science, not politics.

On contemplating, again, what it feels like to be thrown under the bus by politicians who take women for granted.

An article in yesterday's New York Times suggesting that injectable contraceptive use might double the risk of HIV transmission among women in Africa sent waves of anxiety through the global public health community, leading some to ask whether we should halt delivery of injectables. But experts say: "Not so fast."

Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson

 Lawrence Finer from the Guttmacher explains the growing class gap with unintended pregnancy. Michele Bachmann ups the ante on anti-choice rhetoric, and a victory for choice in Texas.

Follow Amanda Marcotte on Twitter, @amandamarcotte

Whether we're talking about health care, budgets or the economy, cutting publicly-funded family planning programs makes no sense. 

I spent my formative years believing my body, my life and my choices were not my own, but a kind of joint property between myself, God, my parents and my church friends and family. As such, my body and my behavior was up for discussion and judgment. Is it any wonder then, that I'm afraid, as a single woman, to be pregnant?

In their zeal to attack Planned Parenthood, anti-choice activists pretend Planned Parenthood offered abortions to tornado victims, then scrubbed the article.

Rick Santorum has his facts wrong. Leaving aside whether Social Security faces insolvency, and, if so, whether the major problem is too few people to support it, there are serious problems with his assertion abortion is the cause.

The fact that the anti-choice movement is just one arm of the larger religious right is often ignored. But a new law mandating religious indoctrination of women should change the discourse.

Follow Amanda Marcotte on Twitter, @amandamarcotte