Powerful personal stories about sexual and reproductive health.
Went Shawanna Nelson went into labor while a prisoner her legs and arms were shackled to her hospital bed despite the presence of an armed guard. Read Malika Saada Saar for more.
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Dr. Kevin Fenton Answers Frequently Asked Questions about HIV Transmission
Kevin Fenton, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) at the CDC answers questions about HIV transmission.
Young and Coming Out HIV Positive
LaShaun Brown, a 14 year old girl from Fayetteville, NC, describes living with HIV and wonders what her friends will think when they find out.
Kevin Tillman Describes His Experience Living with HIV
Kevin Tillman tested positive for HIV in 1989. In this two part video he recalls his experience living through first years of the epidemic.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers: A Special Report
Hunter Stewart takes a close look at "crisis pregnancy centers," some of which are federally funded, that often give out inaccurate medical information, prosthelytize and use shame and scare stactics when counseling women.
The Abstinence Dilemma for Ohio's Public Schools
Judith Pindell of Advocates for Youth in Cleveland explains how faith-based organizations, flush with federal money, can bypass state policy to implement fear and shame-based abstinence programs in public schools.
Sex Education in a Conservative Town
Tami Sanderson of Loveland, OH is outraged when her 13 year old daughter comes home from school with a virginity pledge and materials promoting abstinence from sex before marriage.
A Look at Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Young women and men discuss their findings about Crisis Pregnancy Centers which claim to be offering sound advice about abortion and reproductive health issues.
A rally held by the Mississippi Dept of Human Services uses taxpayer money to proselytize in favor of abstinence from sex before marriage programs. ACLU attorney Brigitte Amiri says this is illegal under the Constitution.
Mother's Day at an Abortion Clinic
Mother's Day bring out protestors in large numbers at abortion clinics. An abortion provider for twenty years describes what it's like and why she does what she does.
Leading advocates for a sensible, comprehensive federal sex education policy call on Congress to zero out funding for failed abstinence-only programs.
Answers for Preventing Teen Pregnancy
Michele Ozumba, President of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, answers questions about teen pregnancy and what actually works to prevent it.
A Wealth of Funds, A Lack of Information: Sex-Education in Florida
SIECUS released a shocking report that finds the millions in federal abstinence education funding is used to fund programs that use medically inaccurate scare tactics to teach abstinence in Florida's public schools. Florida high school students speak out against these federally funded programs.
Finding Common Ground through Reducing Abortion
With the Right to Life March in Washington, D.C. as a backdrop, this documentary story provides an overview of legislation filed in Congress to reduce abortion. Interviewed are Rachel Laser, Director of the Cultural Program at The Third Way, and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Rep. Rosa, DeLauro (D-Connecticut) two sponsors of the bill.
Lessons of Hate in the Bible Belt
Debra Taylor is a small-town high school ethics teacher in Oklahoma, in the heart of “The Bible Belt.” When she decides to use a film about the brutal murder of Matthew Shephard, a young, gay man in Wyoming, to teach her students about tolerance, compassion and the power of examining prejudice, she and her students receive an unexpected lesson in intolerance when she is forced to resign.
A Battle for Comprehensive Sex Educaiton
In the face of an aggressive abstinence-only industry, three students in Savannah, GA fight to resist five more years of government funding for these ineffective programs in their public schools. A teacher of abstinence education for twenty years admits in an on camera interview that comprehensive sex education would be a better way to combat some of the highest teen birth rates in the country.
Keith Barmer and David Waller of Baltimore share their stories about contracting HIV and the very difficult experiences that preceeded and followed the moment they discovered they were HIV positive. The two men tell how they each triumphed over their difficulties and have come to lead positive, forward-looking lives.
Birth Control at Risk in Federal Health Proposal
Join RH Reality Check on a journey through Maine as we meet with three different reproductive health providers to get their takes on how the proposed Health and Human Services regulation encourage redefinitions of contraception as abortion, allow providers to opt out of care, and create more barriers to health care for women.
Abstinence Comes to Albuquerque
Sarah was in ninth grade when she attended a mandatory 5-day health class on sex education in her public school. But when Sarah's mother heard that she was being taught that condoms don't work, abortion is baby-killing comparable to the deaths on 9/11, and that young people are at risk for suicide if they engage in pre-marital sex, she took action and rallied a community to stand up for their children.
One Man's Experience with Failed Abstinence-Only Programs
Max Siegel is 23 year old gay man living with HIV. Max contracted HIV from his first sexual experience at 17 years old but his story starts even before that. In high school, the extent of Max’ sexual health education was an abstinence-only program that succeeded only in alienating him by refusing to provide him, as a gay person and young person, with the information and tools for a healthy sex life. Max is now a professional reproductive health advocate lobbying for the rights of all young people to comprehensive and empowering sexual health education.
Youth Discuss Abstinence, Sex Ed, Teen Pregnancy and Contraception
Youth from around the country gather in Washington DC to discuss the most pressing reproductive and sexual health issues facing teens today: teen pregnancy, access to contraception, the abject failure of abstinence-only programs and more.
Gina and Chelsea are women living with HIV. Both Gina and Chelsea acknowledge that a lack of sex education contributed to their contracting HIV. They are both living healthy, productive lives and tell their stories openly to others in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease.
University Student Arrested for Handing Out Condoms
Dennis Chaney, a student at Northern Kentucky University and leader of a student group advocating for better sex education and access to contraception, was arrested while distributing condoms at a freshman orientation event on campus. Chaney says, "The administration put student's health at risk at the expense of appeasing social conservatives."
Helping Women Find Reproductive Health Information and Services
Access to reproductive health care is difficult for many women, especially women living in rural areas and low-income women. Access Women's Health Rights Coalition helps thousands of California women find reproductive health information and services. Volunteers also help with transportation to and from reproductive health clinics. Access can sometimes help women meet financial needs for care as well.
Roman Reed, 33 years old, suffered a spinal cord injury in 1994 leaving him confined to a wheelchair. Immediately after his injury he dedicated himself to advocating for embryonic stem cell research funding to find cures for MS, Parkinsons, Alzheimers and those with similar injuries. As Roman puts it, "It's ridiculous to think that those who are suffering are not worth embryoninc stem cells. There is nothing more pro-life than trying to help the suffering. That's what Jesus did. So tell me what's wrong with that?"
Aspen's Experience with Abortion
Aspen Baker, founder and executive director of Exhale, a service you can call to talk freely about your experience with abortion, tells her personal story with abortion.
