http://protectchoice.org/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/gurl/sex_ed/~3/281853671/how-can-i-get-t.html Question: My boyfriend and I are thinking of having sex. However, I'm scared that I might become pregnant. We can use a condom but I'm not comfortable just using that. I am planning to go on birth control, but can I get the pill without my mom knowing?Answer: Generally, yes. There is no law that requires a parent's permission for the pill or other birth control. But that doesn't mean that a doctor won't ask you for it. Nor does it mean that your confidentiality will always be respected. It's really wise to get on a reliable form of birth control. Though I don't know your family, they might actually think so too. Often parents are a lot more understanding about things like birth control than teens expect. Of course, you know your mom, and ... 2008-05-08 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhrealitycheck/~3/285713249/too-poor-parent When a recurrent plumbing problem in an upstairs unit caused raw sewage to seep into her New York City apartment, 22-year-old Lisa called social services for help. She had repeatedly asked her landlord to fix the problem, but he had been unresponsive. Now the smell was unbearable, and Lisa feared for the health and safety of her two young... 2008-05-08 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhrealitycheck/~3/285531049/outing-proteen-sex-agenda On this National Day to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy,I thought it would be a fun exercise to compare the sexual activity ofteenagers and their pregnancy rates in the most pro-choice states withthose of the most pro-life states. I used NARAL's rankingsto determine which were the best and worst states on choice. (Simply,those that... 2008-05-08 http://ourbodiesourblog.org/blog/2008/05/fat_antibias_campaign_1.php "In an overwhelmingly overweight nation that worships thinness, many describe prejudice against the obese as one of the last socially acceptable biases," writes Lisa Anderson at the Chicago Tribune. "Advocates for the plus-sized, particularly activists in the 'fat acceptance' movement,...[This is a content summary only. Click the headline to visit Our Bodies, Our Blog for the full post, links, other content and more!] 2008-05-08 http://protectchoice.org/article.php?id=284 On Thursday, May 15th, join us in New York City for a fundraiser to benefit Wanderlust. There will be mint juleps, Southern burlesque, and a raffle with fabulous prizes from local yoga studios, artists, Good Vibrations, and more! 2008-05-08 http://protectchoice.org/article.php?id=283 The Pro-Choice Public Education Project is pleased to present the results of our newest research, On Our Terms: Young Women of Color, Reproductive Justice, and Activism. 2008-05-08 http://protectchoice.org/article.php?id=279 Click here for more information about the amazing women who will be part of Wanderlust 2008! 2008-05-08 http://feministing.com/archives/008997.html All of us at Feministing have been following the heated discussion happening in the feminist blogosphere right now about issues of race and privilege. (We're not going to summarize, but here is some suggested reading. ) We want to say up front that Brownfemipower's voice will be greatly missed. We also want to say that, yes, there is a history of white women (and white feminists) appropriating the ideas of women of color. It's a problem that persists today. That doesn't make Amanda a plagiarist, and we don't believe she is.And that's all were gonna say about the specifics. Not only because we don't want this to get too blog-insidery, but also because many brave bloggers have forayed into this territory before, and the discussion doesn't ... 2008-04-15 http://feministing.com/archives/008995.html We followed a line of women (and a few scattered men) into the Superdome early Friday morning. After being thoroughly searched and promising never to turn on our video camera, we were allowed admittance. The entrance was decorated with a selection of feminist art pieces such as poster board sized pages of a graphic novel entitled, ?Oh fuck, I?m a Victim.? In it, artist Vicki Rabinowicz depicts a woman who is followed, kidnapped, and raped. In one frame, she is drawn small enough to fit in her attacker?s hand as he masturbates onto her entire body then flushes her down the toilet. At the end of the strip we discover that the victim is the artist and that she drew this on her 28th birthday, tens years after the attack. Not all of the pieces ... 2008-04-15 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/gurl/sex_ed/~3/270437522/what-to-do-if-y.html I know that obtaining condoms can be tricky, so sometimes I assign a ?condom hunt? as homework. For the hunt, kids are supposed to go to a few different stores and answer questions like: Where are the condoms located? How many brands do they have? Do you need to get someone to help find them? Usually the project goes off smoothly, but I have had the occasional kid who was unable to complete the assignment because a clerk refused to sell her condoms.Apparently, this happens more than you might think. A poll on the Teenwire.com website found that 10% of their readers had been carded for condoms!This is totally out of line--it?s legal for minors in all 50 states to buy condoms. That's because of a 1977 Supreme Court case, Carey v. Population ... 2008-04-15 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhrealitycheck/~3/270700150/state-legislative-trends-abortion-ban-travels-across-country At the end of March 2008, just over 800 measures had been introduced in the 43 state legislatures that have convened so far this year. And with the legislative year in full swing, some interesting trends are emerging, largely in the wake of last year's Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart. In its most direct effect, the Court's... 2008-04-15 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/gurl/sex_ed/~3/269772902/crisis-pregnanc.html I've had a lot of students over the years, but one I think about a lot is Lana. I met Lana when I was working in the Bronx and she was a very pregnant high school senior. She had the baby around graduation, but despite earlier plans to raise the child with her boyfriend, they soon broke up. Then after one too many fights with her mom, she moved in with a guy named Jason, who was more into smoking pot and watching TV than being a step-dad.Pretty soon Lana was pregnant again. She sat in my office holding her infant daughter saying, ?I can't have another baby. I just can't.?  ?What do you want to do?? I asked.  ?Abortion,? she answered.We got on the phone and made her an appointment at a Planned Parenthood center in the area. Then Lana called ... 2008-04-15 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhrealitycheck/~3/268366873/domestic-violence-is-a-reproductive-health-issue Living in a culture of violence has long-term effects on the ways in which we come to see ourselves, and by extension, the world around us. Globally, we are surrounded by images of violence: in forums such as the news media, folklore and in popular culture, violence has become a mainstay of our daily existence. The evidence of this came sharply... 2008-04-15 http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/04/14/combating-the-politicization-of-hiv-prevention In 2006, many of the United State's major organizations leading the fight against HIV/AIDS and their international partners came together to create the Caucus for Evidence-Based Prevention. Originally started in the lead-up to the International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006, the Caucus was designed to highlight and defend the importance of evidence and science in determining what works best to prevent HIV infection. Now, more than 40 members of the Caucus are preparing in earnest for the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in early August 2008. Our work is clearly cut out for us. The current politicization of HIV prevention by the US Administration and its favored groups here at home and around the globe, remain ... 2008-04-15 http://feministing.com/archives/008966.html Feminist Jennifer Baumgardner - who created the controversial "I had an abortion" shirt several years ago - has just released a new shirt as part of a rape-awareness project.Abortion and rape are subjects that are secreted away and are also surprisingly common, Ms. Baumgardner said. One in six women is a victim of sexual assault, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, a nonprofit sexual assault prevention and education group. According to the Department of Justice, 60 percent of sexual assaults go unreported.As she has been interviewing women for a film she is making about sexual assault, Ms. Baumgardner has heard women describing the usual reasons why they frequently don?t report rapes ? shame, humiliation, fear that ... 2008-04-08