The Pro-Choice Public Education Project

You should wait for sex, but if you can't....

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

This is one of a long line of common phrases in sex education and sexuality messaging people, including people I think of us allies, use that I deeply dislike, like "preventing teen pregnancy." Let me explain why, working backwards."You should wait for sex, but if you can't..."That's usually followed by "then you should have sex using safer sex and contraception." Or -- and usually addressing both those things -- "then you should at least be responsible."In some respect, that's fine. Now, not everyone needs contraception, either because they don't have a partner with a radically different reproductive system than them or they're not having the kinds of sex that can create a pregnancy, so that doesn't always make sense. But for people ...

The Creepy, Crawly Virginity Obsession

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Virginity obsession grows stronger and weirder. Also, Ariel Gore talks about women and happiness, and Andre Bauer advises starving people as forcible birth control.

Teen Mom: Who Are You Calling a Whore?

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

I was talking with some of my friends about MTV’s

(VIDEO) Football and Olympic Stars Call for "Respect for Women's Choices" in New Planned Parenthood Video

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Former Minnesota Vikings football player Sean James and former Olympic Gold Medalist Al Joyner appear in a video created by Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) focusing on "respect for women's choices." Joyner is the brother of Olympic track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee.The men, both of whom have gone on from sports career to become successful in business, speak to the strengths of the women in their lives and their respect for women's choices, "sharing their own thoughts about sports, families, and the importanceof personal decision-making."In the video, James, referring to the CBS-Focus on the Family ad featuring Pam and Tim Tebow, says "I respect and honor Mrs. Tebow's decision."

Am I normal? Who cares?

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Am I/is he/is she/is this/are we normal?As anyone who works in sex education or sexuality can tell you, when it comes to the questions people ask us, variations on the theme of "Am I normal?" reign supreme. I just spent a half hour going through our advice question queue, doing a search on each page for the word "normal." At the moment, we have around 55 pages of unanswered questions. There's five to fifteen questions on each page. I found only two pages where there was not at least one question with the term "normal" in it; where the heart of the question wasn't "Am I -- or is he, she or ze -- normal?"Some questions about normality are really about health. That's a little different. Of course, from my view, that's also less about normal ...

The Doula Movement: Making the Radical a Reality by Trusting Pregnant Women

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Three years ago I became a doula. Early in my training, Ibecame part of a conversation that focused on providing doula support for allof a pregnant person?s choices, including abortion. Since that time, I haveserved more than 100 pregnant people as part of The Doula Project in New YorkCity. The project was founded on the idea that pregnancy is a spectrum and thatas female-bodied people we may experience any and all of the possibilities thatspectrum contains in a lifetime. Within that, we should also have access todoula care for each of our pregnancies.The Doula Project has served over 500 pregnant people sincethe fall of 2008, guided by the mission of providing free compassionate careand emotional, physical and informational support to ...

Less sex ed, more pregnant kids

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Based on a False Story: Lifetime's "The Pregnancy Pact"

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

"The Pregnancy Pact," a hokeyLifetime dramatization of a non-existent "pact" between a group of pregnant teen girlsin Gloucester, aired Saturday as basic cable's most successful original movie in years even though the film's premise is based onrumors and even blatant lies. Still, given that the movie was made withthe blessing of the National Campaign for the Prevention of Teen and UnplannedPregnancy, whose work in the dramaticdepartment I've writtenabout before, I thought I'd tune in and see whether the movie made anyworthwhile points. To help pick through the hackneyed dialogue and earnestacting, I got the insight of feminist blogger Veronica Arreola, who blogs at Viva La Feminista and was vigilantly tweeting her way throughthe film's ...

UPDATED: Time to Turn the Lights on in Wisconsin Schools

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

UPDATE: The Healthy Youth Act passed out of committee this morning in the Wisconsin State Senate, and will now go on to the full Senate for a vote.

The Day I Became Pro-Choice

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

In 10th grade, my teacher for a class on National, State, and Local Government changed how I viewed the abortion debate forever.As usual, he was goading the class into a debate.

Getting to Choice

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

When I was young, the word "choice" was a euphemism for "anti-life." I specifically remember being told that the pro-choice movement was about destruction, and appending the word "choice" to it was a corrupt strategy to spin something reprehensible into something good.I've come pretty far from those conservative roots.

Remembering Roe in Denver: Real People, Real Stories

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Desperate and alone, Kathy* confided to a fellow student that she was pregnant and needed to terminate her pregnancy. But getting an abortion was still illegal in the United States then and her options for professional medical care were extremely limited.Several young women in her dormitory at the University of Colorado-Boulder took up a collection to get Kathy to an abortion clinic in Mexico. She returned to Colorado soon after and while recovering in a local hotel room, Kathy began to hemorrhage severely."She had been butchered," said Cindi Coleman, who served as a freshman residence hall leader and helped gather funds for the procedure.The girls panicked. As Kathy became increasingly ill, they sought advice from a trusted older student ...

One Bloody Mess: Myths & Realities of Bleeding with First Intercourse

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

How long after a girl's first time should they bleed for and how heavy should they bleed?Read the answer...

(VIDEO) Campaign to End Fistula: Caroline's Story

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti reminds us how vulnerable women andchildren are - particularly in times of disaster. Poor and disadvantaged womentend to be unequally affected by natural disasters and are oftenoverrepresented in death tolls.One of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti already has thehighest rate of maternalmortality in the region - 670 deaths per 100,000 live births. Pregnantwomen in and around the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, lack access to eventhe most basic health services.Although the odds are against women in Haiti, and against women throughout thedeveloping world, success stories do exist: Caroline Ditina is a young woman in the Democratic Republic of Congo whosuccessfully survived obstetric ...

Birthmotherhood

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

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