In case you thought that Jim Bob Duggar's comments over the weekend comparing the liberal Americans to Nazi Germans and conservative Americans to the United States army during World War II weren't polarizing enough, he's gone a step further, explaining that the number of fetuses aborted in America is equivalent to "a…
Forty years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled that women had a constitutional right to abortion based on the right to privacy. But — judging from the 30 states that passed 135 new laws restricting access to abortion during the past two years alone — it increasingly seems that privacy has not served the cause. That's…
NARAL announced that Ilyse Hogue will succeed Nancy Keenan as president. Awesome choice.
Both conservative politicians and some mainstream publications want us to think sex selective births — whether via abortion or pre-birth embryo testing — are on the rise and deserve our urgent attention. But while sex selection is unarguably a crucial problem in some countries that favor men over women, focusing on…
A Louisiana public school reserves the right to force girls they "suspect" are with child to take pregnancy tests on command. Students who test positive — or refuse to take the pregnancy test in the first place — aren't allowed to go to school anymore. Because pregnancy (aka sluttiness) is contagious, and if we just …
There's something for everyone — anti-choicers, workers' rights advocates, Occupy Wall Street protestors, people who don't like liars — in this story about how Mitt Romney helped orchestrate a $75 million investment deal with a controversial medical-waste disposal firm in 1999. Naturally, he has tried very hard to…
The military reported 471 rapes of servicemembers in 2011, but the real number is probably higher, since the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office estimates that only about 13.5 percent of all rapes and sexual assaults in the military are actually reported. Several hundred women in the military…
Everything was probably fine when you woke up today — you went about your morning routine, brushing your teeth either before or after breakfast, either of which is perfectly fine because in America, your dental hygiene should be your business, making plans to do something fun but inexorably falling into a state of…
Are you tired of always looking at Mitt Romney's face without being able to punch it? Are you angered by his upsetting and constantly evolving position on abortion? Then these are the perfect shoes for you: Mitt-Flops! They're flip-flops with Mitt's face on them, but they also feature his contradictory, flip-flopping…
In case you've ever been confused about how starkly different Democratic and Republican rhetoric can be over the issue of a woman's right to make decisions about what happens to her own body, this is what President Obama said earlier today to commemorate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade:
It seems like the Republican Party made a secret promise to constituents to add 50% more nuts to the 2012 election, and now their commitment to being more reckless than ever is affecting the anti-abortion movement (which really didn't need any help in that department). While traditionally anti-choicers have been…
We know Mitt Romney was nebulously pro-choice back when he was simply a Massachusetts politician, and that he has been far less so as a presidential primary candidate — though possibly not enough to satisfy the ever-extreme Republican base. Now, via Salon, we know a bit more about the tragic death of his cousin from an …
The Ohio House has just passed 54-43 a bill that, if enacted into law, would be the most restrictive abortion law in the country. It's a deliberate
The practical anti-choice position is that if abortion must be legal nationwide, and the Supreme Court hasn't upended that yet, it has to be as unpleasant and arduous as possible for the woman who has chosen it. Above, the Third Wave Foundation's handy graphic on what that actually means in practice.
Let us enter Indiana into contention in the state-level sweepstakes to curtail women's rights in the most spectacularly callous way possible. Sure, it's no South Dakota, but does South Dakota have a Republican state rep who argued that there should be no rape or incest exception because abortion-greedy women will…
Voting on the bill banning abortions in Ohio after detection of a fetal heartbeat has been delayed, as anti-abortion legislators and activists debate just how unconstitutional they want to get. The fetus that testified couldn't be reached for comment.
Yesterday's Delaware Senate debate showed how much Christine O'Donnell has learned from her Mama Grizzly mentor, Sarah Palin. Here, five ways she read from Palin's playbook.
On abortion rights, Ruth Bader Ginsburg said yesterday, "We will never go back to the way it once was." The audience erupted in "huge applause". But did she mean what they thought she meant?
Senator Dianne Feinstein asked Kagan whether she believes the constitution requires any abortion-related statute to protect the woman's health. Kagan replied that "putting [late-term] procedure[s] aside...the continuing holdings of the court" protect the woman's life and health. [RHRC]
46,000 pages of documents have just been released from Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's work in the Clinton Administration. (Friday! Convenient!) They're still being sifted through, but so far there's not much to allay pro-choice fears.
One of the many outstanding questions about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan concerns her precise views on abortion rights, and how strongly she might advocate for them. The answer, when not entirely opaque, is complex.
Last week, the Supreme Court's overturned established law and ruled that, since corporations are people and money is speech, corporations can run commercials for their favorde candidates. Legal scholars worry that Roe v. Wade is next on conservatives' agenda.
Today—the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade—pro-lifers Sarah & Bristol Palin will talk about Bristol's new vow of abstinence on Oprah. (Isn't the definition of insanity repeating the same mistake over and over expecting a different result?)
Saturday night, Congress threw a party, jubilant that its members had passed a version of a health care bill. Which version? That would be the one that traded the right to choose for a majority vote.
Randall Terry (pictured, left), former head of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, is trying to make a comeback at the Sotomayor confirmation hearings. That comeback includes baby dolls smeared with fake blood, and a follower dressed as Sotomayor the Grim Reaper.
• Woody Harrelson and Gloria Steinem are apparently in a bit of a fight. Witnesses report slightly different stories, but the two recently met at a restaurant and something went down. •
Catholic legal scholar and conservative Obama supporter Douglas Kmiec writes how the Pope's recent statement that Catholic theology obligates legislators and judges to work to undermine abortion law all but requires Justice Scalia to resign.
Barack Obama released a statement recognizing the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (but not repealing the global gag rule). He's still committed to pro-choice principles and to the equality of women. Change, indeed. [Rolling Stone]
