The Catholic Church and Kenya's government are at odds over a vaccine that religious leaders say is a sterilization drug disguised as a tetanus shot. The Church is advising women not to vaccinate themselves or their children because they might ruin their reproductive future. Meanwhile, political leaders say the drug… » 11/12/14 2:20pm 11/12/14 2:20pm

The governor of California recently signed a bill into law that will ban forced sterilizations in state prisons. That happened this week—and yes it is still the year 2014 and we are, in fact, in the United States of America. » 9/26/14 2:40pm 9/26/14 2:40pm

A number of California prisons have been sterilizing female prisoners without their permission for nearly a decade. Hello Tuskegee experiment and Henrietta Lacks! What the fuck California? » 6/20/14 3:20pm 6/20/14 3:20pm

Tina Fey gave a rousing, appropriately angry speech at the Center for Reproductive Rights Gala last night during which she decried the "grey-faced men" with "$2 haircuts" trying to define rape for all the simple minded ladies of America. Here's a clip from her speech, which I kind of wish came in necklace form. In… » 10/25/12 3:40pm 10/25/12 3:40pm

A plan to compensate some of the estimated 7,600 victims of the state of North Carolina's forced sterilization program has been stalled in the state's Senate by Republicans who are terribly, terribly sorry that it happened, but who just don't understand how money will help solve anything. There there, now. Please… » 6/21/12 4:40pm 6/21/12 4:40pm

The North Carolina General Assembly recently passed the first bill that will grant reparations of $50,000 to victims who underwent forced sterilization within the state between 1929 and 1974. This is the first step in recognizing a very dark mark on American history, however victims, such as 58-year-old Elaine… » 5/31/12 10:45pm 5/31/12 10:45pm

We all knew it was coming; what's surprising is that it took this long. The University of Notre Dame and a parade of other religious organizations have filed several lawsuits against the US Department of Health and Human Services today, alleging that a new Preventative Care Mandate in the Affordable Care Act that… » 5/21/12 4:30pm 5/21/12 4:30pm

A BBC investigation has uncovered a massive government-mandated program that forced doctors to sterilize women in Uzbekistan without their knowledge or consent. Tens of thousands of women have been affected, with no end in sight. But doctors aren't just sneaking into women's houses at night and stealthily making off… » 4/12/12 2:50pm 4/12/12 2:50pm

When a mentally ill woman showed up at a Massachusetts emergency room and doctors discovered she was pregnant, a judge recommended that she be forced to abort and then sterilized. Luckily, another judge disagreed. » 1/18/12 10:20am 1/18/12 10:20am

A task force convened by North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue has spent months debating what the state should do for the 1,500-2,000 living victims of its forced sterilization program, which targeted poor, black, and disabled residents all the way up into the seventies. Now, the task force has recommended that each… » 1/11/12 6:05pm 1/11/12 6:05pm

Hundreds of women in Peru who believe they're infertile may actually be the victims of a horrible government policy that led to them being sterilized. The country's attorney general says there are about 2,000 documented cases of women who had their tubes tied without their consent under a program meant to provide… » 11/18/11 5:00pm 11/18/11 5:00pm

From the 1920's to the late 1970's, the state of North Carolina forcibly sterilized 7,600 people. Most of them were poor women, and a disproportionate number of them were black. At the time, the government justified the surgeries as in the best interest of the state, as those sterilized were classified as "feeble… » 11/07/11 2:00pm 11/07/11 2:00pm

New mothers interested in long term birth control typically have two options after giving birth. One is completely reversible and renewable every 5 to 10 years, the other is permanent, more expensive, and difficult to reverse. It seems that, for women in a position to choose, the . Why, then, do so many women opt for… » 8/27/11 11:35am 8/27/11 11:35am

In 1968, Elaine Riddick was sterilized against her will after a c-section to deliver her first and only child. She was just fourteen years old. Now she's fighting to receive compensation as a victim of North Carolina's Eugenics Board, which sterilized thousands of women, disproportionately black, on such grounds as… » 8/15/11 4:45pm 8/15/11 4:45pm

And the best part? Your husband doesn't have to know. It's secrety! » 12/19/10 5:25pm 12/19/10 5:25pm

Publicly endorsing a birth control procedure seems like a decent way to inform women while (maybe) making some bank. But what happens when the procedure fails? That's what happened to ex-Olympic skier Picabo Street. » 10/18/10 5:17pm 10/18/10 5:17pm

Arguments about reproductive choice don't usually consider the option of sterilizing the entire human race. So that makes this latest argument special. » 6/08/10 4:00pm 6/08/10 4:00pm

• New research suggests that children as young as three are capable of understanding advertising and feeling the social pressure to consume certain brands. Brand visibility can even determine whether children consider others desirable playmates. » 3/09/10 5:40pm 3/09/10 5:40pm