Mermaid Musings

So much for compromising with Republicans to ensure that the economic stimulus bill passes. I hope that Obama learns a deep lesson from this experience: compromising women’s rights and women’s health to appease the radical right accomplishes nothing. They aren’t won over and women lose out.
Today the Senate approved the economic stimulus package which passed [...]

If there was ever any doubt that the patriarchy is alive and well in the United States judicial system, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that it does not violate a woman’s constitutional rights to shackle her during labor and delivery. There is obviously no one in that court who has ever given [...]

So much for repenting away abortion: the US Dept. of Health and Human Services is now considering regulations to ensure that health care services and organizations cannot “discriminate” against care providers who refuse to dispense birth control or perform abortions for “reasons of conscience.” (see NYTimes article)
If that in itself wasn’t bad enough, the new [...]

Goddess Bless Feminist Women’s Health Centers!! Cedar Rivers Clinic in Washington State just put out a new birth control comparison fact sheet and have eliminated abstinence as an option!! Instead, they offer “sex without risk.” A way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and still have sex! Finally, someone else is saying that abstinence is just not [...]

I recently returned from the Annual Organizing Conference of the National Network of Abortion Funds (great women, all!) And I am inspired, yet again, to reflect on the current state of the women’s reproductive rights movement - or as it is slowly coming to be better understood - the Movement for Reproductive Justice.
A very inspiring [...]