From the category archives:

religious fanaticism

Crisis Pregnancy Centers Regularly Engage in Coercive Adoption Practices

by Cara August 31, 2009

Almost two years ago, I wrote about a distressing and eye-opening book called The Girls Who Went Away, which is about the women who surrendered their children for adoption under coercion in the years before legal abortion and when single or unwed parenting was ostracized. Most of the women who surrendered their children were threatened, [...]

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Dr. Tiller’s Clinic Will Remain Closed

by Cara June 9, 2009

Oh god. This twists both my heart and my stomach up into tight, hard knots. The family of slain abortion provider George Tiller said Tuesday that his Wichita clinic will be “permanently closed,” effective immediately. In a statement released by Tiller’s attorneys, his family said it is ceasing operation of Women’s Health Care Services Inc. [...]

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Catholic Church Excommunicates Mother and Doctors Over 9-Year-Old Rape Victim’s Abortion

by Cara March 6, 2009

In Brazil, there is a horrific story of a 9-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated (h/t Falloch’s comment).  It’s believed that the rape was committed by her step-father.  The girl was not only pregnant at that young age, but also pregnant with twins.  And so, as makes perfect sense, she had an abortion.  Because [...]

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Domestic Violence Rates Soar in Turkey

by Cara February 23, 2009

A new report has come out showing that, as in most places, domestic violence is a serious problem in Turkey. But not only are rates of intimate partner violence in Turkey significantly higher than in the U.S., where statistics are already terrifyingly high, women in Turkey are also seemingly significantly less likely to seek help: [...]

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Muslim Women Fight For Rights Using Islam

by Cara February 19, 2009

The NY Times recently ran an article that is, if not exactly news (because it’s about something that has been going on for some time), nonetheless interesting and important. On the issue of Muslim women using Islam to make feminist arguments, they write: Ms. Anwar argues that the edict, issued late last year by the [...]

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Court Rules that Religious School Has Right to Expel “Suspected Lesbians”

by Cara January 30, 2009

In 2006, two teenage girls were expelled from California Lutheran High School on suspicion of their being lesbians. That’s right — though expelling students because they actually were lesbians would have been a gross violation of civil rights, this took it a step further by expelling the two students merely on a guess. Now, amazingly, [...]

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Blog For Choice: Sexual Rights

by Cara January 22, 2009

Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, and that means it’s also Blog for Choice Day.  Unlike last year (and more like myself), I have little interest in the theme, pro-choice hopes for Barack Obama and the new Congress. I’ve decided that I want to write about something else.  I want to write [...]

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What’s Causing High Teen Birth Rates?

by Cara January 15, 2009

Last year, we got the news that teen pregnancy rates have risen for the first time since 1991.  But last week, figures were also released on a state-by-state break down of the teen birth rate. Mississippi now has the nation’s highest teen birth rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, a new [...]

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SD Voters Support Prevention and Education Over Abortion Bans

by Cara January 14, 2009

We already knew that South Dakota voters oppose an abortion ban in their state, based on their decision to shoot down such a measure twice in a three year period.  But South Dakota Healthy Families decided to take the extra precaution of reminding legislators of this fact as the legislative session begins. And the data [...]

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Because the “Not in My Shower” Campaign Worked So Well

by Cara January 13, 2009

You may remember the transphobic “Not in My Shower” campaign in Maryland, which aimed to repeal a measure that allowed transgender individuals to use whichever bathroom they were most comfortable with, by connecting transgender people to perversion, pedophilia, and other sexual violence.  The campaign failed in court, and the equal protection law stayed in tact.  [...]

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