by Meghan Yee The fight to end HIV/AIDS continues today December 1, 2011, World AIDS Day. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first reported cases of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Despite victories in the years since the first diagnoses, there are many hurdles that need to be overcome in “Getting [...]
by Meghan Yee On October 31, the world population reached 7 billion. According to one Chinese demographer, however, if not for China’s one-child policy, the world population would have hit that number five years ago. China has the largest population on earth with 1.4 billion people. However, since 1979, the National Population and Family Planning [...]
We cheered when the Department of Health and Human Services made the decision to require that insurance plans include birth control and other preventive services with no co-pays. It was one of the greatest advancements for women’s health in decades. Included in the guidelines is a provision that would permit certain religious employers to opt [...]
By duVergne Gaines I just returned from the front lines in Mississippi, where students on campuses across the state united and mobilized to defeat the so-called “personhood” amendment. In the beginning, many political pundits made it sound as though Initiative 26 was a fait accompli. From the day I landed in Jackson to stay [...]
by Latoya Veal, NOW Press Secretary Mississippi’s Initiative 26 — the so-called “Personhood Amendment” — hits close to home for me. I was born in Mississippi and attended school there until I graduated from college. My immediate family and many, many friends still reside in the state. In just a few short days, my loved [...]
by Lauren Levine, Jewish Women International Executive Associate On November 8, Mississippi voters will be asked the question, “Should the term “person” be defined to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof?” The proposed constitutional amendment, known as Initiative 26 or the “Personhood Amendment” is the pro-life movement’s [...]
By Loretta Ross, Founder and National Coordinator of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective The 2011 Mississippi ballot Initiative 26 on Personhood and Initiative 27 on Voter ID exclusions may be one of the most important opportunities on the ground for the Pro-Choice and Reproductive Justice Movements to work together. In Mississippi, we are [...]
We humans mark a milestone today—the world’s population reaches 7 billion. When I was born there were about 2.2 billion people on earth. When my assistant was born there were a little more than 5 billion people on earth. It took just 12 years to go from 6 billion to 7. As the population climbs [...]
In 2003, I sat in my eighth grade sexual education class, listening to my teacher explain to us that abstinence was the only way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. As one could predict, later that year one of my classmates, despite having looked terrified during the discussion of STIs, became pregnant at the [...]
6,998,460,833: the world’s current population, according to an estimate by Population Action International (PAI). In anticipation of October 31st, the day the world’s population is predicated to reach 7 billion, I’ve sat at my desk transfixed by PAI’s scrolling ticker, documenting the rapidly increasing population as it approaches a number troubling to reproductive rights activists, [...]
That’s What S(HE) Said…