Recommended Reading #48: Reproductive Choice
"The Hypocrisy of 'Informed Consent' Abortion Laws" by Angi Becker Stevens (Reproductive Rights, Politics, Sex and Culture, Health and Body) 4/15/11
I appreciate this article intensely; it contains many considerations that have long occurred to me as an activist for reproductive freedom. I have tended to find laws mandating things such as waiting periods for women seeking abortions infuriating, particularly because of the guise under which they seem to be purported—and this piece does what I find a beautiful job of explaining why.
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"Beyond Federal Funding for Contraception: Taking a Firm Stance on the Hyde Amendment" by Angi Becker Stevens (Politics, Reproductive Rights, Sociology, Public Policy) 4/20/11
I don't think I've ever included two pieces by the same author in a "Recommended Reading" post, but on this subject it happens that these two pieces (which I didn't even realize were by the same author until I was compiling this post!) speak, to me, exceptionally comprehensively and articulately on issues I find particularly salient in the reproductive rights realm as well as less acknowledged and discussed. In the case of this piece, I very much appreciate its pointing out some things with which I wholeheartedly agree and that have not tended to seem expressed very much even from a pro-choice perspective. Sometimes laws or "norms" seem to become so commonplace as to not often be questioned anymore, and the non-use of federal tax dollars to contribute to abortion care (like they do other medical care as well as numerous things many taxpayers may not necessarily want their tax money paying for—that is the nature of the form of government the United States utilizes) seems like one of these to me. This piece strikes me as an illuminating exposition on the subject.
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"End" by AAG (Memoir, Relationship, Health and Body, Parenting) 4/25/11
This may be one of the most extraordinary things, at least in memoir form, I've read on the subject of reproductive choice. I thank the author for expressing it.
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