Pawlenty’s executive order will affect the elderly, teens, the poor and middle class, those in high risk insurance groups, rural Minnesotans, the mentally ill, new moms and newborns. You can do the math, but you can’t begin to calculate the damage.

Written by Sarah Stoesz for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

My experience with health care in my native country led me to take health insurance for granted and consider health care as a human right. What a shocking experience to come to the U.S. as a penniless international student!

Written by Susana Sanchez for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

The movie 12^th and Delaware was set in Florida, but fake clinics are rife everywhere. NARAL Pro-Choice California Foundation’s investigation, Unmasking Fake Clinics, reveals what happens to women in crisis pregnancy centers in California. 

Written by Alexa Cole for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

The case is strong for over-the-counter access to the pill. Birth control pills are a safe, effective medication used by over 10 million women in the United States alone, and the pill has 50 years of global data backing it up.  There is no “one good time” to do this, so women’s advocates need to take the initiative and make this happen.

Written by Kirsten Moore and Aimee Thorne-Thomsen for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

Fundamentalist Christians want “freedom” to discriminate against people who don’t share their beliefs and consider anyone who doesn’t a threat to their own “freedom.”

Written by Amanda Marcotte for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

The announcement of a new gel that can reduce the risk of HIV infection is welcome news.  It does not, however, make the case for providing female condoms–now–any less urgent.

Written by Serra Sippel for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

In Helena, Montana, educators are trying to implement comprehensive sex education. But the curriculum has spurred furious right-wing opposition, and false claims about the content.

Written by Elizabeth Toledo for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

Weekly Pulse: The Religious Right vs. Birth Control

by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger

Does health care reform’s promise of preventive care extend to free birth control? Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have 18 months to decide whether to require insurers to provide oral contraceptives, IUDs, and other prescription birth control with no co-pay. With pro-choice Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the helm, HHS is expected to say yes.

[Update: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that birth control will not be on the White House's preliminary list of free preventive services, to be issued today. However, as Miriam Perez of feministing explains, HHS will ultimately have the final word. Observers, including Dana Goldstein who covers reproductive rights for the Daily Beast, are optimistic that the pro-choice side will carry the day at HHS.]

A recent government report found that more than 40 percent of unmarried U.S. teenagers — or 4.3 million teen males and females — have had sex at least once, and one in five girls said they’d be happy to get pregnant.

Written by Tatiana Mckinney for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

An advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration has found that a new emergency contraceptive is safe and effective, and labeling should not restrict access to product.

Written by Jodi Jacobson for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.