Blog for Choice Posts

In honor of Black History Month, we've put together a list of just a few of the countless African-American women who have led the struggle for civil rights and gender equality.

When it comes to reproductive health, many students are censored from getting the facts to help them avoid unintended pregnancy until they're ready, prevent STIs, and have a positive self-image. That's because anti-choice politicians have forced teachers to teach "abstinence-only" programs in classrooms across the country, even though they're a huge disaster:

It's been one year since Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis' historic 13-hour filibuster to stop politicians from pushing through a draconian anti-choice bill during a special legislative session. Ever since Wendy's epic stand, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas has been working with allies on the ground to make sure women can continue to access abortion and reproductive-health care in the Lone Star state. But the energy we saw in Texas from activists standing up to join Wendy one year ago has spread far beyond Texas.

Sexual assault is still a serious problem that must be addressed. While we still have a long way to go in terms of developing substantive solutions to preventing these crimes and tackling the negative stigma associated with sexual assault, elected officials across the country are taking steps forward to provide appropriate protections and care for survivors. Here are four ways elected officials across the country are working to bring justice to sexual assault survivors.

In their efforts to ban abortion, anti-choice politicians in the Texas legislature recently passed an extreme bill that could close nearly 90 percent of abortion clinics across the state.

Our opponents have really reached a new low in Ohio. Anti-choice politicians are using the state budget to take essential funds away from low-income women and children and give them to anti-choice "crisis pregnancy centers" (CPCs) instead.

In Tuesday's Senate Armed Services committee hearing, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) defended rape and sexual assault that occurs in the military, saying, "The young folks coming in to each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23. Gee-whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur. So, we've got to be very careful on our side."

Apparently, banning abortion for women in D.C. wasn't extreme enough. The anti-choice zealots at the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List recently pledged their support for Rep. Trent Franks' measure that has recently been expanded to ban abortion after 20 weeks—nationwide.

Despite voters' clear rejection of the War on Women in last year's election, anti-choice politicians continue to move extreme legislation in states across the country. Anti-choice state lawmakers have introduced extreme early abortion bans, or so-called "heartbeat" bans, in Kentucky, Mississippi, Wyoming, Arkansas, and North Dakota. These bills would ban abortion so early in a pregnancy that most women wouldn't even know they're pregnant.

President Obama's win on November 6 means that implementation of the Affordable Care Act will continue. That includes one of our favorite provisions, the no-cost birth-control policy. Under this policy, all FDA-approved methods of contraception will be covered without a copay for newly issued insurance plans going forward.

The candidates will discuss foreign policy tonight. "So what does that have to do with a woman's right to choose?" you might ask.

Many people might not realize that the person in the White House has power over how funding is allocated to family-planning programs overseas.