July 20

FEATURED BLOG 

"Open Letter to Representative Trent Franks: What Caring About Women and Babies Really Looks Like," Bria Murray, RH Reality Check: Murray, who became pregnant as a result of rape, asks a number of questions of Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who authored a bill (HR 3803) that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy in the District of Columbia. They include how he can claim to care about babies and women when he continually supports policies that harm them. She asks how he can "claim to care about pregnant people and the babies they are carrying when you voted to deny federal funding to Planned Parenthood, the very organization that helped empower me to keep my baby?" She continues, "The answer is you can't, Representative Franks, and that is why you must do your best to support all options a person could possibly make regarding an unintended pregnancy, even if you do not agree with it" (Murray, RH Reality Check, 7/19).

What others are saying about the D.C. abortion ban markup:

~ "Abortion in D.C.," Juliet Lapidos, New York Times' "Taking Note."

FEATURED BLOG 

"In Maryland, Free Speech Protects the Right of Crisis Pregnancy Centers To Lie to Women: An Analysis of the Baltimore CPC Case," Imani Gandy, RH Reality Check: Responding to a ruling that struck down a Baltimore ordinance (FID 09-0406) requiring crisis pregnancy centers to post signs saying they do not provide abortions or birth control, Gandy writes that the ruling "paved the way to allow religion to trump common sense and women's health concerns." She adds, "As with reproductive health issues in politics generally, the health of women is treated as some sort of academic or religious inquiry, rather than the life-and-death matter that it is" (Gandy, RH Reality Check, 7/17).