Today's Washington Post features yet another article about the failure of abstinence-only sex education programs, which have been one of the best-funded far right programs under the Bush administration. At last count, the US government has spent more than $1.5 billion on programs that promote "abstinence only until...

Very little about the Bush administration could surprise me anymore, but I was completely disheartened when -- despite the written opposition from more than 200,000 Americans, 150 members of Congress, a bipartisan coalition of governors and attorneys general, the American Medical Association, and women's health organizations like Planned Parenthood --...

Late on election night, I received an email from a Planned Parenthood staff person, Njeri Wahome, in Nairobi, Kenya. Njeri wrote to me to verify what she was seeing on television -- that Senator Obama had won. "Can it be true? We are over the moon ... at the making...

Ever since my mom got beat by George Bush Jr. we've congregated for Thanksgiving down at Padre Island, near Harlingen, Texas. We liked to think of this gathering at the beach as the Hyannis Port of the South - just like the Kennedys we had an extended family, touch football...

With all the post-election polling analysis, there are many interesting outcomes that merit some soul-searching -- and not just within the political parties.

Exit polls reveal that 54 percent of Catholic voters supported President-elect Barack Obama, despite entreaties from Catholic leadership to vote against Senator Obama because of his support...

It is hard to overstate the landslide victory for women last night. The election of President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden spells the end of eight long years of an administration that used every legislative, judicial, and administrative weapon in its arsenal to attack women's health and rights....

We all know John McCain and Sarah Palin are out of touch on women's health; between McCain's infamous air-quoting of the word "health" and Palin's countless contradictions on reproductive health care, we know that we would be in bad shape if they were to make it...

I about fell out of my chair when I heard John McCain say this during the presidential debate last night:

"Just again, the example of the eloquence of Sen. Obama. He's health for the mother. You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean...

Over the last several weeks, it has become apparent that Sarah Palin is out of touch on a whole host of issues, ranging from the bailout and the economy to foreign policy to the Supreme Court. After this week's interview with Katie Couric, we can now add women's health to...

Picture this. While everyone's attention is focused on the upcoming presidential election, President Bush tries to slip in a new regulation that undermines women's access to health care. And before you know it, millions of women can't get the basic health care they need.

Unfortunately, the New York...

It's our time to put a president in the White House who cares about women's health, take back our country, and move once again with progress and commitment to the future. That's what Hillary Clinton said when she suspended her presidential campaign and that's what my mother Ann Richards would...

A tried and true tactic of the far right is to inject abortion into the presidential campaign as a divisive tactic. Their goal is twofold: to obscure the broader issue of reproductive and preventive health care and to politicize private, personal decisions made by women and families.

Both Senator...

For some of us, elections are the way we measure history, like sixth grade graduations or first proms.

Growing up in Texas, my family's life was always marked by elections, mainly valiant defeats for noble causes or candidates. As progressives, my parents always backed the losing side, particularly in the...

It's hard to imagine a more stinging indictment of the Bush administration policy that supports a "just say no" approach to sex education than the current collision of popular culture and real life. Teen sex and unintended pregnancy are everywhere -- from television to movies to the cover of People...

My college-aged daughter Lily, home for the summer, ran into the kitchen early Friday morning with The New York Times in her hand in disbelief.

"Mom, have you seen this? It's just wrong."

She opened the paper and pointed to an op-ed titled "Why Pro-Choice Is a Bad Choice...

John McCain's presidential campaign has taken a troubling turn. This week, the Los Angeles Times reported that John Weaver, a strategist for John McCain's presidential campaign, verbally attacked Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading reproductive health care advocate and provider. Weaver called the 90-year old...

It is dark day for women's health and safety.

Yesterday the highest court in the country voted 5-4 to uphold the federal abortion ban passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2003. The ban criminalizes abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy that doctors say are often the...

This year's midterm elections are about one thing -- change. We have all heard the refrain: Americans don't think we are moving in the right direction. Ask almost anyone except House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the president's dog, Barney, and they will tell you that this country is on the...

Planned Parenthood's helped generations of women prevent unintended pregnancy for 90 years -- and soon help could be on the way.

Earlier this month, FDA officials met with Barr Pharmaceuticals to discuss the drug company's application to make Plan B emergency contraception (EC) available over the counter. Not coincidentally, the...