reproductive rights

While the LGBT community marches justly onward in our fight for marriage equality, women’s reproductive rights are facing a critical blow in that political hotspot breeding so much turmoil of late, Ohio.

Rachel Maddow never ceases to amaze her legions of fans when it comes shining a discerning light onto politics as it pertains to our LGBT rights. The guests she frequently entertains on her show, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, are no exception. Recently, Maddow courted Princeton professor and MSNBC Contributor Melissa Harris-Lacewell in a discussion that has the world talking this morning.

Speaking at the Center for Reproductive Rights' inaugural gala, Tina Fey ripped into the GOP's "war on women" and Missouri senate hopeful Todd Akin.

Following Governor Mark Sanford's fall from grace, Diana Cage wonders, 'Why do Republican senators cheat so much...These cheating guys are the same guys that are anti-marriage equality because they want to 'protect the sanctity of marriage.' These are the guys that voting against reproductive rights.' These are  the guys that seek to withhold rights from the lesbian and gay community.

For many lesbians, the attacks on abortion availability can be background noise. We focus on problems that seem to affect lesbians more directly, such as same-sex marriage, the military’s dismantling of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, or even the newest lesbian celebrity gossip. When we think about our own reproductive rights, it is more often about becoming pregnant and raising our children. To the extent we consider abortion, it may seem an issue exclusively for our heterosexual sisters.

LGBT history overflows with stories of women who have come to the aide of gay men: the concerned mother who founded PFLAG, the doctor who proved that homosexuality was not a pathological illness, the popular 1960s communist who wrote that gays and lesbians were born that way and should be true to themselves in order to find happiness, and the countless number of lesbians who, after years of feeling excluded from the gay liberation movement by their gay brothers, put aside their frustrations to care for them at the height of the AIDS epidemic when hospitals wouldn’t.

Two recent court cases illustrate how women still don't have independence when it comes to our bodies.

Eight million more women than men voted for Obama for president.  And one of the reasons we did was because of his purported position on reproductive justice issues like abortion and emergency contraception (EC). But with the stroke of 20 pens that is just what President Obama did, when he signed into law on March 23, the long awaited  "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590)" by pandering to pro-life Democrats.

The GOP's anti-abortion platform hasn't changed—it is identical to that of its 2008 platform, allowing abortions only in cases of rape and incest. The GOP's anti-gay platform also hasn't changed—it is identical to that of its 2008 platform, allowing marriage only between a man and a woman.