By Suzanne York, www.transition-earth.org. In some ways the following are two very different stories, but ultimately in the end both end up advancing women’s rights when it comes to family planning and reproductive health. Let’s first take a look at India – soon to be the world’s most populous country.  For decades it has been relying
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org In this increasingly polarized country with a deeply partisan Congress, a divided Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of corporate rights (aka corporate “personhood”) over a woman’s right to use the contraception of her choice. In the long-anticipated outcome of Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that family-owned
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The number of American teenagers getting pregnant is at an historic low.  While this is good news, the U.S. teen birth rate is still highest in the industrialized world. Rates of teen pregnancy, birth and abortion have declined dramatically in the United States since their peak in the early 1990s.  According
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Yes, it is the 21st century, and hard as it is to believe, many people in the United States are opposed to health insurance plans covering birth control. How can someone be against contraception and empowering women to make the best choices for their own health and lives? The Supreme Court
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Full coverage for birth control, as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), kicked in as Americans rang in the new year.  Contraception is now available for free from health insurance plans under the ACA. A key provision of the ACA requires employers with 50 or more workers to provide medical
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org At the recent International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), a big gathering of leaders and activists on family planning and reproductive health, there was a big effort to promote the role of men.  While it may seem obvious, men are sometimes missing from family planning. Certainly education and empowerment of women
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Most Americans have heard about the glitches with the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. But apparently many women haven’t heard that birth control is essentially available for free under health insurance plans.  According to the Phoenix Marketing Company, which has been tracking this topic, this is
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Today is celebrated as World Contraception Day.  Perhaps there are not actually a billion reasons to celebrate it, but there is a case to be made that a billion dollars would go a long way in meeting the need for contraceptives for women and families all over the world. Banks or
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The end of a year normally leads to reflections on how the preceding 365 days turned out on many different issues.  As  2012 comes to a close, there are reasons to feel confident about how family planning and reproductive rights fared this year. There were three major events that should be
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