Tag Archives: abortion

Opportunistic Advocacy (1/x); COVID-19 (4/x)

Posted on April 15, 2020 by

Effective advocates don’t want to waste a crisis. They try to photobomb into public attention to advance their concerns. Sometimes, it’s a clear fit–in direct response to the challenges of the moment; sometimes, they fly a long favored reform or … Continue reading →

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Alyssa Milano, Lysistrata, and the sex strike for reproductive rights

Posted on May 15, 2019 by

Actress/activist and Twitter master, Alyssa Milano, is rightly concerned about the contagion of new state laws restricting access to abortion. Sniffing the prospects of a conservative Catholic majority on the Supreme Court eager to overrule Roe v. Wade, Republican state legislators … Continue reading →

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Will the Women’s March matter?

Posted on January 19, 2017 by

Increasingly, the women’s march looks to sound the trumpet for a new surge in oppositional politics during the Trump era–however long it lasts. Counter-inaugural protests are nothing new, but this effort is getting more and better attention than any others … Continue reading →

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What these protests do…

Posted on November 18, 2016 by

Young people, particularly in places that didn’t support Donald Trump, continue to protest his election. (Below, you can see high school students in San Francisco marching.) Two months before his inauguration, it’s worthwhile to think about just what these demonstrations … Continue reading →

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Climate activists: Habemus papem

Posted on June 18, 2015 by

Pope Francis’s encyclical on the moral necessity of protecting the earth is out.  You can read “On Care for Our Common Home” here (in English; translations in many other languages are readily available–but I couldn’t find the Latin version).  The … Continue reading →

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Thirty-five feet

Posted on June 26, 2014 by

I used to go to a wonderful dentist whose office, on Beacon Street in Brookline, was next door to the Planned Parenthood clinic at the center of today’s Supreme Court decision.  Once, accompanied by my wife (I’m very squeamish about … Continue reading →

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The March for Life and the risks and rewards of institutionalization

Posted on January 24, 2014 by

Many abortion opponents showed up for the annual March for Life in Washington, DC this past week, commemorating (mourning) the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established abortion rights across the United States. I don’t know how many; the Park … Continue reading →

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Students are revolting: school lunches

Posted on October 17, 2012 by

With the help of a sympathetic teacher, students at Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kansas, produced the video above.  They say, in a much more entertaining way than I will, that they’re not getting enough food to live … Continue reading →

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Code Pink takes outdoor politics inside the convention

Posted on August 30, 2012 by

Two members of Code Pink, the feminist antiwar group, somehow got inside the Republican convention, and aired their grievances with the Romney/Ryan ticket. They only had a few moments to battle for prime time attention with Vice Presidential nominee Paul … Continue reading →

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Healthcare politics outside the court

Posted on March 31, 2012 by

Most public attention to health care reform turned to arguments in front of the Supreme Court.  But while journalists and analysts interpreted every question, pause, and eye roll from the Supreme Court justices, activists took health care politics outdoors, offering … Continue reading →

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