Did you know that despite Sen. John McCain's extreme anti-women’s health care voting record, a whopping 51 percent of women voters in battleground states have no idea what John McCain's positions are on women's reproductive health issues?  

Even worse, 49 percent of women currently backing McCain express pro-choice views, and 46 percent of women supporting McCain over Obama/Clinton want to see Roe v. Wade upheld. John McCain stands against all of these things.  

We've got our work cut out for us in this election and we need your help.    

Here's a completely unacceptable statistic:  According to the CDC, more than three million teen girls have a sexually transmitted infection (STI).  That's one in four.

Last fall, we learned that anti-choice groups like Operation Rescue had begun circulating a politically motivated petition to seat a grand jury to investigate Planned Parenthood — all as part of a strategy to restrict access to reproductive health care for women and families in Kansas.

Amid all the excitement and speculation surrounding today’s primaries, one important piece of political news has been largely overlooked — the president’s 2009 budget that was released yesterday, and what it means for sexual and reproductive health.

Should policies aimed at reducing the number of abortions focus on prevention or punishment?  At Planned Parenthood, the answer has always been a no-brainer.

January 22, 2008, marks the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide — so pause for a moment and wish those reproductive freedoms you may have taken for granted a very happy anniversary!

Another victory was enjoyed last week by the flat-earth crowd when President Bush appointed an anti-birth control activist to head Title X, the nation’s family planning program.  The appointment of Susan Orr, a political activist and former Family Research Council staffer, fell neatly into the mold of Bush appointments whose main qualifications are their far-right pedigrees and loyalty to the president’s activist agenda.  But Orr’s appointment as acting deputy assistant for population affairs distinguishes itself for sheer Orwellian reasons: the new head of family planning, it turns out, doesn’t believe in family planning.

It seems impossible, but WDUQ, the flagship NPR affiliate in Pittsburgh, refuses to air Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania's (PPWP) prevention message. After allowing PPWP to underwrite news segments for only two days, the public radio station decided it could no longer accept PPWP’s donation and tell the listening audience about comprehensive sexuality education, cancer screening, or sexually transmitted infection screening.

The battle to open our clinic in Aurora, Illinois, might be over, but the war against Planned Parenthood and the women we serve continues.  Right now, there are picketers outside clinics all across the country in an attempt to restrict women's access to health care services.  The anti-choice people call it 40 days for life." We call it another day at the office.  

On Friday, the Hartford Courant reported that all women who arrive at any emergency room in Connecticut will have access to Plan B emergency contraception (EC).

The Planned Parenthood clinic in Aurora, Illinois, has become ground zero in the fight for women's access to reproductive health care. Aurora is a fast-growing city outside Chicago where Planned Parenthood just built a large clinic. And 10 days ago, the usual suspects in the anti-choice fringe showed up in droves — and by droves, I mean more people are protesting this clinic than we've seen for a long time.

The anti-family planning politicians are at it again. Last night, Congressman Mike Pence introduced an amendment that restricts critical family planning funding, and the vote could come at any moment. We’ve seen family planning funding restrictions before — but this one is different. Rep. Pence’s amendment specifically calls out Planned Parenthood and seeks to ban Planned Parenthood affiliate health centers from receiving family planning funding.  

Yesterday, former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona spoke before a congressional committee and spilled the truth about the Bush administration's political influence on the surgeon general's office.  Dr. Carmona said that the Bush administration would not allow the surgeon general to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, and global health issues.  And according to the Washington Post, Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches — because clearly it's more important to mention the president's name than it is to mention programs that could prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS around the world.  

The New York Times reports today that FOX and CBS are refusing to air a condom commercial.  The reasons?  FOX believes that ads for condoms should not focus on pregnancy prevention. In a letter to Trojan, FOX writes, "Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy."  

I'm still unclear about why this is a story, but here we go. Anti-choice groups in New Hampshire are up in arms that a group of students recently visited a Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) health center as part of a tour highlighting community prevention resources for at-risk teens in Manchester.

Last week I heard about a woman in Great Falls, Montana, who went to her local, privately owned pharmacy, Snyder Drug (NOTE: this pharmacy is not part of the the larger Snyder Drug/Katz corporation), to fill her birth control prescription.  When she went to the pharmacy counter, she received a slip of paper signed by the pharmacy owners (Stuart Anderson, Kurt Depner and Kori Depner) stating that the pharmacy would no longer fill birth control prescriptions.

This week, the LA Times reported this week 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 provider of birth control, cancer screenings, sex education and abortion services  "one of the most radical pro-abortion groups in the country."

It has already begun.  Less than one week after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal abortion ban, North Dakota became the first state to pass legislation that will not allow women to access abortion services in that state if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.