Blogs

How best to serve the 200 million plus women worldwide who want but lack access to family planning? The UNFPA-sponsored blog Conversations for a Better World is running a contest for the best idea. Please vote for All Our Lives' entry! The winning idea will be presented at the upcoming Women Deliver conference for action against maternal mortality.

Access to contraception begins with questions on the ground

The US may be a nation of unimaginable wealth, but its poorest women and children are made to live in quite another country, one of constrained resources and alternatives. And here are some of the real-life results:

The proportion of abortion patients who were poor increased by almost 60%—from 27% in 2000 to 42% in 2008 [...].

The growing concentration of abortion among women with incomes below the federal poverty line likely reflects a combination of factors. Between 2000 and 2008, the proportion of women in the overall population who were poor increased by 25%. And a Guttmacher study published in the Fall of 2009 showed that the deep economic recession may also have played a role, as financial concerns led more women to want to delay childbearing or limit the number of children they have.

(Guttmacher Institute, Abortion Has Become More Concentrated Among Poor Women)

Not only are poor women less likely than more affluent women to be able to afford to raise a child without assistance, they are also less likely to be able to afford health care, including both prenatal/childbirth care and access to prescription contraception. One of the key reasons that women who use oral contraceptives sometimes miss pills (and are therefore more likely to become pregnant) is that they put off filling prescriptions for financial reasons.

We hope that the health care bill recently passed by Congress can help counteract these pressures on lower-income women.

All Our Lives needs your voice and your wisdom! 

What can prolifers and prochoicers do together to expand women's alternatives and help reduce the 42 million abortions worldwide each year? 

We seek perspectives from as many countries and regions of the world as possible.

 Please send your ideas in the body of an email to:  commonground@allourlives.org

 We are writing a proposal for Common Ground Work, a new, results-oriented initiative that will launch later this year.

Scott Roeder, the man who shot and killed abortion provider George Tiller, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. We at All Our Lives agree that this was the correct decision, and reject the argument that Tiller's murder was justified because he performed abortions. We are pro-every-life, and have committed ourselves to nonviolent, peaceful action to address injustice against women and our children.

A new, improved female condom has been approved in the US & is getting global attention for its power to prevent unintended pregnancies and abortions as well as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.

To learn more:

Chicago Female Condom Campaign http://www.ringonit.org/index.php

Prevention Now! Expanding Global Access to Female Condoms http://www.preventionnow.net/