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Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 10:42 am |
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This Letter to the Editor Appeared in the 10-27-09 Edition of the Courier-Journal.
Abortion: less necessary,less dangerous
I would like to respond to some of the letters criticizing the editorial The Courier-Journal wrote
in response to the Guttmacher Institute's study of global abortion
trends. First of all, regardless of where we land on the political
spectrum, each of us has strong feelings about abortion. One thing we
can all agree on is that when 70,000 women die and 8 million women
suffer medical complications from unsafe abortions, something is wrong.
The C-J agreed that the Guttmacher Institute's three recommendations are common sense solutions to this problem.
The
first recommendation is that we expand access to family planning and
contraceptive services. This recommendation is key. When family
planning and contraceptive services are easily accessible, when men and
women's knowledge of those services increases and when those services
are utilized, the rate of abortions declines. There is a direct link
between increased knowledge and use of contraceptives and fewer
abortions.
The
second recommendation is to expand access to legal abortions, to ensure
that they are safe. Historically, we know that once a woman makes the
decision to have an abortion, she will have one, whether it is legal or
not. We should support her by making sure that she has access to
sanitary facilities and trained medical staff. That is what all of us
would want for our daughters, mothers and wives. Legal and safe
abortion services do not increase the number of abortions performed
each year. Legal and safe abortions across the world decrease the
number of deaths and complications for the women in our lives.
The
third recommendation is to improve post-abortion care to reduce deaths
and medical complications. This is something we should all agree with.
After a woman has an abortion, she should have access to comprehensive
post-procedure care. This is especially needed if the abortion was not
performed in a medically appropriate setting.
All
three of these recommendations make sense and focus on what we should
do, which is make abortion less necessary, not more dangerous and
difficult. Now that is something we all should agree on.
DEREK SELZNICK
Director
Reproductive Freedom Project
American Civil Liberties
Union of Kentucky
Louisville 40202
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Friday, July 24, 2009, 10:13 am |
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Racial profiling was in the news this week because Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., a world-renowned Professor of African-American studies at
Harvard University, was a victim. However, it is important to remember
that this story is news because of the identity of the person profiled,
not because of the rarity of the underlying police actions.
President Obama accurately reminded us of this during his press conference last night:
What
I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a
long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being
stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.
Racial
profiling—using a person’s race, color, ethnicity or national origin to
determine whether to stop, search or investigate him or her for alleged
criminal activity—is rampant throughout the United States, and it
acutely affects African American, Asian, Latino, South Asian, and Arab
communities.
The Director of the Racial Justice Program at the ACLU, Dennis Parker, posed the question on the Diane Rehm
Show this morning that if Professor Gates is subject to such treatment,
“what does that say for the rest of the people of color that haven’t
achieved his level of success?” In fact, much of what happened to
Professor Gates was an anomaly. Most victims of racial profiling by
police are not released after four hours. Most victims of racial
profiling do not have the charges against them dropped. Most victims of
racial profiling do not receive media attention.
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Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 6:29 pm |
Statewide work on LGBT rights continues to expand with the Fairness Coalition of allied organizations. The Coalition is a result of a summit convened in the Fall of 2008, to bring together organizations committed to working for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in Kentucky. The primary goal is comprehensive civil rights protections prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The summit assembled 50 delegates from 11 organizations throughout the state with broad representation across lines of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, and geography. Participants worked with an outside consultant to analyze the political landscape of the state, set goals for the coalition, and develop a shared mission and plan.
We realize that to accomplish our long-term goals and to increase the capacity of the individual organizations we must improve communication, share resources, and work together to strengthen and expand the base of support for LGBT equality.
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