More prevalent than Facebook and American Idol

What's the latest trend among teen girls? Unfortunately, it's not just Facebook or American Idol.

It's the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases.

Last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the shocking fact that at least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a STD. One in four!

Even as the teen STD crisis deepens, the Bush administration continues to funnel millions in taxpayer dollars to dangerous and discredited "abstinence-only" programs that replace lessons about birth control with lies about contraceptive failure.

Now that the House of Representatives has returned to pro-choice leadership, Congress is finally taking action and I hope you do, too.

Please urge your lawmakers to end funding for President Bush's reckless "abstinence-only" programs.

Yesterday, a House committee—led by pro-choice champion Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)—held its first-ever oversight hearing on Bush's dangerous "abstinence-only" policy.

What disturbing information was revealed?

• Expert after expert testified that, ten years and $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars later, "abstinence-only" programs still do not work.
• Worse yet, by denying teens information about how to protect themselves, these ineffective programs are doing active harm.

Your action today can make a difference. Yesterday's hearing was a huge step in the right direction. Now we need your help to flood House members with emails opposing funding for these discredited programs.

Please take action right now; it will take only a few minutes. Thank you for your continued support.

My best,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

Prevent a Disaster

McCain is peddling his “moderate” message unchallenged across the country.

The unthinkable is happening …

McCain’s candidacy is growing stronger since he’s become the Republican nominee for president. You and I know there’s nothing moderate about John McCain when it comes to a woman’s right to choose. That is why I am asking you to take the next step in your commitment to women’s reproductive freedom and choice -- become a Partner for Choice with NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Click here - join Partners for Choice today.

Quite simply, Partners for Choice are our most important, dedicated members. Each partner of this exceptional group pledges to make a modest but vital gift of $10, $20 or more a month. The ongoing power that these gifts give us is incredible, especially now as McCain grows stronger.

Our goal is to recruit at least 35 new Partners for Choice in the next two weeks -- in honor of the 35 years that abortion has been safe and legal. I hope you, Dottye, will be among them.

McCain has already voted against choice 125 times out of 130 opportunities since 1983. He has:

• Supported anti-choice Supreme Court nominees -- like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and even Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork!
• Voted against insurance coverage for birth control.
• Supported “abstinence-only” programs.

Dottye, help us reach our goal of 35 new Partners for Choice. But hurry, we need you on board within the next two weeks.

The ongoing support of our valued Partners for Choice helps ensure we have a steady, reliable revenue stream, month after month to plan long-term strategies as John McCain tries to sneak into the White House posing as a moderate. Or, when opponents of women’s reproductive rights try to restrict access to legal means of birth control or even accurate sex education.

Click here to make your first secure monthly online donation right now. You’ll be instrumental in our fight to keep John McCain out of the White House.

Make no mistake. The consequences of a McCain presidency would be disastrous. Our next president may appoint TWO Supreme Court Justices, dramatically changing the make-up of the Court, the future of Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose. We CANNOT allow John McCain to be that president!

Sincerely,

Nancy Keenan, President
NARAL Pro-Choice America

P.S. I hope you will be one of 35 new Partners for Choice. Please make your monthly contribution today.

Supreme Court

As the Political Director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, I want to personally thank you for everything you do to protect a woman’s right to choose. Since Nancy wrote you just four days ago, we’ve made great progress toward our Choice Challenge 2008 Fund goal of raising $65,000. We have just $15,254 to go, and you can help us get there! There is no better time than now to give, because by making a donation today, you’ll double the impact of your gift.

The next president of the United States will likely appoint two Supreme Court Justices. Sen. John McCain voted to confirm Justices Thomas, Roberts, and Alito. But he’s not just anti-choice….he’s anti-birth control! Sen. McCain has never cosponsored or supported legislation that would prevent unintended pregnancy or reduce the need for abortion. We can’t let John McCain become our next president.

I cannot overstate how reliant we are on your financial support for our work this year. The political team has our work cut out for us in 2008, but your commitment makes it possible for us to step up our efforts, when so much is at stake for choice, while continuing to safeguard choice day-in and day-out.

We must succeed in defeating Sen. John McCain and electing a pro-choice president, so please, help us reach our $65,000 goal and contribute today.

Thank you!

Elizabeth J. Shipp, Political Director
NARAL Pro-Choice America

U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'

By SARAH LAI STIRLAND
April 4, 2008

A U.S. government-funded medical information site that bills itself as the world's largest database on reproductive health has quietly begun to block searches on the word "abortion," concealing nearly 25,000 search results.

Called Popline, the search site is run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland. It's funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the federal office in charge of providing foreign aid, including health care funding, to developing nations.

The massive database indexes a broad range of reproductive health literature, including titles like "Previous abortion and the risk of low birth weight and preterm births," and "Abortion in the United States: Incidence and access to services, 2005."

But on Thursday, a search on "abortion" was producing only the message "No records found by latest query."

Stephen Goldstein, a spokesman for Johns Hopkins, said he wasn't aware of the censorship, and couldn't immediately comment.

Under a Reagan-era policy revived by President Bush in 2001, USAID denies funding to non-governmental organizations that perform abortions, or that "actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations."

A librarian at the University of California at San Francisco noticed the new censorship on Monday, while carrying out a routine research request on behalf of academics and researchers at the university. The search term had functioned properly as of January.

Puzzled, she contacted the manager of the database, Johns Hopkins' Debbie Dickson, who replied in an April 1st e-mail that the university had recently begun blocking the search term because the database received federal funding.

"We recently made all abortion terms stop words," Dickson wrote in a note to Gloria Won, the UCSF medical center librarian making the inquiry. "As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now."

There was no notice of the change on the site.

Dickson suggested other kinds of more obscure search strategies and alternative words to get around the keyword blocking.

"In addition to the terms you're already using, you could try using 'Fertility Control, Postconception'. This is the broader term to our 'abortion' terms and most records have both in the keyword fields," she wrote.

She also suggested using a euphemistic search strategy of "unwanted w/2 pregnancy." But the workarounds don't satisfy critics of the censorship.

"The main function of their site is keyword search, and if you use a phrase that contains the word 'abortion,' it ignores it," notes Melissa Just, the library director at the cancer research institute and hospital named City of Hope in Duarte, California. Just followed the conversation on a listserv and said she was outraged when she found out about the censorship incident.

"Even if you were trying to make an argument to someone that abortion is a bad idea for them -- whether it's a health risk, or you're concerned about their mental well being, you wouldn't be able to find articles about your claim," she notes. "It's shutting off both the pro and the con access."

John McCain said Roe v. Wade is flawed and must be overturned.

Do you want him choosing our next Supreme Court Justice? We need $65,000 right away.

Donate today to double the money for our Choice Challenge 2008 Fund!

Sen. John McCain is anything BUT a moderate when it comes to a woman’s right to choose. Since 1983 Sen. McCain has cast 125 anti-choice votes out of 130 opportunities.

But it gets worse. Sen. McCain has never cosponsored or supported legislation that would prevent unintended pregnancy or reduce the need for abortion. We can’t let John McCain become our next president. Not if we value women's reproductive freedom!

McCain’s record is deplorable! And it’s going to be an uphill battle to spread the truth about “The Real McCain.”

That’s why a group of your fellow NARAL Pro-Choice America members have stepped up to the plate with half of the funds to challenge you -- and all of us -- to make a difference now by getting us to $65,000.

Donate to the Choice Challenge 2008 Fund immediately to double our resources dollar for dollar!

We need you to help us reach the goal of $65,000 for our Protect & Elect campaign, as well as our daily work nationwide to protect a woman's right to choose.

If you can help meet the $65,000 challenge, then we will have twice as much money in-hand to fight for choice.

This opportunity comes when NARAL Pro-Choice America desperately needs the resources to defeat John McCain and keep all of our work going!

The fact is, during a quarter century in Congress, Sen. McCain has shown nothing but contempt for our reproductive freedoms. Now we have a chance to stop him from taking his contempt for choice to the next level!

With your help, we will identify more than one million voters nationwide, tell them the truth about “The Real McCain” through the mail, phone, and other media, and persuade 1.23 million pro-choice Republican and Independent women in key congressional districts to vote pro-choice -- something no other group can or will do.

Please donate now to the Choice Challenge 2008 Fund and DOUBLE what we can do to protect a woman’s right to choose.

Donate to the Choice Challenge 2008 Fund immediately! We can’t afford to fail.

Sincerely

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

r u 4 choice?

Can Big Telecom Block "Unsavory" Messages?

Tell the FCC to outlaw content-based discrimination by text-messaging providers like Verizon. Actions speak louder than words. That's what I was thinking when I heard that Verizon, the second-largest U.S. mobile company, rejected NARAL Pro-Choice America's application for a "short-code" to send opt-in text messages to its members (then reversed its decision after a storm of criticism). We've been working to make sure that kind of censorship can't happen -- and now there's something you can do to help. You can speak up today to support free speech by posting a comment with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to end the practice of discrimination in setting up text-messaging services. Click here to send your comment. Don't delay -- the comment period ends March 14. In initially turning down the program, Verizon had told NARAL Pro-Choice America that it does not accept programs from any group "that seeks to promote an agenda or distribute content that, in its discretion, may be seen as controversial or unsavory to any of our users." Unsavory? How's this for unsavory: Verizon believes it can quash an organization's communications to its own members. It was only because of enormous public outcry that Verizon changed its tune. The fact that Verizon feels it can reject or block politically motivated messages should leave us all very worried. After all, how would you feel if Verizon decided to drop your phone calls the minute you started discussing a "controversial" issue like reproductive freedom? Please submit a comment today to help stop discrimination in text-messaging services. As CEO of CREDO Mobile, I don't just call for choice: I marched for choice on Washington, D.C. in 2004. I advocated for family planning in Ethiopia, where I saw how, thanks to the Bush administration's global gag rule, families have no more access to reproductive services. And I run a proudly pro-choice phone company. The good news is, as consumers, we still have a voice -- and we still have a choice. We can speak out against text-messaging censorship by posting a comment with the FCC today. And we can choose to be a part of a pro-choice company, like CREDO Mobile, which has donated more than two million dollars to women's organizations -- $267,000 to the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation alone. If you agree with us on this issue, we hope you visit our website and take action today. Thank you for your continued commitment. Laura Scher, CEO CREDO Mobile

Take the Dollar-a-Day Challenge!

Take the Dollar-a-Day Challenge to change women's lives!

One billion people - 1 out of every 6 human beings -live in extreme poverty, struggling to survive on less than $1 a day. Most Americans can't imagine trying to support their families on only a dollar a day. But millions of women around the world are forced to do exactly that. In honor of International Women's Day (March 8) and Women's History Month (March), Ritu Sharma Fox, Women Thrive's president and co-founder, traveled to Nicaragua to try to live on a dollar a day. Read Ritu's diary, see pics, and watch videos of her experience and join her in committing to donate one dollar a day for the next year to Women Thrive's efforts to end poverty for women and their families.

Read More:
http://www.womenthrive.org

Join Ritu in taking the Dollar-a-Day Challenge and make your dollars change women's lives! Make a gift or pledge to Women Thrive for $365 - only $30.50 per month. Share the challenge with your friends, and join with us as we create transformative change for $1 a day.

As a challenge-taker, you will get a badge to display on your website, blog, or emails to let your friends and family know about your generosity and commitment. If you decide to recruit your friends, you will get the chance to win a beautiful color print, personally autographed by award-winning photojournalist Paola Gianturco (learn more).

Most of all though, you will get the knowledge that your dollars are going as far as they can go to reducing world poverty - by empowering women, and their families, to escape it.

Make your dollars count! Take the Dollar a Day Challenge!

Thank you.

Women Thrive Worldwide
www.womenthrive.org