The XX Factor: What women really think.

Stupak Amendment Reveals Fault Lines in Feminist Movement

In reading all the accounts from fellow pro-choice women—like Emily's from earlier this week—bemoaning the Stupak abortion restrictions, I noticed that many of the women who were outraged by the concessions of the health care bill used the terms feminist and pro-choice almost interchangably. Over at Salon, Kate Harding writes, "Feminists have been up in arms about the latest assault on access to abortion," but if you take one look at the website for the group Feminists for Life, one of the first things you see is the banner proclaiming "Women the Winners in U.S. House Amendment Vote" ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

Fishy Story From Former Director of Planned Parenthood

A post from DoubleX writer Amanda Marcotte:

I'm sorry, Rachael, but this story you linked about Abby Johnson's sudden conversion from a Planned Parenthood director to an anti-choice fanatic has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese after being used for target practice. Johnson's story fits way too neatly into a bunch of easily disproven anti-choice myths, the main one being that all it takes is one glance at an ultrasound to cause someone to "realize" that hey! abortion removes a fetus from your uterus. Pro-choicers already know that. Johnson seems to be selling a story that's a tad too pat, too close to what anti-choicers want to hear.

After all, your average person in the United States has seen probably hundreds of sonograms in their lives, and most of them show a fetus at gestational age well beyond the point that most women get elective abortions. If you compare the ultrasound taken prior to an elective abortion, the feeling is actually one of being underwhelmed, because there's not much there compared to the ones we're used to seeing. The anti-choice sentimental devices rely therefore on ignorance more than illumination—their own mistaken understanding of what goes on in an abortion clinic ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX).

Do Pro-Life States Really Have Fewer Abortions?

Stats sweetheart Nate Silver ran abortion-rate data from the CDC and has found that states with higher numbers of people who identify as pro-life have lower rates of abortion than pro-choice states. But, this finding is somewhat deceptive. As anyone who receives Guttmacher Institute press releases knows, 87 percent of counties do not have abortion providers, and the CDC data does not always count state of residence, only the state where the abortion is performed. Additionally, since CDC abortion data is self-reported by each state... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com.)

Becoming Pro-Life

I’ve been mulling the responses I got, via email and comments, to my question about why a recent Gallup poll might show a seven point jump in the percentage of people who define themselves as prolife (from 44 percent last year to 51 percent this year). Several theories from readers:

The Election.

I think this past year forced me to think about how I really felt. The election has something to do with it . . . Obama’s mother also set me on a course of reflection. As an intelligent, curious single mom who struggled to give her son the best, I could relate.

I really want to be liberal, but in my life the most tangible support as a poor, single mother came from people who looked, acted, and talked just like Sarah Palin. Other high-status women didn’t give me chances; they were the first to complain when I needed time off for a sick child. Academics can write about women’s issues but the evangelicals made sure I could afford to go to work. In contrast, my university still doesn’t offer onsite child-care.

The Aging Population.

Perhaps when folks pass the age at which their daughters may be faced with this decision they can more easily be moved...

(To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Have You Gone From Being Pro-Choice to Pro-Life?

The striking jump in the new Gallup poll of people defining themselves as pro-life—7 percentage points in one year, for a total of 51 percent—doesn't explain itself. You may be right, Hanna, that scientific advances or a truly deep shift in attitude aren't the rationale, given that the breakdown didn't change when Gallup pinned people down further by asking them if they think abortion should always, sometimes, or never be legal. But the words "pro-life" and "pro-choice" have long been... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)