by Kate Michelman,  pro-choice activist and former president of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL)

Amidst all the deserved attention being paid to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, health care reform, the Senate election in Massachusetts, there is another deserving issue that goes largely unnoticed unless it is in crises-- except for one day a year. Rather than bemoan the lack of attention or the reasons for it, I want to use the occasion of this anniversary of Roe v. Wade to remind all of us of the importance of this issue to every woman, indeed every American.

It has been a journey of more than 40 years since I sat in a hospital conference room, interrogated by men who held my fate, my family, and my choice in their hands. After all these years, I can still feel the humiliation, the shame, and the anger as though those doctors were sitting in front of me now, demanding to know whether I was capable of dressing my children in the morning and being intimate with my husband at night. This indignity was in the service of deciding whether I met the criteria for a diagnosis as " unfit for childbearing" necessary for permission to have an abortion in a hospital rather than a back alley. Roe v. Wade changed all that by recognizing a woman's constitutional right to make decisions in matters of pregnancy, childbearing and abortion in privacy, safety and with dignity. It saved women from the shame and degradation of illegal abortion and its humiliating consequences. And Roe was an important milestone for women in their long and difficult journey to full equality, dignity and economic security.

If you’re interested in helping out victims of the earthquake in Haiti, check out these organizations:

Save the Children
Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change in the lives of children in need in the United States and around the world.

On Friday, January 8, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population Development,  where delegates from 179 countries signed the Cairo Program of action committing to improve adolescents' access to information and services and reduce negative sexual health outcomes among adolescents.   Read what James Wagoner and Nicole Cheetham had to say about Secretary Clinton's speech and the anniversary.

Praise for Secretary Clinton’s Speech and Encouragement for Bold Action
by James Wagoner, President, Advocates for Youth

During the eight years of the Bush Administration, the U.S. government bartered away women’s and young people’s rights as bargaining chips in an ideologically-driven culture war.  However, bold leadership from President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton has ushered in a new era of U.S. global leadership on sexual and reproductive health.

Secretary Clinton Pulls Through for Women and Girls’ Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights 
by Nicole Cheetham, Director, International Division

Secretary Clinton did not disappoint in her commitment to women’s and girls’ reproductive health and rights.  She stated unequivocally that reproductive rights are at the heart of development, that we cannot achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) without them, and that ensuring these rights is key to development and political and economic stability and security around the world.

by Meghan Rapp, Manager, State Strategies  

For the last three years, state sex education leaders have gathered in Washington, DC at the State Summit to strategize with national organizations about ways to pass comprehensive sex education policies at the state and national level. Much of these efforts had been directed at eliminating funding for abstinence-only programs, but this year, it was a new day in sex education and there was cause to celebrate during the conference – the President proposed eliminating federal abstinence-only funds from his budget. (And, as we have recently learned, Congress has followed this lead by keeping the funds out of the omnibus appropriations bill.)