Jodi Jacobson is currently working as a consultant for the United Nations Foundation. She previously founded and acted for 13 years as Executive Director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) (1994 - 2007), and Director of Advocacy for American Jewish World Service (June 2007 through October 2008).

Blog Entries by Jodi Jacobson

Do Catholic Bishops Run the United States Government?

Posted November 7, 2009 | 11:52 PM (EST)


On Saturday, with the aide of some 60 Democrats, women's rights were effectively negated by the US Congress as the House passed the Stupak amendment to HR 3200, the Affordable Health Care Act of 2009.

More in-depth analysis of how we got here is forthcoming. But one...

Read Post

The Ellsworth Amendment: Dems Set to Compromise on Abortion Care in Health Reform, Again

Posted November 6, 2009 | 05:48 PM (EST)


A vote originally set for tomorrow on the House health care bill (HR 3200) may be delayed until next week, even after months of drama to arrive at this point. And to get to yes, Democrats are set to make another compromise on abortion care.

If there...

Read Post

Dr. Carhart, Under Threat From "Domestic Terrorist Network," Abandoned by Federal Marshalls

3 Comments | Posted August 10, 2009 | 03:56 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org -- News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

Despite mounting threats to the clinic -- and potentially to the life -- of Nebraska Dr. Leroy Carhart, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has removed the federal marshals earlier charged with protecting...

Read Post

DOJ Drops Appeal of Injunction Against "Prostitution Pledge"

3 Comments | Posted July 22, 2009 | 12:20 PM (EST)


During a press briefing at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006, a young Bangladeshi woman invited by the organization for which I was then working told the story of losing access to the health clinic/drop-in centers she and other street-based sex workers frequently visited to get information and...
Read Post

Hatch Attacks Essential Services for Low-Income Communities Under Health Care Reform

4 Comments | Posted July 14, 2009 | 02:00 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org -- News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

The Republican Party, apparently bereft of viable ideas on how to solve pressing issues, is living up to its reputation as a one-trick pony: launching misleading attacks either on economic policies or on health policies,...

Read Post

House Committee Zeroes Out Traditional Sources of Ab-Only Funding, Removes Ban on Syringe Exchange

Posted July 10, 2009 | 03:20 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org - News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

Last night, the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies passed the Fiscal Year 2010 appropriations bill and in doing so eliminated traditional sources of abstinence-only-until marriage...

Read Post

Just the Facts, Sir: The False Dichotomy of Catholics vs. "Pro-choice" on Common Ground

8 Comments | Posted July 2, 2009 | 02:23 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org - News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

As the anticipated release by the White House of a "common ground" proposal on abortion draws near, numerous members of the male pontificator commentariat are trying to spark anxiety by claiming that Obama will...

Read Post

Waldman: Still Not Getting It...

Posted July 1, 2009 | 02:38 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org -- News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

Or: Common Ground as a competitive team sport.

In a post on adoption today, Steve Waldman talks about adoption as a common ground position to which "pro-choice and pro-life" people can agree. He...

Read Post

What Comes After Abstinence-Only: Advocates Urge White House and Congress to Broaden Teen Pregnancy Initiative

4 Comments | Posted June 29, 2009 | 06:18 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org - News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

A feature article published on RH Reality Check this morning, June 29th 2009, explores the links between sexual violence, coercion, patterns of contraceptive use, unintended pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections in teens. The article...

Read Post

Waldman and Saletan: Oh, What a Fine Bromance!

Posted June 29, 2009 | 04:25 PM (EST)


"Two men, No Uteruses" was the name given by Will Saletan and Steve Waldman to their June 22nd mutual-admiration-society blogging heads chat on "common ground," in what I suppose was an effort to be cute. During the hour-plus program, they spent as much time as possible complimenting each other's...

Read Post

Common Ground: What Does the Far Right Get? Or, Who Wins and Who Loses?

6 Comments | Posted June 24, 2009 | 01:24 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org - News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

This past March, I wrote an article for RH Reality Check entitled Looking for Common Ground on Abortion? You're Standing on It. In it, I reviewed the evidence on abortion trends in the United...

Read Post

"Anonymous" Republican Senator Obstructs Resolution to Condemn Clinic Violence

6 Comments | Posted June 19, 2009 | 05:29 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org -- News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

So much for agreeing on at least one basic premise in the debate about choice, reproductive rights, or even reproductive health.

Yesterday, a Republican Senator used his power to put a "hold" on...

Read Post

Human Rights Council Declares Maternal Death, Illness a Rights Violation

1 Comments | Posted June 18, 2009 | 12:21 PM (EST)


In 1988, I stayed for a week with a married couple, both physicians, who ran what was then recognized as one of the best rural clinics in the state of Maharashtra, India. Even so, they could not work miracles in a setting in which reaching the clinic itself represented...

Read Post

Note to Women: Don't Think! Ross Douthat Is Here to Do It For You

1 Comments | Posted June 10, 2009 | 12:25 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org - News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

How is it that people who traffic in discredited data and information get a regular column on the op-ed page of the New York Times?

I don't know, but Ross Douthat does....

Read Post

Catholics for Choice Protest Appointment of Anti-choice Advocate to Senior Position at HHS

1 Comments | Posted June 5, 2009 | 12:05 PM (EST)


News--Catholics for Choice, the leading pro-choice Catholic organization reflecting "the great majority of the faithful in the Catholic church who disagrees with the dictates of the Vatican on matters related to sex, marriage, family life and motherhood," called the appointment yesterday of Alexia Kelley as Director of Faith-based...

Read Post

Late-term Abortions: Facts, Stories and Ways to Help

559 Comments | Posted June 3, 2009 | 12:07 PM (EST)


Originally posted on RHRealityCheck.org - News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

In all the extensive coverage of the assassination in his church of Dr. George Tiller by a murderer affiliated with extremist right-wing groups, little has been said to shed light on what late-term abortions...

Read Post

"Game-Changing Pick" Under Consideration to Head New Foreign Assistance Effort

Posted May 19, 2009 | 05:02 PM (EST)


Dr. Paul Farmer, a founder of Partners in Health, recipient of the MacArthur "genius" award and a long-time provider of and advocate for basic health care for the poor is under consideration by the Obama Administration to head a newly overhauled foreign assistance program, according to sources close to Farmer....

Read Post

A "Bipartisan" Farce in Four Acts: Family Planning and the Stimulus

Posted January 27, 2009 | 11:56 AM (EST)


Written by Jodi Jacobson for RHRealityCheck.org - Information, commentary and community for Reproductive Health and Justice.

This is what bi-partisan looks like:

A farcical play in which the Democrats do everything right to win the White House, Senate, and House, and then run for cover from...

Read Post

Beyond the Global Gag Rule

Posted January 22, 2009 | 11:20 AM (EST)


Originally written for RHRealityCheck.org - Information, commentary and community for Reproductive Health and Justice.

In Kenya, homeland of President Obama's father and paternal grandparents, abortion is illegal except in very limited circumstances. More than 40 percent of births are unplanned according to the Guttmacher Institute, and one-fourth...

Read Post

Taking Bush's Midnight HHS Regulation to Court

Posted January 15, 2009 | 05:38 PM (EST)


Originally written for RHRealityCheck.org - Information, commentary and community for Reproductive Health and Justice.

The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union today joined Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the Planned Parenthood Federation...

Read Post