Essential Estrogen

The Iowa Senate has 50 members, each representing a specific segment of state. Of those 50 members, eight are currently women. And, of those eight women, four are Republicans and four are Democrats. Although women comprise slightly more than half the state’s population, women currently hold only 16 percent of available Senate seats. Among Senate [...]

Four Iowa House members (two of them women) believe the Hawkeye State should follow Texas’ lead and set a prioritized system for distribution of family planning funds. The move is being advanced despite the fact that the Texas law, found to be a violation of the Social Security Act, has resulted in federal family planning [...]

A new brief by The Brookings Institution provides an in-depth look at the widespread U.S. problem of unintended pregnancy, its economic impact on society and what serves as cost-effective public policy to combat the issue. According to author Adam Thomas, nearly half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended and some causal studies have [...]

Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart provided his perspective on the most recent hysteria uttered by Rush Limbaugh. I’ve embedded the 9-minute video segment below, but it can all pretty much be summed up in one sentence: “Personally, I don’t get too worked up about the things Rush Limbaugh says because he is, and has been for [...]

Dear powers-that-be at Cedar Rapids-based 600 WMT Radio and Clear Channel Communications, Although it pains me to do so, I’m writing to let you know that I will no longer be a listener of WMT and will be re-evaluating my listening support of all other stations in the Clear Channel network based on programming. Recent [...]

Imelda May singing Tainted Love: Now, take a deep breath because the stench of pay-to-play politics has been whipped with a little religion and fried up Iowa Fair style. Iowa’s own Steve Scheffler — an elected member of the Republican National Committee and leader of the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition (formerly Iowa Christian Alliance) [...]

Viewers tuned into morning news shows Friday learned about a controversy that has been raging among feminists for the past several days. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has turned his ire on Sandra Fluke, a third-year law student at Georgetown University who was banned from testifying at a U.S. House committee hearing chaired by California [...]

On Wednesday, U.S. Senators filed to the floor in order to speak about an amendment offered by Missouri Republican Roy Blunt to a highway bill — although the offering has nothing to do with the many billions of dollars being debated for roadways. Blunt’s amendment hopes to give employers carte blanche refusal of payment or [...]

If you’re tuned into C-SPAN’s coverage of the U.S. House this morning, you’ve already noticed that several Democratic lawmakers have chosen to use one minute floor speeches in support of women’s health. The speeches, which will take place every Wednesday this year that the House is in session, are the brain child of the Pro-Choice [...]

In July 2011, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who serves as ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, recorded and posted the following video regarding the upcoming reauthorization of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA): At that time, at least based on this weekly address, Grassley was concerned about oversight and accountability in [...]