Blog of Rights
Louise
Melling
02/05/2010

The Other Super Bowl: Speech vs. Speech

By Louise Melling, Center for Liberty at 4:08pm

By now, you've caught wind of the fact that, during this weekend's Super Bowl, CBS plans to air an ad featuring University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother talking about the circumstances of Tim's birth. Focus on the Family has sponsored the ad, and the underlying message is reported to be anti-abortion (no one has actually seen the ad).

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12/03/2009

Get on the Bus

By Louise Melling, Center for Liberty at 2:07pm

I'm back in New York after an action-packed, anti-Stupak day at the capitol. It was exhilarating — buses from all over, from Mississippi and Wisconsin and Maine; an overflow crowd at the noon rally (did you catch I said overflow!); and a parade of representatives and senators – Sens. Boxer and Murray, and Reps. DeGette, Nadler, Maloney, Capps, Lowey, Edwards, Harman, Slaughter, and DeLauro among others.

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09/17/2008

Reproductive Freedom and the Promise of Equal Opportunity

By Louise Melling, Center for Liberty at 12:48pm

In her searing dissent in the most recent reproductive rights case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court — Gonzales v. Carhart (2007) — Justice Ginsburg wrote, "[A]t stake in cases challenging abortion restrictions is a woman's 'control over her [own] destiny.'"

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08/26/2008

Proposed Bush Regulation Jeopardizes Women's Health

By Louise Melling, Center for Liberty at 11:21am

(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)

Last Thursday the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released proposed regulations (PDF) that could seriously undermine women's access to reproductive health services, including birth control and abortion. Now the public has 30 days to let the Bush administration know precisely what we think of these regulations. Click here for our Action Alert, which will allow you to send comments to HHS.

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12/05/2008

Toward a Universal Declaration of Reproductive Freedom

By Louise Melling, Center for Liberty at 12:17pm

To reach our full potential as human beings, each of us must be free to make personal and private decisions about our lives free from unwarranted government intrusion. With whom do we form intimate relationships and enjoy a private sexual life? Will we have children? Raise a family? When and with whom? At their core, these questions and whether we live in a society that respects and supports our right to decide for ourselves how best to answer them profoundly shapes the contours of our lives. In this foundational sense, reproductive freedom is a basic human right.

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04/27/2007

A Decision That Will Spark Activism

By Louise Melling, Center for Liberty at 10:04am
"[T]he Court deprives women of the right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense of their safety."

, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissent to Gonzales v. Carhart.


"I'm ecstatic. It's like someone gave me $1 million and told me, Leslee, go shopping. We're brainstorming, and we're having fun."

, Leslee Unruh, one of the architects of last year's failed attempt to ban nearly all abortions in South Dakota, explaining her reaction to the Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart.

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