BohoBeat: [News] Feminism alive and well this weekend in NYC

All of this protest across the Middle East and all the cataclysmic changes that are happening on that side of the world have really got me fired up about protest in our own nation. Our generation is constantly derided for our apathy. In response, we've taken up Facebook as a crutch and decided that setting up anti-war Facebook pages and joining groups that align with our political preferences is a form of protest. It is not.

However, last weekend's Rally for Women's Rights in New York proves that Facebook can be an effective tool to catalyze social protest. What started as an angry Facebook page denouncing the passage of the Pence Amendment (which would effectively restrict huge amounts of funding for Planned Parenthood and other family planning centers) turned into a protest last weekend that brought together more than 6,000 feminist activists.

Then there was California Rep. Jackie Speier's (D-CA) announcement that Planned Parenthood had also touched her life in a very personal way, when she had an abortion as a young woman. These are the kinds of declarations we need from our powerful female lawmakers and leaders. We are not far-removed from PPH. Its services should be important to all of us, whether we need them or not. And, most importantly, we must realize that Planned Parenthood's main function isn't even to provide abortions; it is to give women and men in any part of America equal access to contraception so such operations may one day become unnecessary or at least only necessary in emergency situations. I believe strongly that women should have options and access to all information when they are faced with a decision as momentous as whether to continue a pregnancy. So do the 6,000 people who showed up to fight against a law they don't believe is right.

You go, girls!

Hopefully, this bill won't pass in the Democratic Senate, but write to your senators anyway, gosh darnit!