McHenry County Citizens for Choice

MCCC 20th Anniversary Bash!

Administrator — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:30:02 +0000

Sunday, October 3, 2010
McHenry County Citizens for Choice 20th Anniversary Bash

Celebrate twenty years of community and education with our Champagne Variety Brunch Extravaganza at the McHenry Country Club (820 N. John St, McHenry, IL)

FEATURING

The Scooty & JoJo Show
The madcap hosts of Chicago’s Diva Brunch celebrate the divas of McHenry County with their signature blend of song, smarts and sass!
With special guests The Pin-Ups, a swinging 1940’s singing Trio!

Don’t miss this special event – download the flyer and registration here!

NIWC Becomes Target of Catholic Exorcism

Administrator — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:49:39 +0000

The Northern Illinois Women’s Center (NIWC), in Rockford, IL, is a physician-owned freestanding outpatient family planning clinic offering a wide range of reproductive health information and services, including abortion, counseling, family planning, pregnancy termination, birth control, in a comfortable, supportive, secure environment. Abortion procedures are directed by Dr. Dennis Christensen, a board certified OB-GYN, with over 30 years experience in the abortion field. Dr. Christensen has plans to retire but has been joined by Dr. K who is also a board certified OB/GYN. NIWC is listed on the National Abortion Federation (NAF) web site as an Illinois provider.

Over the years there have been weekly anti-choice protests conducted at this site. Intimidating shouts at patients, attempts to keep the doctor from driving into the parking lot, graphic signs, insulting name calling, wanted posters and verbal death threats to the landlord whose office is in the building. On September 30, 2000, Rev. John P. Earl, a 32-year-old Roman Catholic priest, pastor at St. Patrick Church in Rochelle, drove his car into the rear of the building housing the clinic and used an ax to destroy windows, doors and surveillance cameras. He succeeded in breaking into the door to the office of the landlord. Now on Friday, July 16, 2010, a number of catholic priests performed a public exorcism in front of the clinic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU9ZqdsQD9o

It continues to be a glum picture in Rockford with a dispirited pro-choice community due to a negative political situation with a city council that favors the anti-choice activists. A recent attempt to institute a “bubble law” did not get out of committee. The following anti-choice web site further exposes the overtly religious attack on women’s reproductive health. The attempt to change laws to promote religious beliefs is in direct opposition to the religious freedom that is basic to our constitutional rights.
http://www.prolifecorner.com/node/371

The catholic priest who attacked the clinic building in 2000 pleaded guilty to felony charges and received 30 months of probation and $7,664 in fines and restitution. He remained a priest in good standing and was reassigned to St. Nicholas parish in Aurora, IL. In 2006 he was reassigned to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Elgin, IL.

Save the Date — MCCC 20th Anniversary

Administrator — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:37:02 +0000

Sunday, October 3, 2010

McHENRY COUNTY CITIZENS FOR CHOICE
ANNOUNCES A SPECIAL EVENT
MCCC 20th ANNIVERSARY BASH

McHenry Country Club – 720 John St., McHenry – 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Watch for Exciting Details Coming Soon!

McHenry County Fair — Call for Volunteers!

Administrator — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:34:49 +0000

McHENRY COUNTY FAIR
Wednesday, August 4 thru Sunday August 8 – County Fairgrounds
Near Intersection of Rt. 47 and Country Club Rd., Woodstock

Sign up early to help staff the MCCC table at the fair and get the time slot you prefer. Fair rules require the table to be staffed from 10 in the morning until 10 in the evening. Our schedule is set up for four hour time slots (10-2, 2-6, 6-10). Ask a friend to volunteer with you or we will assign another activist to join you. To volunteer, send an email to choice@mcccprochoice.org or leave a message on our phone 815-338-8030.

Join us to represent the pro-choice face of McHenry County.

Your Attention Please!

Administrator — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:34:28 +0000

The height of summer vacation time might seem an unlikely time to strategize and review the number and scope of challenges that con-front the pro-choice community. But our opponents never rest (especially not on Sundays) If pro-choice women are to ever achieve our goal we need to follow the example of our forebears by taking personal risks and applying the same level of energy and commitment to the cause of reproductive freedom as the suffragists did in achieving the right to vote.

Learn more in our Summer newsletter: Your Attention Please!

Abstinence-Only Funding

Administrator — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:28:07 +0000

MCCC is a signatory to the attached letter from the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health regarding abstinence-only-until-marriage funding in the new health care reform law.

Dear Illinois Congressional Delegation,

We, the undersigned Illinois agencies and residents, ask you to eliminate funding for Title V abstinence-only-untilmarriage
programs that have proven both ineffective and inaccurate.

In September 2009, the Senate Finance Committee approved two amendments to the health care reform bill that
provide millions of dollars in funding for both comprehensive sex education and abstinence-only-until-marriage
programs. One amendment, proposed by Senator Max Baucus, provides $75 million for evidence-based,
medically accurate, comprehensive programs called Personal Responsibility Education. The other, proposed by
Senator Orrin Hatch, reinstates $50 million per year to the failed Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program.
Both of these amendments were included in the final version of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama this year.

We applaud the Senate’s commitment to allocate money for evidence-based, responsible sexuality education. We
are, however, greatly disappointed by its decision to restore funding for Title V abstinence-only programs, which
fail to protect the health and welfare of our adolescents. In 2009, President Obama zeroed out all funding for
abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, including Title V, and appropriated $114.5 million to a new Teen
Pregnancy Prevention Initiative in the federal Fiscal Year 2010 budget. While the Obama budget is a huge victory
for sexuality funding, we are troubled by Congress’ decision to approve abstinence-only money with the passage
of health care reform. The health of our youth depends on their ability to make informed choices.

Abstinence-only programs do not adequately address the sexuality needs of our young people. Such programs
prohibit the discussion of contraception and often contain false and misleading information. In Illinois, half of all
high school students and over 70 percent of high school seniors have engaged in sexual activity. In 2007, over
18,000 babies were born to adolescent mothers, accounting for more than 10 percent of all Illinois births. Forty
percent of Illinois’ new Chlamydia and gonorrhea cases are among youth ages 10 to 19. Nationally, 1 in 4 young
women has at least one sexually transmitted infection (STI) while 1 in 3 becomes pregnant before the age of 20.
Studies have shown that abstinence-only programs fail to decrease students’ risk of unintended pregnancy and
actually raise their risk of contracting an STI.

According to a study commissioned by the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage and Unplanned Pregnancy,
sex education programs that provide a strong abstinence message coupled with clear, honest information about
STIs, contraception, social pressures, and how and when to obtain health care have been found to be effective at
delaying the onset of sexual activity, reducing the number of sexual partners, and increasing the use of
contraception among adolescents. Despite strong evidence supporting comprehensive sex education programs,
66 percent of Illinois classrooms are not providing such programs, according to a survey by the National Opinion
Research Center. More than 52 percent of surveyed sex education teachers in Illinois do not teach about where to
access birth control and health-related services.

Funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs undermines the goals of evidence-based, age-appropriate
sexuality education that aims to reduce unintended pregnancies and STIs while promoting a positive approach to
adolescent sexual health. We are gravely concerned about the restoration of Title V funding for harmful
abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. We urge you and your colleagues to help put an end to the failed
abstinence-only experiment once and for all by lending your support to expand responsible sexuality education
initiatives.

If you would like additional information, please do not hesitate to contact Soo Ji Min, executive director of the
Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, at sooji@icah.org or 312.427.4460 ext. 225.

The (birth control) Pill is 50

Administrator — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:09:08 +0000

The fiftieth anniversary of the birth control pill – or simply ‘The Pill’ – is generating lots of media coverage. The May 3, 2010, cover of Time magazine features a packet of birth control pills, while a feature article inside considers ‘The Pill At 50: Sex, Freedom and Paradox.’ .

The LA Times documents ‘The pill’: 50 years after.’
In this article, University of Minnesota historian Elaine Tyler May reminds us that The Pill did not spearhead a change in sexual mores in the U.S. Rather, changes in sexual behavior occurred in the 1920s and during World War II, as well as in the 1960s.

Coverage of The Pill’s anniversary led me to ponder, yet again, the contrast in public (and political) perceptions of The Pill and Viagra.

TV ads for Viagra, while they include warnings about side effects, leave the viewer with a warm perception of the pleasures to be had (admittedly, by heterosexual married couples). I don’t walk away from Viagra ads thinking, ‘Wow, men should really be careful about taking this product. They should not put themselves at risk – they would be better off to simply accept nature and bear erectile dysfunction as part of the aging process.’

Warm fuzzies disappear when The Pill is the subject. The perception that The Pill dangerous persists, even though the risks of childbirth far outweigh the risks associated with birth control pills.

Many side effects of Viagra (http://www.drugs.com/sfx/viagra-side-effects.html) and Yaz birth control pills (http://www.drugs.com/sfx/yaz-side-effects.html) are similar. Dire warnings about the use of birth control pills, and the lack of such warnings about drugs that treat erectile dysfunction, coexist with negative societal perceptions of women’s sexuality.

As an example, consider the FDA warning that caused Bayer Healthcare to pull TV ads for Yaz birth control.

Specifically citing the Yaz ad named ‘Balloons,’ the FDA warned maker Bayer Healthcare that Bayer had not distinguished PMS from PMDD. (Yaz treats PMDD but is not approved to treat PMS. PMS refers to premenstrual syndrome; PMDD refers to premenstrual dysphoric disorder.) The FDA letter on page five states:

‘The totality of the audio and visual claims and presentations misleadingly suggests that treatment with YAZ will allow women to say ‘good-bye’ to their symptoms completely.’

Especially interesting is the word-picture of young women painted by the FDA letter:

‘the TV Ad’s theme song ‘Good-Bye to you’ plays in the background as energetic, euphoric, playful women release balloons into the air displaying certain symptoms (e.g., irritability, moodiness, feeling anxious, bloating, fatigue, muscle aches, headaches, increased appetite, and acne).’

If there is a serious problem with Yaz, then by all means the FDA should be on the case. And I am not suggesting that birth control pills are the only, or best, method of contraception. However, by painting Yaz users as dupe who think they will feel better when they use the product, the FDA letter invokes a stereotypical view of women as both misguided when they seek control over their bodies, and at the same time in need of protection because they are powerless. They are silly geese, indeed! Contrast this with Viagra TV warnings, which seem to suggest that running the risk of blindness, for example, is an acceptable price to pay for a manly erection.

And I am not even touching here on the real economic disparities perpetrated by private health insurers and federal politicians who allow coverage for erectile dysfunction drugs while refusing to cover birth control pills.

Feministing.com offers an insightful post related to the debate about The Pill v Viagra. Check out this dated, but still relevant, post.

Jack Cafferty’s claim that Viagra is for a medical condition while birth control is a lifestyle choice (near the end of the video clip) is priceless.

The feministing.com blogger touches at the heart of the matter, I think, when she cites women’s ongoing struggle to ‘over come the stereotypes of sexually active women.’ The differences in both media AND insurance coverage for The Pill and Viagra are deeply rooted in our society’s denial of female sexuality and exaltation of male sexuality. A sexual revolution may have taken place during the twentieth century, but women’s work in reclaiming their sexuality is far from done.

Arizona Also Anti-Woman

Administrator — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:06:31 +0000

Arizona’s anti-immigration law is getting most of the publicity this week, but yesterday they also passed a law to benefit the forced-birth lobby.

Read the whole story at Firedoglake.

Center for Reproductive Rights Files Lawsuit Against Oklahoma’s Ultrasound Requirement

Administrator — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:44:29 +0000

Today, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a challenge against Oklahoma legislation which prohibits a woman from getting an abortion unless she first has an ultrasound, is shown the ultrasound image and listens to her doctor describe the image in detail. The lawsuit follows the Oklahoma Senate voting to override Governor Brad Henry’s veto of the legislation this afternoon.

Adopt-a-Highway Project

Administrator — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:55:36 +0000

M-triple-C participates in the McHenry County Adopt-a-Highway Project. We have adopted one mile of Walkup Road in Crystal Lake – between Hillside and Pleasant Hill Road.

On Saturday, April 17, a sturdy group of volunteers participated in our Spring Clean-Up. We worked for two hours and enjoyed the reward of a job well done.

Our next Clean-Up is scheduled for Saturday, June 19, at 9:00 am. If you would like to join us for fun, fresh air and exercise, please contact us at choice@mcccprochoice.org.

April 17, 2010 MCCC highway cleanup