Via Breitbart.com: Here we are complaining about OB/GYNs agitating for the right to refuse to perform abortions. Over in Italy, according to a recent report by the country's Ministry of Health, 70 percent of Italian gynecologists -- even more in certain regions -- now refuse to perform abortions "on moral grounds," and that number is increasing. Half of anesthesiologists also refuse to participate.
Abortion, it should be noted, has been legal in Italy (up to 24 weeks) since 1978, but a "conscientious objection" clause added by the Vatican has enabled doctors to opt out.
The number of abortions has dropped slightly of late; illegal abortions -- which I'm not sure how they count -- are also, interestingly, on the decline.
Berlusconi crony Giuliano Ferrara brought attacks on abortion to the forefront of recent legislative elections by creating an antiabortion party, though, oh well, he received less than 1 percent of the vote. Then there was the police raid on an abortion clinic in Naples, which prompted a huge demonstration in Rome.
And thus -- though perhaps it's no surprise in the home of the Vatican -- we are reminded of the often vast gulf between reproductive rights on paper and reproductive rights in practice. "Abortion law is in danger," said Milan gynecologist and pro-choice advocate Silvio Viale (who we hope is, among other things, working to recruit liberal med students), with access to the procedure "more and more resembling an obstacle course."
The abortion doctor
Susan Wicklund has received death threats and worn a bulletproof vest to work. But what really scares her, she writes in "This Common Secret," is the war on reproductive rights.
By Eryn Loeb, Salon
How abortion changed the world
From a sketchy underground doctor to the American fight against communism, a look at the unlikely forces that helped spread global family planning.
By Michelle Goldberg, Salon
What's wrong with the new pro-lifers
The progressive anti-abortion movement still doesn't truly value the life and identity of the mother.
By Frances Kissling, Salon
Is there a next generation of abortion providers?
As if the threat of violence and divisive politics weren't enough, getting trained is almost impossible.
By Kate Harding, Salon
When abortion was a crime
Reagan, an assistant professor of history, medicine and women's studies at the University of Illinois, dedicates her disturbing work on abortion in America before Roe v. Wade to "the lives of... women who died trying to control their reproduction."
The abortion debate
An incredibly interesting debate that looks at both the pros and cons of abortion from a secularist viewpoint.
“Egg-as-a-Person” Initiative on the 2010 Ballot in Colorado
My Saturday at the abortion clinic
Secular Sunday School: Blasphemy Laws
Weed: Shall Ye Be California's Savior? 